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“Imagine how they behave when encountering defenseless members of our community,” Grijalva said.
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In what Arizona's attorney general slammed as an “unacceptable and outrageous” act of “unchecked aggression,” a federal immigration officer fired pepper spray toward recently sworn-in Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva during a Friday raid on a Tucson restaurant.
Grijalva (D-Ariz.) wrote on social media that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers “just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson — a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years.”
“When I presented myself as a member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed aside and pepper sprayed,” she added.
Grijalva said in a video uploaded to the post that she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent, pushed around by others, when I literally was not being aggressive, I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress.”
The video shows Grijalva among a group of protesters who verbally confronted federal agents over the raid. Following an order to “clear,” an agent is seen firing what appears to be a pepper ball at the ground very near the congresswoman's feet. Video footage also shows agents deploying gas against the crowd.
ICE is a lawless agency under this Administration – operating with no transparency, no accountability, and open disregard for basic due process. No family in our community should live in fear, and I will not rest until we get clear answers and accountability. pic.twitter.com/Z2mUuRxHuX
“They're targeting small mom-and-pop businesses that don't have the financial resources to fight back,” Grijalva told reporters after the incident. “They're targeting small businesses and people that are helping in our communities in order to try to fill the quota that [President Donald] Trump has given them.”
Mocking the incident on social media, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin contended that Grijalva “wasn't pepper sprayed.”
“She was in the vicinity of someone who *was* pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement,” she added. “In fact, two law enforcement officers were seriously injured by this mob that [Grijalva] joined.”
McLaughlin provided no further details regarding the nature of those injuries.
Democrats in Arizona and beyond condemned Friday's incident, with US Sen. Ruben Gallego writing on social media that Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”
“Pepper spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for,” he added. “Period.”
PRESS RELEASE: 'Disgraceful and Cowardly" – House Dem Leaders Condemn ICE Pepper Spraying of Congresswoman Grijalva #azleg pic.twitter.com/6grALc2bvp
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said on social media: “This is unacceptable and outrageous. Enforcing the rule of law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also weighed in on social media, calling the incident “outrageous.”
“Rep. Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents,” she added. “ICE is completely lawless.”
Friday's incident follows federal agents' violent removal of Sen. Alexa Padilla (D-Calif.) from a June press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was federally indicted in June for allegedly “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers” during an oversight visit at a privately operated migrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey and subsequent confrontation with ICE agents outside of the lockup in which US Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, both New Jersey Democrats, were also involved.
Violent assaults by federal agents on suspected undocumented immigrants — including US citizens — protesters, journalists, and others are a regular occurrence amid the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.
“If federal agents are brazen enough to fire pellets directly at a member of Congress, imagine how they behave when encountering defenseless members of our community,” Grijalva said late Friday on social media. “It's time for Congress to rein in this rogue agency NOW.”
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The protective shield built to prevent radiation leaking from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant needs to be repaired promptly after a drone strike earlier this year damaged the steel structure, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Dec. 5. Ukraine has been repairing the massive sarcophagus since the Russian drone strike on Feb. 14. However, following an assessment last week, the IAEA said that the severely damaged structure had "lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability." While temporary repairs have been carried out, "timely and comprehensive restoration remains essential" to ensure Ukraine's long-term nuclear safety, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said. Further temporary repair work to the shield will begin next year with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), clearing the path for its "full restoration" post-war. The shield was first installed in 2019 around the destroyed 4th reactor at the plant. Back in April, the then-Environment Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk warned that the sarcophagus had partially lost its functionality and needed to be repaired to prevent leaks. It was designed to enclose the unstable sarcophagus hastily built after the 1986 reactor explosion — the worst nuclear accident in history.
Russia's drone strike caused a fire that burned the outer cladding of the shelter, although it did not cause a spike in radiation levels. Monitoring efforts have been in place, with an IAEA mission permanently located at the plant. "This is a terrorist threat to the entire world," President Volodymyr Zelensky said following the February attack. "The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today's Russia."
The Chornobyl plant, located about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Kyiv and just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Belarus, was briefly occupied by Russian forces in the early days of the full-scale invasion.They held the station's staff hostage, creating significant risks to nuclear safety.On Mar. 31, 2022, Russian troops withdrew from the station. Russian troops continue to occupy the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, sparking fears of another nuclear disaster that would have devastating consequences for Ukraine and its neighbors.
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"Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace. We agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States," Zelensky wrote on Dec. 6.
Russia's drone strike caused a fire that burned the outer cladding of the shelter.
Russia failed to break Ukraine's army on the battlefield, and now it's trying to do it through a peace plan that would cap Ukraine's forces at 600,000. Some argue that Ukraine would shrink its army — currently estimated at about 800,000 — after the war anyway.
Zelensky will also meet with the leaders of France and Germany in the British capital on Monday.
It's the ninth time this year that the facility has been struck.
The cyberattack took down over 700 computers and servers and deleted accounts of more than 1,000 Eltrans+ users, HUR claimed.
Three people have been injured in a Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv Oblast overnight on Dec. 6, local officials reported.
The Kyiv Independent's first live event in New York City will be available to stream live. The Kyiv Independent will also present a curated photo exhibition
If the ban goes through, Russia would likely have to expand its shadow fleet to transport crude oil instead.
Over the course of 2025, Ukraine has repeatedly agreed to ceasefire proposals put forward by the White House. Russia has refused to agree to a single one.
The number includes 1,180 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Ukraine's Air Assault Forces said on Dec. 5 that neither Pokrovsk nor its sister city Myrnohrad is encircled, stressing that defense units are expanding logistics routes and maintaining control over key positions in the area.
The Trump administration on Dec. 4 extended a waiver that lets Lukoil-branded gas stations abroad stay in business, softening elements of the sanctions imposed on the firm in October.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, said its drones hit a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber as past of a series of eight "accurate strikes" on military targets inside Russian-occupied Crimea on Dec. 5.
The Prosecutor General's Office said that the wounded soldier tried to take cover, but the Russian soldier "finished him off with a shot from an assault rifle."
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“We're talking about significant volumes of Canadian weapons fueled into contexts of genocide,” a rights activist said.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has hailed a new economic deal with the United Arab Emirates as a way to “attract billions of dollars in investments into Canada.”
The $50 billion agreement — $70-billion in Canadian dollars — was announced as Carney travelled to Abu Dhabi in November for talks with Emirati leaders, and comes as Canada attempts to diversify its economic partners as it contends with effects of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
“We're building big things, and the UAE wants to build with us,” the Canadian leader said in a social media post about the pact.
Yet back in Canada, human rights advocates and legal experts have condemned the Canadian government for deepening ties to the UAE as it stands accused of fueling mass atrocities in Sudan.
They say Carney's visit to the powerful Gulf nation is especially galling given the emergence of new reports about Canadian-made weapons being used by a Sudanese paramilitary group accused of committing “the gravest of crimes” in the war-torn Darfur region — with UAE support.
“Carney is selling out our principles — including Canada's commitment to the basic rules of international law and to human rights — to make money,” said Mark Kersten, an assistant professor specializing in international law at University of the Fraser Valley.
“With troubling success, the prime minister is showing that the chance of economic prosperity in Canada and diversifying trade partners comes at the cost of caring for the very lives of others,” Kersten told Truthout in an email.
Carney's November trip to the UAE — the first by a Canadian prime minister since 1983 — came just weeks after the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of North Darfur's capital, el-Fasher.
The United Nations and the world's leading human rights groups have accused RSF fighters of committing massacres against civilians in their takeover of the city.
Displaced residents have said they saw dead bodies lining the streets as they fled el-Fasher, and there have been multiple reports of widespread rape and sexual violence, kidnappings, and extortion.
Human rights advocates and legal experts have condemned the Canadian government for deepening ties to the UAE as it stands accused of fueling mass atrocities in Sudan.
Researchers in the United States have said satellite imagery indicates the RSF is digging mass graves to bury bodies.
While the UAE vehemently denies backing the RSF, UN experts and human rights groups have said the country has provided military support to the group.
Earlier this year, media outlets reported on a leaked document written by a panel of UN experts that said cargo flights were routinely bringing weapons from the UAE to Chad. The arms were then smuggled across the border into Sudan for use by the RSF.
The experts said “the cargo flights from airports in the UAE to Chad were so regular that, in effect, they had created a ‘new regional air bridge,'” The Guardian reported.
U.S. lawmakers also have acknowledged the UAE's role in fueling the war in Sudan, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying during his Senate confirmation hearing in January that the country was “openly supporting an entity that is carrying out a genocide.”
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen also recently urged Washington to stop sending weapons to its Gulf ally amid the atrocities in el-Fasher.
“In January of this year, the Biden administration confirmed to me directly that the UAE was providing material support to the RSF, even though the UAE had assured the United States that it wasn't and that it wouldn't,” Van Hollen said during a Senate speech last month.
Meanwhile, in May, Amnesty International said “sophisticated Chinese weaponry” that was re-exported by the UAE was captured in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, as well as used in Darfur.
“The presence of recently manufactured Chinese bombs in North Darfur is a clear violation of the arms embargo by the UAE,” Brian Castner, Amnesty's head of crisis research, said in a statement at the time.
“Our documentation of AH-4 howitzers in Khartoum further strengthens a growing body of evidence showing extensive UAE support to the RSF, in violation of international law.”
In early November, Canadian public broadcaster CBC News verified photographs showing rifles manufactured by a Canada-based company in the hands of RSF fighters in Sudan.
The RSF has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan since April 2023, and was accused of committing crimes against humanity long before its takeover of el-Fasher.
That includes “persecution on ethnic grounds, forced displacement and contributing to extermination,” according to a UN Human Rights Council report from September.
In 2024, Canadian exports of military goods and technology to the UAE totalled just over $5 million ($7 million in Canadian dollars), according to government records.
Yet despite the relatively small sum, rights groups say any amount of weapons that could be funneled into the conflict in Sudan is too many.
In early November, Canadian public broadcaster CBC News verified photographs showing rifles manufactured by a Canada-based company in the hands of RSF fighters in Sudan. CBC News said it was not immediately clear how the rifles ended up with the paramilitary group but noted that experts have detailed past diversions by the UAE.
Rights groups also have documented that armored vehicles produced by the STREIT Group, a Canadian-owned company whose main manufacturing facility is in the UAE, have also been used by the RSF in the war.
The company — one of the largest armored vehicle manufacturers in the world — has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Yet both cases are an apparent violation of a UN arms embargo on Sudan that was put in place more than two decades ago to try to prevent ethnic cleansing and other atrocities in Darfur. The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed, an Arab militia aligned with former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, which was a main target of that 2004 arms embargo.
In addition to the UN arms embargo, Canada is a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a pact that regulates and sets conditions for the global flow of arms.
The ATT bans signatories from transferring weapons to another country if there is a plausible risk they could be used in violations of international humanitarian law, such as war crimes.
Asked to comment on reports that Canadian weapons are being used by the RSF in Sudan, Global Affairs Canada — the foreign affairs ministry — pointed to the UN arms embargo on the country.
“This prohibits any person in Canada or any Canadian outside Canada from knowingly exporting arms and related material, wherever situated, to Sudan or to any person in Sudan,” a spokesperson said in an email.
The UN Genocide Convention imposes an obligation on signatories — such as Canada — to prevent genocide whenever a risk of such violence exists.
But the department did not comment on Truthout's specific questions on whether it is reviewing any Canadian companies whose weapons have been reported in the hands of RSF fighters.
It also did not answer questions about whether it plans to suspend any existing or future arms export permits to the UAE over its support for the RSF and concerns that weapons may be reaching the paramilitary group via the Gulf country.
Global Affairs Canada said it has a “robust risk assessment framework” to evaluate weapons export or brokering permit applications.
“Canada has made no exceptions to this legal requirement,” the spokesperson said. “If these laws are violated, we will ensure those responsible face legal consequences that could include fines, seizure of goods and criminal prosecution.”
Separately, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said late last month that she was “very seriously” looking into the reports of Canadian weapons being used by the RSF.
“No Canadian companies are permitted to export arms to Sudan directly or through third countries,” Anand told The Globe and Mail.
But the legal experts who spoke to Truthout said reports about Canadian-made weapons ending up in Sudan go back years — and action is long overdue.
“We've seen vehicles produced by STREIT appearing in places where they shouldn't be for over a decade now, including in Sudan,” said Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher at anti-war group Project Ploughshares.
The STREIT Group did not respond to Truthout's request for comment.
Gallagher acknowledged that the armored vehicles reportedly used by the RSF in Sudan almost certainly were not manufactured in Canada. But he said STREIT Group nevertheless remains “a company with a Canadian footprint.”
“The fact that Canadian-made weapons systems are permeating what has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis would contradict the notion that Canada has the strongest arms control regime in the world,” Gallagher told Truthout.
“Clearly something has broken down here, something has gone wrong.”
Canada must do more to strengthen its arms export regime, including putting more robust systems in place to oversee how Canadian weapons are ultimately being used, Gallagher said.
This sentiment was echoed by Kersten at University of the Fraser Valley, who said that even if weapons are manufactured abroad, there are steps that the Canadian government can take.
“The evidence is that we're talking about significant volumes of Canadian weapons fueled into contexts of genocide, both in Gaza and in Sudan.”
“Canada can still prosecute Canadian citizens if they encourage or provide material support for the commission of international crimes — war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
The UN Genocide Convention also imposes an obligation on signatories — such as Canada — to prevent genocide whenever a risk of such violence exists.
“Given the dynamics of the violence, it would be implausible to argue that there is no risk of genocide in Darfur,” Kersten said.
“As a result, Canada is under an obligation to act to prevent [genocide] and one, very obvious way to achieve that is to stop any weapons from being sold in [Canada] or by Canadians to entities like the RSF.”
Michael Bueckert, vice president of advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, is not optimistic that Canada will take real action, however.
Instead, Bueckert said Carney and his government have signaled that they are prioritizing “corporate profits over human rights” around the world.
The prime minister — who took office after winning elections in April — has sought to grow trade relationships with a range of countries amid fraught U.S.-Canada ties.
That includes India, which just last year was accused by Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau, of being involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist on Canadian soil.
The Canadian government has also been accused of misleading the public by allowing weapons to be sent to Israel amid the country's genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite a promise to halt such transfers.
“The evidence is that we're talking about significant volumes of Canadian weapons fueled into contexts of genocide, both in Gaza and in Sudan,” Bueckert told Truthout.
“There are things that Canada should be doing — that it can do — to make sure that it acts on this risk” of Canadian-made weapons reaching Sudan, he added.
“But so far, we've seen the smallest amount of lip service that the Canadian government can get away with and no real indication that they're going to be taking action,” Bueckert said. “Clearly, Canada wants to put a lot of emphasis on a strategic economic partnership with the UAE and that's the most important thing.”
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Incarcerated Californians are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis — and the state's water restrictions.
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As droughts, extreme heat, and other climate disasters increasingly plague California, people throughout the state have been subject to water restrictions. For many Californians, this means emergency regulations like limitations on lawn watering. But one group of people has been forced to bear the brunt of the state's water restrictions: those in prison.
People in California prisons already face an acute vulnerability to extreme heat and cold, wildfires, droughts, and flooding. While steps have been taken in recent years to protect the safety of incarcerated people in California during climate hazards, the lack of state funding, data, and preparation — paired with overincarceration — continue to pose a fatal threat to their health and livelihoods.
And despite this increased vulnerability, incarcerated Californians have been forced for years to heavily limit their water use, including through restricted shower access, limited toilet flushing, and other extreme measures that people living outside prison walls would never be expected to endure.
This climate-related suffering is amplified by overcrowding, a longstanding problem in California prisons. San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, for instance, which opened in 1852 with 68 occupants, grew dangerously overcrowded within six years: By 1858, it housed over 500 people in just 62 cells. San Quentin is now home to almost 4,000 people.
In 2006, California's prison population hit a peak of 174,000 — 200 percent of the system's design capacity of 85,000 people — exceeding all other states' prison populations and prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency. That same year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was placed under a federal receivership due to the poor quality of medical care revealed in a 2001 class action lawsuit. By 2006, the federal court had taken over management of CDCR's health care departments due to poor quality of care and rising disease and death rates.
As the state continued to deal with overcrowding and abysmal medical care in its prisons, California experienced a historic drought in 2009, prompting Gov. Schwarzenegger to declare a drought emergency. NBC News reported at that time that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger encouraged urban water agencies to reduce water use by 20 percent and that the governor added that mandatory conservation was likely if the reduction was insufficient.
Although 80 percent of California's developed water goes to agriculture, CDCR responded to the emergency by creating a water conservation plan. The department issued an order limiting the number of showers for incarcerated individuals to three per week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Many showers were equipped with shutoff valves controllable by officers who would turn them off after five minutes. Regardless of the weather or the activities a person had done that day (exercising out in the yard, for example), showers could only be taken during the designated times. Only those with certain jobs — such as those who worked in the prison's kitchen, construction, or maintenance departments — were allowed to shower daily.
Throughout California prisons, outdoor showers were condemned, water hoses in kitchen areas discontinued, and garbage disposal usage ceased. Numerous drinking fountains were turned off, and ice machine access was limited to the minimal amount needed to comply with the “heat plan” for at-risk prisoners. Laundry services were reduced to once a week.
Even before the 2009 drought emergency and subsequent water conservation plan, CDCR had taken steps to limit water use in its facilities. Between 2006 and 2008, CDCR installed over 45,800 “flushometers,” devices that limit the number of times a toilet may be flushed in a designated period. Two flushes every five minutes soon became standard for California's incarcerated population, who, confined to small, cramped, double-cell housing, were forced to live with the smell of their own waste.
Showers in prisons are often offered after breakfast, a time that conflicts with going to the yard to exercise, leaving people forced to choose between one or the other. If you miss the shower window and try to take one later in the day, an officer will likely issue a rules violation report (RVR), which can impact a parole hearing for people serving life sentences. One incarcerated person, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisal from members of the Board of Parole Hearings, told Truthout that he was denied his parole date for three years and instructed to enroll in a criminal thinking class for taking a shower at the “wrong” time.
Michael Moore, who is also incarcerated at San Quentin, said he received an RVR Counseling Chrono, which is similar to a citation or ticket detailing misbehavior, for showering at the wrong time. Moore said he works out frequently and needs a shower every day. Many incarcerated people report that they find ways to shower outside their allotted shower time, such as standing under dripping water from broken shower heads, or filling up buckets with sink water and taking a bird bath in the shower. These actions, too, are frowned upon by correctional officers, and can result in RVRs.
In one instance, Moore received a report from a correctional officer that read: “On Saturday April 30, 2022 … at approximately 10:15 hours, I announced via public address intercom to the entire unit and gave a direct order: ‘unit lockup, go to the yard, go to your assigned cell, no dayroom and MEDICAL SHOWERS ONLY.' I repeated this twice to ensure the entire unit understood. Approximately five minutes later, I observed inmate Moore in the shower area disobeying the order that had been given for Unit lockup…”
Moore, who is serving a life sentence, will undoubtedly have to address this issue at future parole hearings.
Yet while CDCR has been quick to limit human water consumption, the department has done little to fix busted water mains, running shower heads, and leaky sinks at dilapidated facilities. And its poor water management does little to help when overcrowding and inadequate health care services coincide to allow disease outbreaks, including norovirus,scabies, flu, and tuberculosis. A Legionnaires' disease scare took place at San Quentin in 2015 and 2016, and chicken pox has caused issues in various California prisons.
But nothing was more dangerous than when COVID came barreling through prisons and cell doors were slammed shut. COVID exacerbated the preexisting uncleanliness and lack of fresh air flow inside the housing units at San Quentin. Yet prison officials rejected help from the Public Health Department in Marin and ignored the advice of infectious disease experts from the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco. San Quentin did not accept personal protective equipment offers or follow instructions on how to properly keep the premises clean.
Yet even during the spread of sickness and death, the prison remained focused on limiting water usage, forcing people to go days and weeks without showers. The combination of these conditions, water limitations, and COVID resulted in one of the worst epidemiological disasters in prison history: over 2,000 COVID infections and 29 deaths.
Incarcerated people at San Quentin at the time said that correctional staff showed little sympathy, even as people were dying. Many officers repeated the mantra: “If you don't like what's happening, you shouldn't have come to prison.”
The United States Supreme Court recognizes an incarcerated person's right to certain basic human needs, as protected by the Eighth Amendment, which includes access to yard exercise and a shower.
On October 8, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 353 into law, ensuring incarcerated people's constitutional right to shower at least every other day, unless there is a written reason for denial.
“All human beings have a right to ensure good hygiene, regardless of their status in society. It is immoral, inhumane, and cruel to deprive someone of their right to shower,” the bill's author, then-Assembly Member Reggie-Jones Sawyer, wrote in support of the legislation. “In spite of this, reports from persons housed at CDCR prisons shine a light on the abuses that are being committed against them. AB 353 seeks to rectify one of those by spelling out in law an incarcerated person's right to shower and uphold proper hygiene.
“Those detained at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) facilities have reported limited access to showers, a basic human right,” said Initiate Justice, a nonprofit prison advocacy group, in a comment on the bill. “As a result, incarcerated individuals can go up to a week without taking a shower, essentially forced to sit in the stench of their body odor and musty clothes. This is not only inhumane but also very unsanitary,” they said.
Los Angeles District Attorney, George Gascon, supported AB 353 as well, asking:
“How we can expect positive outcomes from individuals released from prison if basic human rights and human dignities like showering are not provided while they are incarcerated?”
Enforcement of AB 353 comes on the heels of a new paradigm for incarceration in the state's prisons. In late 2023, CDCR announced an alleged overhaul of its prison system. Its new so-called “California Model” is loosely based on Scandinavia's treatment of incarcerated people. This “transformation” should certainly include showers as a basic right, not as a privilege earned through involuntary servitude. Other changes are coming to CDCR as well, including a proposed $360 million dollar rehabilitation building at San Quentin.
But prisons are not in the clear. In his executive order ending some regulations stemming from the state's drought emergency, Gov. Newsom said that due to climate change, Californians should “continue their ongoing efforts to make conservation a way of life.”
In its Climate Change Adaptation Report, CDCR reports that a “significant number” of its prisons are “located in climate zones that experience extreme heat or cold in summer and winter months and an equally significant number are located in remote locations that may suffer from extreme rain events, wildfires, depletion of local water supplies or similar climate-related concerns.” In response, CDCR has proposed retrofitting and building better prisons. But advocates ask: Why not just close prisons and reduce the population, instead of building resilient buildings where people continue to suffer?
Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a nonprofit community organization, offers a roadmap to closing 10 California prisons by 2025. Gov. Newsom has agreed to close five; so far, the state closed Deuel Vocational Institution in 2021, Susanville California Conservation Center in 2023, and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in 2024.
In a 2023 report from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, titled “Hidden Hazards,” UCLA researchers outlined a blueprint that would better ensure a safe environment for incarcerated people. The recommendations include preventing suffering by closing climate-vulnerable prisons, expanding emergency preparedness training for staff and incarcerated people, and installing and maintaining life-saving basics like heating, air conditioning, ventilation, shade, and backup generators within prisons. It also suggests that CDCR create plans for how to respond to emergencies and track the annual number of climate hazards experienced in its facilities.
Yet, the report also emphasizes that decarceration must be a centerpiece of addressing prisons' climate vulnerability. It recommends the state reduce the size of the overall incarcerated population by 50 percent or 50,000, with an emphasis on the elderly and those who are most vulnerable. Furthermore, it suggests CDCR create plans to rapidly release people during emergencies.
This world is not getting any safer. Climate change is real, and so are the catastrophes that result from it. Drought conditions in California are a warning of what is possible. Stripping people — especially the most vulnerable populations behind bars — of their human right to water is never the answer. We shouldn't wait for another disaster to fix what needs to be fixed today. Conservation is necessary, but placing the burden on dangerous and disease-ridden overcrowded prisons is cruel and unfeasible.
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Steve Brooks is an award-winning journalist with bylines in TIME, Prism, Bay City News Foundation's Local News Matters, Sports Illustrated, and more. He is the former editor-in-chief of San Quentin News and a co-founder of The People in Blue, a group of incarcerated people who helped create California Governor Gavin Newsom's Reimagine San Quentin report.
Olivia Heffernan is a writer, editor, and award winning filmmaker. Her work explores the intersection of race, labor, and incarceration. She has written for Jacobin, The Baffler, and The Nation, among many other publications.
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Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has accused Israel of exporting crises to other countries and “fighting ghosts,” amid persistent incursions and air strikes by Israeli forces into southern Syria.
Al-Sharaa was speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday, in a conversation with CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour.
Syria's interim president again demanded that the Israel agree to reinstate the 1974 deconfliction agreement that separated Syrian and Israeli forces. Israeli forces crossed into southern Syria a year ago, as the Assad regime fell, and continue to occupy the strategic heights of Mount Hermon. The summit, which overlooks Israel, Lebanon and Syria, had been in a buffer zone for the previous 50 years.
Israeli officials have said the Israel Defense Forces will remain in the places they occupied a year ago indefinitely.
Syria was adamant about respecting the 1974 agreement and would not accept an alternative buffer zone, Al-Sharaa said. “We demand Israel to go back to the pre-December 8 (2024) lines,” he said, adding that the United States was taking part in negotiations.
Attempts to revise the agreement would “send us into a serious and dangerous place,” he said.
“Who will be protecting this buffer zone or this demilitarized zone if the Syrian army or Syrian forces aren't going to be there?” he asked.
“Syria has suffered massive violations of our airspace, and we've been victim of over 1,000 air strikes and over 400 incursions” since the revolution a year ago, Al-Sharaa said.
At least 13 people were killed during an Israeli military raid in southern Syria late last month.
Al-Sharaa's rebel forces entered the Syrian capital last December, forcing then President Bashar al-Assad to flee.
Al-Sharaa repeated that his government would hold to account those involved in abuses earlier this year in Syria's coastal zone, when hundreds of minority Alawites were killed. Many Alawites had supported the Assad regime.
Despite the atrocities committed then, Syria was a state of law, he said, and reinforcing the rule of law was the way to guarantee the rights of all minorities.
As to elections, Al-Sharaa said his current mandate would be for a further four years, while a constitution is drafted and institutions built. At that point, elections would take place, he said. An indirect parliamentary election held in October was marred by concerns about representation of women and minorities. Only a small fraction of the population was able to vote.
Syria's jihadist-turned-president caps extraordinary transformation with White House visit
Al-Sharaa also told the forum that he had met members of the US Congress during a recent visit to Washington to push for the repeal of the Caesar Act, which continues to enforce some sanctions against Syria but was recently waived for a further 180 days.
“There was a great understanding, and I believe we're at the 95% point,” he said.
The economic situation in Syria was stabilizing, he said, and it was seeing the first indications of economic growth.
“There was a great understanding, and I believe we're at the 95% point,” he said.
The economic situation in Syria was stabilizing, he said, and it was seeing the first indications of economic growth.
There is substantial investment in Syria, mainly due to financing from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and with the growing participation of foreign energy and construction firms.
“People were receiving an hour and a half of electricity per day, and now we have reached 12 to 14 hours per day and hopefully this year we will be self-sufficient in terms of electricity,” Al-Sharaa said.
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The U.S. Border Patrol announced on Dec. 5 that it will impose a $5,000 apprehension fee on any individuals arrested for entering the country illegally.
Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz will also be present for talks on guaranteeing Ukraine's postwar security
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Downing Street on Monday for an in-person meeting with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz in a show of support for Ukraine.
Starmer will use the meeting with the leaders from Ukraine, France and Germany to discuss the continuing talks between US and Ukrainian officials aimed at finding an agreement on guaranteeing Ukraine's postwar security.
The four leaders took part in a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” about two weeks ago, where they discussed plans to provide a European peacekeeping force that could be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
In a statement about the meeting released by the European Council, the trio expressed full support for “President Trump's comments that the current line of contact must be the starting point for any talks”.
The draft peace deal, quietly brokered between US and Russian officials, has been criticised for leaving Ukraine in a weak and vulnerable position. The initial draft plan, which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would have forced draconian measures on Ukraine that would have given Russia unprecedented control over the country's military and political sovereignty, conditions that were seen as a surrender by Kyiv.
The peace plan was significantly amended by Ukraine last month, removing some of Russia's maximalist demands. Though for now, the conflict continues. On Friday night, Russia launched a drone and missile attack on Ukraine's power and transport infrastructure.
The Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 653 drones and 51 missiles on Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian forces downed 585 drones and 30 missiles, the military said.
Zelensky has said Ukraine's energy infrastructure was the main target for hundreds of Russian drones and about 50 missiles, with Ukrainian officials accusing Moscow of seeking to “weaponise” the cold by denying civilians access to heat and power.
Meanwhile, US and Ukrainian officials will conduct a third day of talks in Florida as Trump's administration pushes Kyiv to accept an American-backed peace plan.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has already rejected some parts of the plan, with Ukraine's territorial integrity and measures to deter future Russian attacks proving big sticking points for Moscow.
Starmer has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine must determine its own future, and said the coalition of the willing's peacekeeping force would play a “vital role” in guaranteeing the country's security.
In its new national security strategy, published overnight on Saturday, the White House said it was committed to Ukraine's survival as a “viable state”. But the strategy also prioritised improving relations with Moscow, stating that ending the war is a core US interest to “re-establish strategic stability with Russia”.
On Saturday evening, Zelenskyy said he had held a “very substantive and constructive” call with the US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “We agreed on the next steps and the format of the talks with America.”
Zelenskyy, who was in Kyiv, joined the call with the senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov, and Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv's armed forces, both of whom were in Miami for the talks with the US side.
The two Americans – Witkoff and Kushner, Trump's son-in-law – had been in talks with Umerov and Gnatov since Thursday.
Zelenskyy said the call with Witkoff and Kushner “focused on many aspects and quickly discussed key issues that could guarantee an end to the bloodshed and remove the threat of a third Russian invasion, as well as the threat of Russia failing to fulfil its promises, as has happened many times in the past”.
He said he was waiting a “detailed report” from Umerov and Gnatov.
At least 11 people were killed on Saturday including a three-year-old boy, after gunshots were fired at an illegal bar in the South African city of Pretoria, police said, adding that a manhunt was launched for three suspects who were not identified.
Another 14 people were wounded during the incident in the Saulsville township, they said in a statement.
Police didn't say whether the shooting occurred inside or outside the illegal bar, known locally as a “shebeen.”
“Three minors are among those deceased, which include 3- and 12-year-old boys (and a) 16-year-old female,” the South African Police Service said.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, averaging about 60 a day.
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MOSCOW, DECEMBER 5, 2025 — RT India began broadcasting from its studios in New Delhi, India. Russian President Vladimir Putin and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan jointly launched the new channel during the president's state visit to the country on December 4-5.
“This is a momentous event, for it [RT] grants millions of Indian citizens clearer, more direct access to insights about contemporary Russia,” Vladimir Putin said.
Commenting on RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan's remarks that RT's broadcasts are being shut down in many “ill-intentioned countries,” the Russian president stated: “This is not out of malice, it is out of fear, fear of the truth. Because Russia Today is a source of truthful and reliable information, focused on serving the interests of its viewers and listeners.”
He added: “Russia Today's mission is not merely to promote Russia, its culture, and its positions on domestic and international issues. Above all, Russia Today strives to convey truthful information about our country and about what is happening in the world. This is the absolute value of Russia Today; this is what distinguishes it from the propaganda machinery of many Western media outlets, which essentially relay the positions of their governments.”
The channel's launch took place during the official state visit of the Russian president to India.
“I am confident that Russia Today will do its job, and do it brilliantly, at the highest level. My congratulations to Russia Today and to all of your current and future viewers and listeners. Good luck,” stated Vladimir Putin.
During the launch ceremony, the president was presented with a virtual tour of the RT India studios.
As part of President Putin's visit to India, an Addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding between RT and Indian public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati was signed, further expanding cooperation in the media sphere. The agreement includes the exchange of news content, expertise, and information, as well as the organization of joint live broadcasts covering breaking news, major summits, and high-level visits between the Russian Federation and the Republic of India. This marks a new phase in the partnership between RT and Prasar Bharati, strengthening not only media collaboration but also broader bilateral relations amid a complex international environment.
RT India will air four daily news bulletins alongside documentaries, interviews with government officials, business leaders, and cultural figures, as well as public affairs programming tailored to a broad Indian audience. The channel will prioritize in-depth coverage of key developments in Russian-Indian relations and the growing role of both nations in a multipolar world.
The channel's flagship geopolitical talk show will be hosted by former Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid. Rungjun Sharma, the head of News at RT India, will present a weekly program dedicated to Russian-Indian relations. The Indian politician, diplomat, author, and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, already hosts his own show on RT called ‘Imperial Receipts with Dr. Shashi Tharoor'.
In the run-up to the channel's launch, RT has unveiled a nationwide ad blitz that celebrated the strength and legacy of the deep and historic ties between Russia and India. The campaign was visible across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, taking over 65 prime locations and 190 digital screens and billboards nationwide.
The launch of a dedicated channel tailored specifically for the Indian audience will significantly expand RT's footprint and viewership in the country. It also represents a landmark moment in relations between the two friendly nations. RT India will serve as a vital platform for highlighting the strategic nature of Russian-Indian cooperation, built over decades on mutual respect, trust, and open dialogue.
In 2026, RT also plans to launch a dedicated Hindi-language news website, catering to over 500 million Hindi speakers in India.
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More than 650 drones target locations across Ukraine including western regions with sirens sounding in eastern Poland
Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday as US and Ukrainian officials continued talks in Miami which the White House hopes will bring an end to the conflict.
Russia used more than 650 drones and 51 missiles overnight, Ukraine's armed forces said, with drones targeting locations across the country, including in western regions hundreds of miles from the frontline. Warning sirens also sounded in parts of eastern Poland, close to the Ukrainian border.
At least three people were injured in the attacks in Kyiv region, while the national energy operator, Ukrenergo, said much of the overnight attack had targeted power stations and other energy infrastructure. Russia has been relentlessly attacking Ukraine's energy capabilities in recent weeks, in the hope of cutting supplies of heat, light and water as the country prepares for a fourth winter of full-scale conflict.
Russia's defence ministry said it had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, while there were unconfirmed reports on Telegram that Ukraine had hit an oil refinery in the city of Ryazan. The regional governor said a residential building had been damaged and drone debris had fallen on an “industrial facility”.
Donald Trump is keen to put an end to the war, but there has so far been little sign the two sides are anywhere close to finding a common position. Talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators are due to continue for a third day in Miami on Saturday, after a meeting between Vladimir Putin, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow earlier in the week.
Washington's plans involve Ukraine surrendering land in return for vague security guarantees and would be hard for Kyiv to accept in the current moment. There is also no indication that Russia is ready to sign a deal on Trump's suggested terms.
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“The Russia-Ukraine thing has been a source of perennial frustration, I think, for the entire White House,” the US vice-president, JD Vance, said in an interview with NBC on Friday, reiterating that the administration had been surprised that the conflict was not easy to solve.
European nations have been blindsided by some of the US efforts and have been scrambling to stay part of the process. On Saturday, the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, tried to downplay the significance of the Trump administration's new national security strategy, published a day earlier, which said Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” due to immigration and suggested the US should back rightwing forces on the continent.
“The US is still our biggest ally,” said Kallas, speaking at a diplomatic conference in Qatar. “I think we haven't always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies and we should stick together.”
BRUSSELS, December 6. /TASS/. The European Union (EU) continues to consider the United States its main ally despite the new American National Security Strategy, which harshly criticizes the EU, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas said.
"The US is still our biggest ally. I think we haven't always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies and we should stick together," she said at the Doha Forum in Qatar.
The updated US National Security Strategy published on December 5 expresses, among other things, the concern that Europe will become unrecognizable in 20 years and is on the verge of destruction as a civilization due to the subversive policies of the leadership of the European Union and other supranational structures. In this regard, the American administration expressed doubts that a number of European countries would have the necessary economic and military potential to remain Washington's reliable allies.
Tossing and turning all night, only to drag yourself through the next day exhausted? For insomnia troubles, try not to rely solely on sleeping pills. Simple yet effective natural techniques, such as acupressure massage and meditation, can make a remarkable difference.
This blog is now closed, you can read more of our European news coverage here
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Europe and the war in Ukraine.
The Trump administration released a policy paper on Friday that made explicit Washington's support for Europe's nationalist far-right parties.
The 33-page US National Security Strategy, which includes a signed introduction from Donald Trump, appears to push the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk becoming “majority non-European” and Europe faces “the real and stark prospect of civilizational erasure”.
Speaking at the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference in Qatar's capital on Saturday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the policy paper by reiterating that the “US is still our biggest ally,” AFP reports. “Of course, there's a lot of criticism, but I think some of it is also true,” Kallas said.
Kallas continued: “I think we haven't always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies, and we should stick together.”
Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes left parts of Ukraine without power on Saturday morning, Ukraine's energy ministry said.
The Russian defense ministry confirmed that Russian forces attacked energy facilities that supported the Ukrainian military and port infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces, saying that the strike was in response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, marking the 11th time the facility temporarily lost power during the war.
Ukraine peace plan talks continue between Trump advisers and Ukrainian officials, with the parties involved saying on Friday that they will meet for a third day of talks.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas responded to the US National Security Strategy, a policy paper released by the Trump administration on Friday that made explicit Washington's support for Europe's nationalist far-right parties. “US is still our biggest ally,” Kallas said Saturday.
Keir Starmer is scheduled to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Downing Street on Monday, the Press Association reports.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, will also be in attendance, according to PA. The four leaders plan on discussing the ongoing peace talks between US and Ukrainian officials.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, as crews continue to work to restore power around Ukraine following what Kyiv said were targeted strikes on energy infrastructure.
According to the IAEA, this marked the 11th time the plant lost power during the war.
Ukraine's ZNPP temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, 11th time during military conflict, IAEA DG @rafaelmgrossi said. ZNPP reconnected to 330 kV power line after half hour outage, but 750 kV line still disconnected.
Russian forces launched “a massive strike” overnight, the Russian defense ministry said in a post on Telegram, in response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets.
Using high-precision, long-range air- and ground-based weapon - including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and long-range drones – the strike targeted Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises, the energy facilities that support their operation and the port infrastructure used by the Ukrainian forces, the ministry said.
“Russia continues to disregard any peace efforts and instead strikes critical civilian infrastructure, including our energy system and railways,” Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on X. “This shows that no decisions to strengthen Ukraine and raise pressure on Russia can be delayed. And especially not under the pretext of peace process.”
Overnight, hundreds of Russian drones and missiles caused more damage and casualties across Ukraine.Russia continues to disregard any peace efforts and instead strikes critical civilian infrastructure, including our energy system and railways.This shows that no decisions to… pic.twitter.com/Lf8Vzyry6s
Donald Trump's advisers and Ukrainian officials said Friday that they will meet for a third day of talks as the US president pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.
“Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings,” officials said in a statement released after a second day of meetings in Florida on Friday.
The talks between US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's lead negotiator, follow discussions between Vladimir Putin and the US envoys at the Kremlin on Tuesday.
The Swedish navy encounters Russian submarines in the Baltic Sea on an “almost weekly” basis, its chief of operations has said, and is preparing for a further increase in the event of ceasefire or armistice in the Ukraine war.
Capt Marko Petkovic said Moscow was “continuously reinforcing” its presence in the region, and sightings of its vessels were a regular part of life for the Swedish navy. Its “very common”, he said, adding that the number of sightings had increased in recent years.
The Baltic Sea region is facing an increasing range of threats, including suspected hybrid attacks from drones, alleged sabotage of underwater infrastructure and a steady flow of ageing oil tankers in the form of shadow fleet ships carrying crude oil from Russia.
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The protective shield over the Chornobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine has degraded enough after a drone strike earlier this year that it can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced.
An inspection last week revealed that the steel confinement structure, which was painstakingly built at a cost of €1.5bn ($1.75bn) next to the destroyed reactor, “had lost its primary safety functions,” said Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general.
While some repairs had been carried out, “comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety,” Grossi said.
The February drone strike blew a hole in the structure, but the UN said then that radiation levels remained normal and stable and that there were no reports of radiation leaks. While Ukrainian authorities said the drone was Russian, Moscow denied it had attacked the plant.
Work on the structure was completed in 2019 by a Europe-led initiative. The 1986 Chornobyl explosion – which happened when Ukraine was under Moscow's rule as part of the Soviet Union – had sent radiation across Europe.
Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes left parts of Ukraine without power on Saturday morning, Ukraine's energy ministry said on Telegram.
The strikes hit energy infrastructure in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, according to the ministry.
Crews were working on Saturday to restore power in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions, with hourly outage schedules and capacity limitation schedules for industrial consumers and businesses in effect.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Europe and the war in Ukraine.
The Trump administration released a policy paper on Friday that made explicit Washington's support for Europe's nationalist far-right parties.
The 33-page US National Security Strategy, which includes a signed introduction from Donald Trump, appears to push the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk becoming “majority non-European” and Europe faces “the real and stark prospect of civilizational erasure”.
Speaking at the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference in Qatar's capital on Saturday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the policy paper by reiterating that the “US is still our biggest ally,” AFP reports. “Of course, there's a lot of criticism, but I think some of it is also true,” Kallas said.
Kallas continued: “I think we haven't always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies, and we should stick together.”
Eleanor McCain, pictured in 2017, has triggered an agreement that she says requires her siblings, cousins and their offspring to purchase her stake in the holding company that owns McCain Foods.Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press
A second generation of New Brunswick's McCain clan has rekindled a long-standing family feud over a multibillion-dollar fortune.
Thirty-one years after brothers Wallace and Harrison McCain fought for control of McCain Foods Ltd. – a battle for the world's largest French fry maker that Harrison won – Wallace's daughter, Eleanor McCain, has kicked off a showdown with her relatives by demanding they buy her out of one of the country's largest privately owned companies.
Eleanor, a 56-year-old musician who lives in Toronto, recently triggered an agreement that she says requires her siblings, cousins and their offspring to purchase her stake in the holding company that owns McCain Foods.
Based on the value of comparable publicly traded food companies, McCain Foods is worth at least $20-billion and Eleanor's investment could be worth more than $1-billion.
Family control affords six-generation Burnbrae Farms freedom to invest in long-term goals
“Eleanor McCain is seeking to exit her stake in the company co-founded by her father to focus on philanthropy, and for portfolio diversification and estate-planning purposes,” Wojtek Dabrowski, a spokesperson for Ms. McCain, said in a statement.
“Ms. McCain has consistently engaged constructively, in good faith, and would like to conclude this matter in a fair, timely and confidential fashion,” the statement said.
In response, Andy Lloyd, a spokesperson for the family's holding company, said in a statement: McCain Foods “is committed to treating all shareholders fairly, including any shareholder seeking an exit, with a view to balancing the interests of all stakeholders and the long-term interests of the company.”
Eleanor's relatives have refused her request to cash her out for reasons sources trace back to the 1990s dispute over succession between the co-founders, who both died more than a decade ago. The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources because they are not authorized to speak for the family.
The multiyear contest between Wallace and Harrison McCain, ultimately decided in October, 1994, after 10 weeks of arbitration in a Fredericton courtroom, left wounds that have not healed after 31 years, the sources said. Harrison McCain's offspring are still angry with some of Wallace's children.
The fight is also rooted in the challenge of setting a value on each family member's stake in McCain Foods, which is growing rapidly as ownership moves into a fourth generation of the founding family, sources say.
Each side has hired corporate lawyers from firms such as Torys LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP to sort out what everyone involved describes as a messy relationship, and a family shareholder agreement that is open to interpretation.
Eleanor McCain argues the stance against a payout is at odds with a previous decision involving her older brother, Michael McCain. He and his father, Wallace, left the family company and took control of Toronto-based Maple Leaf Food Inc. in 1995.
Michael McCain, pictured in 2019, is executive chair of Maple Leaf, one of Canada's largest packaged protein businesses.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Wallace McCain's family restructured its holdings after the patriarch died in 2011, which resulted in Michael's interest in the holding company falling significantly, sources say, while Eleanor's share increased.
In the early 1990s, Michael McCain was running the family company's U.S. operation. His father's push to designate Michael the next chief executive officer of McCain Foods, succeeding Harrison McCain, sparked the fight for control.
Michael McCain is now executive chair of Maple Leaf, one of the country's largest packaged protein businesses, and pork producer Canada Packers Inc., spun out of Maple Leaf in October. His stakes in the two companies are worth approximately $1.4-billion.
Eleanor McCain has never worked at the family company. After earning an undergraduate degree in music at New Brunswick's Mount Allison University, she built a career performing as a singer and released seven albums. She has an adult daughter, Laura.
Maple Leaf Foods spins off its pork business to focus on high-protein goods
In 2020, Eleanor bought a home near downtown Toronto's High Park with a 2.3 acre lot for $10.6-million. She also owns properties in Peggy's Cove, N.S., and plans to build an art gallery and museum in the tourist town if she can win government approvals.
The McCain clan owns McCain Foods through a holding company. The family controls the holding company's seven-member board of directors, and Eleanor McCain is attempting to sell her stake in this entity. The founders' offspring refer to this as the “baby board.”
Heirs of Wallace and Harrison McCain – who died in 2004 – each have two seats on the holding company board. Offspring of the other two brothers, Andrew and Robert McCain, each appoint one director and there is one independent director.
Eleanor McCain has two brothers, Michael and Scott, and a sister, Martha, who focuses on philanthropy. Her 91-year-old mother Margaret, a former lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, is also a significant shareholder in the holding company. On the other side of the family, Harrison McCain and his wife Marion had five children.
McCain Foods is overseen by a separate, operating company board. The majority of its directors are independent, including the former chief financial officer of Toronto-Dominion Bank and CEO of Goldman Sachs Canada, along with company executives. The two-tier structure, common in European family-owned companies, keeps the food business at arm's length from family disputes.
Prior to his death in 2004, Harrison McCain created a “thick document” and a two-tier board structure meant to guide the family's affairs, said Eleanor McCain's brother Scott McCain in a 2018 interview with former Globe and Mail reporter Gordon Pitts. The concept is meant to separate the business owned by the family and the “business of the family.”
“Our family business is potatoes and appetizers and trucking; the business of the family is the family office,” Scott McCain said in the interview. He worked with his father and brother at Maple Leaf until retiring in 2014.
After leaving Maple Leaf, Scott McCain reconciled with his relatives and he is now chair of the operating company's board.
Eleanor McCain and her relatives are at odds over a food giant that ranks as one of Canada's few global champions. Founded in the farm town of Florenceville, N.B., in 1957 by four brothers, the company has doubled sales since CEO Max Koeune took the wheel in 2017.
An employee works on the french fry assembly line at the McCain factory in Matougues, France, in 2019.MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images
McCain Foods' 22,000 employees now sell $16-billion of frozen potatoes a year, Pizza Pockets and Deep'n Delicious cakes a year in 160 countries. The company owns 54 factories on six continents. It sources potatoes from a network of 3,500 independent farmers, spread across 16 countries.
McCain Foods started out with four shareholders, all sons of a potato farmer. In 1957, Harrison and Wallace McCain each contributed $30,000 to building a frozen French fry plant and agreed to run the business together. Two older brothers, Robert and Andrew McCain, chipped in $20,000 each to support their siblings.
While McCain Foods is private, other publicly traded companies with comparable sales, such as cheese maker Saputo Inc., cereal producer Kellogg's and chocolatier Hershey Co., are worth between $17-billion and $51-billion.
McCain Foods' largest publicly traded peer is Lamb Weston Holdings Inc., based in Eagle, Idaho. The Canadian company sells twice as many potatoes each year as its U.S. rival, which has a US$8.3-billion market value.
In 1995, shortly after the family split, Harrison McCain stepped down as CEO of the company he co-founded and brought in outside leaders with global experience. McCain Foods recruited its current CEO, Mr. Koeune, from French food giant Danone SA.
Two-thirds of businesses don't have a succession plan. Here's why they should
Family-owned companies that successfully pass control from one generation to the next consistently have clear shareholder agreements that include rules for paying out anyone who wants to exit, according to a study led by Peter Jaskiewicz, chair in family enterprise at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.
The two key elements of these family agreements are how they deal with ownership and leadership across generations, according to Dr. Jaskiewicz, who chose to study the dynamics of private companies after his parents' family business failed to navigate succession issues. In Europe and Asia, his study showed there are multiple examples of successful 20-plus generation family companies, with thousands of shareholders, all guided by written contracts.
Some of the world's wealthiest families are multigeneration owners of food business. Their ranks include the Mars family, whose 114-year-old candy and pet food empire is worth more than US$100-billion, and the Cargill-MacMillan clan, whose stake in agriculture company Cargill Inc., founded in 1865, is valued at US$61-billion.
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LONDON, December 6. /TASS/. The possible confiscation of frozen Russian assets in the European Union could impact the euro's role as a global reserve currency, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper wrote.
Euro-denominated assets account for around 20% of foreign exchange reserves held by central banks worldwide, according to the publication. In this respect, the euro is second only to the US dollar, which accounts for almost 60% of global foreign exchange reserves. However, if the EU decides to seize Russia's frozen assets, central banks and private investors will begin to doubt whether it is worth buying European securities.
That said, although the European Central Bank has expressed skepticism about the asset seizure scheme, pointing out its risks, some EU countries that have long opposed it have changed their position and now support such a move, the paper added.
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The Yomiuri Shimbun
15:58 JST, December 6, 2025&
OTSU — The world karuta championship, using the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu poetry anthology, was held at Omi Jingu Shrine in Otsu for the first time in six years. Twelve teams from 10 countries and regions, including Japan, Egypt, South Korea and Taiwan, participated in the games.
The tournament was a team competition in which three players from each team competed to collect cards, vying for the most wins. Omi Jingu is considered the “holy ground of karuta” because it enshrines Emperor Tenji (626-671). The poem that was chosen as the opening poem of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is believed to be his work.
The final match pitted the Japanese team, composed of three Doshisha University students, against the Thai team. After each team won one game, captain Minori Fujimoto clinched the victory for the Japanese team.
All three Japanese members were fourth-year students, who entered the tournament wanting to create lasting memories.
“It's rare to have the chance to play against people from overseas in Japan,” said vice captain Ayaka Nagatani, who was enjoying interacting with players from the other teams. “It was fun to have them learn about Japan through karuta and talk with them.”
The runner-up Thai team reached the finals for the first time. Thai team captain Memee Dantavornjaroen, who has played karuta for 17 years, said, “I want to aim for victory next time and enjoy karuta with a smile as I'm a Thai person.”
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U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Miami on Friday for what they described as productive talks on ending the war between Ukraine and Russia, with plans to resume discussions Saturday after consultations with their leaders.
NEW YORK, December 6. /TASS/. The December 4 and 5 meetings between the delegations of the United States and Ukraine in Florida have not produced any serious breakthrough in the settlement process, Bloomberg said.
Commenting on the talks, the US Department of State said earlier that the discussion was constructive, adding that the sides have agreed on matters related to security measures and discussed Ukraine's post-conflict reconstruction.
"Despite the positive language, there was little indication of a major breakthrough that might signal new momentum in the talks," Bloomberg reported.
The talks were attended by Special Envoy for Peace Steven Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Ukrainian Secretary of National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov and Chief of General Staff General Andrey Gnatov. The discussions will continue on December 6.
25,000 people chose to be part of the Kyiv Independent community — thank you.
Ukraine's Air Assault Forces said on Dec. 5 that neither Pokrovsk nor its sister city Myrnohrad are encircled, stressing that defense units are expanding logistics routes and maintaining control over key positions in the area.
Commander Yevhen Lasiichuk of the 7th Corps told the national marathon newscast that in Pokrovsk, the line of contact currently runs "along the railway," with Ukrainian troops retaining full control over the northern part of the city.
He noted that Ukrainian units in central Pokrovsk are actively holding back Russian attempts to advance.
"The situation is more complicated in the southern part," Lasiichuk said, adding that Russian forces are attempting to bypass urban fighting by maneuvering around the flanks.
“As of today, there is no encirclement or blockade of Pokrovsk.”
Logistical access to neighboring Myrnohrad has become more difficult, he acknowledged, but movement into the city continues.
“Units continue to enter the settlement and carry out their tasks,” Lasiichuk said.
The fortress city of Pokrovsk has long been one of the most hotly contested areas of the front line, with Ukrainian troops holding off a major Russian assault for a year.
In recent weeks, Russian troops have closed in, leaving Ukraine in control of an increasingly smaller pocket of the town.
In a nod to the political significance of taking the city, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Dec. 1 of the city's capture, after receiving a report on the latest battlefield situation from his top general, Valery Gerasimov.
While strikes on both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been recorded in the northern low-density residential neighborhoods of Pokrovsk, the front-line contact zone and proper territorial control is difficult to establish.
North American news editor
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master's degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor's degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
"Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace. We agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States," Zelensky wrote on Dec. 6.
Russia's drone strike caused a fire that burned the outer cladding of the shelter.
Russia failed to break Ukraine's army on the battlefield, and now it's trying to do it through a peace plan that would cap Ukraine's forces at 600,000. Some argue that Ukraine would shrink its army — currently estimated at about 800,000 — after the war anyway.
Zelensky will also meet with the leaders of France and Germany in the British capital on Monday.
It's the ninth time this year that the facility has been struck.
The cyberattack took down over 700 computers and servers and deleted accounts of more than 1,000 Eltrans+ users, HUR claimed.
Three people have been injured in a Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv Oblast overnight on Dec. 6, local officials reported.
The Kyiv Independent's first live event in New York City will be available to stream live. The Kyiv Independent will also present a curated photo exhibition
If the ban goes through, Russia would likely have to expand its shadow fleet to transport crude oil instead.
Over the course of 2025, Ukraine has repeatedly agreed to ceasefire proposals put forward by the White House. Russia has refused to agree to a single one.
The number includes 1,180 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Ukraine's Air Assault Forces said on Dec. 5 that neither Pokrovsk nor its sister city Myrnohrad is encircled, stressing that defense units are expanding logistics routes and maintaining control over key positions in the area.
The Trump administration on Dec. 4 extended a waiver that lets Lukoil-branded gas stations abroad stay in business, softening elements of the sanctions imposed on the firm in October.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, said its drones hit a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber as past of a series of eight "accurate strikes" on military targets inside Russian-occupied Crimea on Dec. 5.
The Prosecutor General's Office said that the wounded soldier tried to take cover, but the Russian soldier "finished him off with a shot from an assault rifle."
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U.S. President Donald Trump, Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum and Prime Minister Mark Carney during the 2026 World draw.STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH/Reuters
Mark Carney turned on the charm with Donald Trump at the FIFA World Cup draw as he engaged in frequent banter throughout the event, hunkered down for a 45-minute meeting afterward and drew plaudits for Canada's “friendship” from the famously mercurial U.S. President.
The Prime Minister, who is hoping to persuade Mr. Trump not to pull his country out of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and to negotiate an end to his punishing tariffs, jetted down to Washington Friday to catch the President on a day when he would be in a particularly good mood.
At the FIFA draw, Mr. Trump received a peace prize created especially for him, bragged about the World Cup's ticket sales and was serenaded by the Village People and Andrea Bocelli, two of his favourite musical acts. Wayne Gretzky, a favourite Canadian of the President's, also played a key role in the proceedings.
Opinion: Gretzky gave us a spectacle of meme-able proportions at the World Cup draw
Mr. Carney, Mr. Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, whose countries are co-hosting next summer's soccer tournament, sat next to each other for most of the event, which unfolded at the Kennedy Center. The trio smiled and chatted throughout, with Mr. Carney occasionally leaning across Ms. Sheinbaum – who sat in the middle – to get closer to Mr. Trump.
Later, the three retreated to a private room without staff for a more-in-depth tête-à-tête. Audrey Champoux, Mr. Carney's spokesperson, said that in the meeting, the leaders “agreed to keep working together” on USMCA.
Both Canada and Mexico are fighting to preserve the trade pact, which Mr. Trump has mused about quitting when it comes up for review next year, and trying to negotiate an end to the U.S. President's tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and other goods.
In hearings on the future of the USMCA, business leaders call on Trump to drop tariffs
Mr. Trump broke off negotiations with Canada on tariffs in October because of a pro-free-trade ad aired in the U.S. by the Ontario government.
In his acceptance speech for the FIFA Peace Prize, Mr. Trump was laudatory of his World Cup co-hosts.
“We've had a tremendous relationship, working relationship, with Canada,” he said, before introducing Mr. Carney and Ms. Sheinbaum. “The co-ordination and friendship and relationship has been outstanding and I want to thank you both very much and your countries very much.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who created the peace prize barely a month ago, presented Mr. Trump with a trophy consisting of a gold-looking globe held up by disembodied hands.
“There is also a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go,” Mr. Infantino said, as Mr. Trump promptly placed the medallion around his neck. The President praised Mr. Infantino for “setting new records on ticket sales” and boasted that the U.S. is “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
Twenty-nine ways Trump has changed Canada
The audience, largely consisting of FIFA dignitaries, reacted with only a smattering of applause. Mr. Infantino's courtship of Mr. Trump has been contentious, with critics charging that it goes far beyond maintaining good relations with a host country and veers into the territory of endorsing his controversial policy agenda.
Mr. Gretzky, another figure who has taken flak for his close relationship with Mr. Trump, served as one of four sports personalities to perform the draw itself, alongside former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, NFL legend Tom Brady and New York Yankee slugger Aaron Judge.
The former Edmonton Oiler great, who wore a Maple Leaf pin, has golfed with Mr. Trump and hung out at Mar-a-Lago this year, even as the President threatened to annex Canada as the U.S.'s “51st state” and encouraged Mr. Gretzky to run for “governor.”
On Friday, Mr. Gretzky mostly attracted attention on social media for mispronouncing the names of various countries in the draw, rendering Curaçao as “Curocko,” for instance.
In his brief public comments, Mr. Carney lauded Canada's multicultural diversity, which Mr. Trump's own Vice-President, JD Vance, criticized last month as “immigration insanity” leading to a “stagnating country.”
Mexico has jumped past Canada to become the U.S.'s top customer
“There's more than 200 nationalities in Canada, more than 200 nationalities in FIFA, the top 48 are coming to North America,” Mr. Carney said, referring to the countries qualifying for the tournament.
Ms. Sheinbaum, meanwhile, made a point of championing Mexico's “extraordinary, hard-working people.” Mr. Trump frequently portrays Mexican migrants as violent criminals to justify his crackdown on immigration.
If such comments from the Canadian and Mexican leaders were intended as statements of principle, they were oblique. While neither Mr. Carney nor Ms. Sheinbaum has worked to woo Mr. Trump the way Mr. Infantino has, they have been studiously careful to maintain a chummy rapport, lest they be hit with even more tariffs.
During the event's conclusion, as the Village People performed Y.M.C.A. and Mr. Trump stood up to perform his signature dance moves, Mr. Carney and Ms. Sheinbaum remained seated, engrossed in conversation. Only at the very end did Mr. Carney get to his feet to applaud as FIFA dignitaries turned to snap photos of Mr. Trump.
Also attending the event on the Canadian side were Mr. Carney's wife, Diana Fox Carney, Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., and several of Mr. Carney's aides.
After the event, Mr. Carney met with the pro-free-trade U.S. Chamber of Commerce and attended a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony at the Canadian embassy before flying back to Ottawa.
On Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 1 p.m. ET, sports reporter Paul Attfield and columnist Cathal Kelly will answer reader questions on Canada's path in the 2026 World Cup and how it could fare in the group matchups and beyond. Submit your questions in the form below, or by e-mailing audience@globeandmail.com with “World Cup” in the subject line.
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Reuters
10:42 JST, December 6, 2025
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – The 2026 World Cup will kick off on June 11 with joint-hosts Mexico playing South Africa at the Azteca Stadium – iconic venue of the 1970 and 1986 finals – followed by South Korea against a playoff winner after the complex draw was made on Friday.
Mexico's co-hosts the United States and Canada will join the biggest-ever World Cup party the following day. The U.S., courtesy of their top seeding, got a dream draw and will play Paraguay, Australia and a playoff winner.
Canada, also a top seed despite a world ranking of 27th, have it tougher against a playoff winner – possibly Italy – Switzerland and Qatar.
The draw for the expanded 48-team tournament, with six berths still to be filled via a series of playoffs, was hugely complicated due to various geographical sub-clauses.
Former England defender and MC Rio Ferdinand routinely returned balls to the metaphorical pot after “computer said no'.
Defending champions Argentina were grouped with Algeria, Austria and debutants Jordan, while five-times winners Brazil will play Morocco – semi-finalists in 2022 – Haiti and Scotland.
The Scots are appearing in the finals for the first time since 1998, when they lost to Brazil in the opening game, while Haiti's only previous appearance came in 1974.
France's first game will be versus Senegal in a repeat of one of the biggest tournament upsets, when the Africans stunned the then-holders in their first game of the 2002 tournament. Norway and one of the playoff winners complete their group.
England will start against Croatia, who beat them in the 2018 semi-finals, and also face Panama, who they thrashed 6-1 in the group stage in the same tournament, and Ghana.
Debutants Curacao, with a population of 150,000 making them by far the smallest country ever to reach the finals, face Germany, Ecuador and the Ivory Coast.
World number-one-ranked Spain have a dream draw alongside first-timers Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.
The Netherlands are with Japan, Tunisia and a playoff winner, Belgium have Egypt, Iran and New Zealand, while Portugal face debutants Uzbekistan, Colombia and a playoff winner.
The teams outside the hosts' groups will have to wait until Saturday to find out the venues and kickoff times for their games after FIFA attempts to optimise them relating to the various worldwide TV markets.
A newly introduced seeding system ensured that the current top four in the world – Spain, Argentina, France and England – cannot meet until the semi-final stage if they win their groups, but that has not ruled out a host of potential blockbuster clashes along the way.
France, runners-up in 2022, might like the look of their group but, if results go to form, once they reach the last 16 they can expect a potential run of Germany, the Netherlands and Spain to reach the final.
England's pathway to the showpiece match has a very Latin – and difficult – look with Mexico, Brazil, who they have never beaten at the World Cup, and Argentina in the way of a first final appearance since their sole triumph in 1966.
Mexico have a favourable group but will be looking beyond that in the hope of at least matching their performance as hosts in 1986 when they reached the quarter-finals.
Since then they suffered a remarkable seven consecutive last-16 exits and then failed to get out of their group in 2022.
“There are no small opponents. We must not get complacent, we have to work hard,” said Mexico coach Javier Aguirre. “We'll be repeating our opening match from 15 years ago and we'll have to be ready.”
The U.S. have a winnable group and their Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino sounded upbeat.
“We need to be strong in our belief, keep improving, thinking big of course and to go and to win the World Cup,” he said. “But before that we need to play and be motivated with these guys that are going to be really tough.”
Remarkably, despite playing each other 106 times, Brazil and Argentina have met in the World Cup knockout stage only once, when the Argentines won 1-0 in the 1990 Round of 16, but they could be on course for a seismic semi-final showdown next year.
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Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they'll meet on Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.
Workers and military inspect Ukrainian Fire Point's Flamingo missiles during handover to the military in an undisclosed location in Ukraine Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they'll meet Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.
Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country's air force said Saturday morning.
Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.
Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine's Lviv region.
Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine's national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said its air defenses had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.
Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia's Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces had struck the refinery. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and that drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the refinery.
Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The latest round of attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump's advisers and Ukrainian officials said they'll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.
Following Friday's talks, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”
The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war. Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday that he had been given an update over the phone from Florida.
Separately, officials in London said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.
___
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Trump says being awarded the FIFA peace prize was “truly one of the great honors of my life.” Trump took center stage at Friday's World Cup draw, which rolled out the welcome mat for teams and fans from around the globe.
President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney holds their countries' name during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino hold up country names during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks after being presented with the FIFA Peace Prize by FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, Pool)
Former NFL player Tom Brady holds up the team name of Argentina during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal, actor Kevin Hart and former NFL player Tom Brady attend the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
▶ Follow live updates on the 2025 FIFA World Cup draw
WASHINGTON (AP) — All around the globe, eyes focused Friday on the stage where World Cup paths were sorted, nations' names chosen one by one in a draw that determined Argentina and Lionel Messi will start their title defense against Algeria and the U.S. will open against Paraguay.
Twenty-seven months after qualifying began, teams from five-time champion Brazil to newcomers Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan learned their group-stage opponents in the expanded 48-nation, 104-game tournament that starts June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Exciting for the island, for the people there. They're so proud,” said Dick Advocaat, the 78-year-old Dutchman leading Curaçao, a Caribbean country with a population of 150,000, into an opener against four-time champion Germany.
On a day that began with snow falling on the nation's capital, the ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts included U.S. President Donald Trump receiving a newly created peace prize awarded by FIFA, soccer's governing body. Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney picked up plastic spheres containing their own nations' names from bowls — Sheinbaum drew more applause from those gathered in the hall than Trump.
FIFA's lead-in show, featuring music and stars from sports and entertainment, was almost as long as a soccer match, starting in the 87th minute. Tom Brady, Shaquille O'Neal, Aaron Judge and Wayne Gretzky took part. New Zealand was the last orb picked.
“Just watching Americans on stage and the president giving speeches and performances, it made it feel like an American event already,” said U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams, who watched from England, where he plays for the Premier League club Bournemouth. “And I think we know the expectation of what it's going to be like when we go there and there's going to be halftime shows and there's going to be celebrities and the big draw of what America brings to sports.”
Three-time champion Argentina opens on June 16 at either Kansas City, Missouri, or Santa Clara, California. Specific sites for all group stage games and kickoff times were to be announced Saturday. The Albiceleste then face Austria and Jordan in Group J. Argentina surprisingly lost its 2022 opener to Saudi Arabia before going on to win the final over France on penalty kicks.
The United States has its opponent for the opening match of next year's World Cup hosted in North America. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.
Messi, who turns 39 during the tournament, hasn't committed yet to playing but it would be shocking if he decided against appearing in a record sixth World Cup.
“We are just awaiting for him to decide,” coach Lionel Scaloni said. “In principle, everything is going well.”
The U.S., which reached the semifinals at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and the quarterfinals in 2002, starts Group D against Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood, California. The Americans play Australia seven days later at Seattle, then face Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo — one will emerge next year from playoffs — on June 25 back at SoFi Stadium.
The Americans had friendlies against Turkey in June, Australia in October and Paraguay last month.
“We know them but they know us,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said.
Brimming with confidence, he defined success as: “Win the World Cup.”
Mexico hosts the tournament opener at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on June 11 against South Africa in Group A, a rematch of the 1-1 tie at the 2010 opener in Johannesburg. El Tri then meets South Korea and closes the first round against the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark or North Macedonia.
Forty-two of the teams have been determined; 22 are competing in playoffs for six berths that will be decided March 31.
Winners and second-place nations from the 12 groups advance to the new round of 32 along with the top eight third-place teams. All games from the quarterfinals on will be in the U.S., culminating in the July 19 final at East Rutherford, New Jersey.
England, which won its only title in 1966, plays Croatia, Ghana and Panama in Group L. Players from Chelsea and Manchester City experienced summer U.S. conditions at this year's Club World Cup.
“It doesn't make it any easier when it comes again to blame the heat and fight against humidity and altitude and different time zones,” England manager Thomas Tuchel said. “It's just what it is. We have to find a way to dig in. We have to find a way to accept it and build a high tolerance to all these obstacles.”
Brazil opens against 2022 semifinalist Morocco, then plays Haiti and Scotland in Group C.
“It is a difficult group,” coach Carlo Ancelotti said.
Top-ranked Spain, the 2010 champion, faces Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group H, while Germany follows its Curaçao match by playing Ivory Coast and Ecuador in Group E.
“It is always difficult to play as a European team against a South American team,” Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said.
Two-time champion France starts June 16 against Senegal at East Rutherford, New Jersey, or Foxborough, Massachusetts. With Les Bleus coming off their first world title, they lost 1-0 to the Lions of Teranga in the 2002 opener at Seoul, South Korea. France then faces Bolivia, Iraq or Suriname in Group I and closes perhaps the most daunting group against Norway in a matchup of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland,
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, like Messi expected to play in a sixth World Cup, has Group K matches against Uzbekistan, Colombia and Congo, Jamaica or New Caledonia. If Portugal and Argentina win their groups, Ronaldo and Messi could meet in a quarterfinal at Arrowhead Stadium.
Other groups include:
G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand.
B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar and Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wales or Northern Ireland.
F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia and Sweden, Ukraine, Albania and Poland.
“Without knowing who the third opponent is, it can get difficult — specifically if Italy advances,” Canada coach Jesse Marsch said.
No team has repeated as champion since Brazil won in 1958 and '62, and only eight nations have won soccer's biggest prize. Italy has four titles and Uruguay two.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino gave Trump a large gold-colored peace prize trophy and a gold-colored medal hanging from a blue ribbon, which Trump draped around his neck. Standing next to Trump, Infantino lavished praise.
“This is truly one of the great honors of my life,” Trump said.
___
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Fox News Digital visited Cedar–Riverside and the bustling Karmel Mall to hear from Somali residents and workers, about life America's largest Somali community.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Minnesota is home to the nation's largest Somali community — a rapidly expanding Muslim population that has become a flashpoint in national debates over integration, welfare fraud and how the group is reshaping the state's historically Scandinavian, Christian cultural landscape.
That scrutiny intensified this week after President Donald Trump blasted Somali Minnesotans as welfare abusers who have been raiding state coffers for years.
"I hear they ripped off — Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions every year. … They contribute nothing," Trump said, amid news that some Somalis were involved in bilking that state out of hundreds of millions of dollars in various fraud schemes.
"I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you. Somebody says, ‘Oh, that's not politically correct.' I don't care. I don't want them in our country. Their country's no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don't want them in our country."
DEMOCRAT MAYOR BLASTED FOR VOWING TO MAKE MAJOR CITY ‘SAFE HAVEN' FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
PHOTOS: Swipe to see more images
A group of men gather outside a mosque along Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Women walk along a street in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the U.S. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Women walk along a tree-lined street in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A woman wearing a green hijab and face covering rides a mobility scooter through Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A man wearing traditional Islamic clothing walks past Riverside Plaza in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Trump and members of his administration have also accused the population of committing immigration fraud in order to bring friends and relatives to the U.S. and again claimed Rep. Ilhan Omar married her brother — a charge she has repeatedly denied.
For years, accusations of crime and gang activity — and the fact that a small cohort of Somali Minnesotans traveled overseas to join al-Shabaab — have cast a long shadow over the community's efforts to assimilate.
Many Somali residents told Fox News Digital that they are angered that the entire community has been saddled with what they say is an unfair reputation, blaming a small minority of fraudsters and criminals for the negative attention against the group as a whole.
And now a massive COVID-19-era fraud scheme – which prosecutors say is the largest pandemic-era fraud case in U.S. history – has thrust the population back into the spotlight.
At first glance, the choice can seem perplexing: families from an East African nation putting down roots in a state known for subzero winters and harsh conditions.
But the Somali civil war forced thousands to flee their homeland beginning in the 1990s, with refugee resettlement and family reunification swelling the Somali population in Minnesota to roughly 80,000 to 100,000, depending on the estimate. One local leader told Fox News Digital the true number is likely closer to 160,000.
Like many immigrant groups before them, Somalis have brought their own customs and traditions — and have made their mark on the neighborhoods where they've settled.
The Riverside Plaza apartment complex in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a densely populated area home to one of the nation's largest Somali communities. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Advocates say Somalis have woven themselves into Minnesota life — running restaurants and working in nursing, trucking, factories and filling shopping centers like the Somali-themed Karmel Mall in Minneapolis. They argue the community's true story is one of hard work, civic pride, and assimilation — not the isolated crimes that grab headlines.
The largest cluster of Somalis in Minneapolis is in Cedar–Riverside, a neighborhood just south and west of downtown that has earned the nickname "Little Mogadishu," a nod to Somalia's capital city. The name reflects the area's sweeping demographic and cultural transformation.
When Fox News Digital visited Cedar–Riverside, the area felt almost hollowed out — run-down, like a poverty-stricken inner-city neighborhood.
On a Saturday afternoon, the streets were quiet, lined with shuttered storefronts and once-lively bars from years past, while a handful of East African restaurants carried on with a steady flow of local patrons. Some closed shops with faded English signs now displayed "coming soon" notices in Arabic.
The Riverside Plaza complex — a cluster of 1970s-era brutalist concrete towers — loomed large over the neighborhood. Its once-vibrant multicolored panels have faded with time, mirroring the on-the-ground sense of wear and age — a reflection of the neighborhood's shifting fortunes.
Outside, beside a street sign reading "Somali St," a woman dressed in bright green offered bottles of water for sale to passing drivers while flocks of pigeons flapped and spiraled up outside the towers.
TRUMP TERMINATES DEPORTATION PROTECTIONS FOR SOMALI NATIONALS LIVING IN MINNESOTA 'EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY'
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A street sign for "Somali St" is pictured with Riverside Plaza in the background in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
From left: Abdi Fatah Hassan, Andrew Henrichs, Zakariah Mohamed, Daniel Williams, and Luke Freeman share their views on the Somali community and life in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The Riverside Plaza apartment towers dominate the skyline of Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Campaign signs for Minneapolis mayoral and city council candidates, including Omar Fateh and Jacob Frey, line a fence in Cedar–Riverside. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Pedestrians walk along Cedar Avenue near a mosque in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The Islamic call to prayer rang out from a nearby mosque occupying an older commercial building, echoing over an empty street and through the concrete courtyards — a sound that felt both peaceful and eerie in the stillness.
Men gathered outside the mosque, some wearing kufis for Friday prayers, while women passed by in hijabs and abayas — a sight still unfamiliar to many Americans, though now a regular part of daily life in Minneapolis.
Faith and politics were visible here.
The day before, the liveliest scene unfolded as people entered and left another mosque on a corner street, its windows boarded up, while political yard signs for mayoral candidate Omar Fateh dotted the grass outside, as did ones for Council Member Jamal Osma. Both are progressives like Ilhan Omar, who has become the community's most visible national figure.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR–Minnesota, said that faith remains central to Somali life, but also serves as a bridge to their new home.
"Religion grounds us," he said. "It helps us build discipline and community, and it's part of why Somalis have been able to succeed here."
The sight of Muslim garb is a striking change for a neighborhood that was once a European immigrant enclave and, more recently, a hub for students and music lovers drawn to the University of Minnesota's West Bank and Augsburg University campuses nearby.
Many of the old watering holes — like Palmer's Bar, which predates World War I — have struggled and closed amid changing demographics, shifting drinking habits and declining foot traffic. Alcohol is forbidden in Islam.
Palmer's, which sits beside the commercial building turned mosque, has reportedly been purchased by the mosque. The congregation also bought the now-shuttered Nomad World Pub directly across the street, residents said, once a local mainstay for soccer fans and live music. In the 1990s, Minnesota had only a handful of mosques. Today, there are about 90 statewide, Hussein said.
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A woman in a maroon abaya crosses the street near a mosque in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A street sign for "Somali St" is pictured with Riverside Plaza in the background in (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A man walks along Cedar Avenue outside a mosque in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A man wearing traditional clothing walks past Riverside Plaza in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan / Fox News Digital)
Men gather outside a mosque in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood near campaign signs for local candidates. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A "Welcome to the West Bank" directory sign in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside area is seen covered in graffiti and a defaced poster. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The Cedar Cultural Center — one of the last survivors of the West Bank's old music corridor — still hosts musicians and artists, a reminder that Cedar–Riverside hasn't entirely lost its creative pulse.
A few residents appeared high on drugs, huddled in doorways, the signs of addiction hard to miss.
In the evening, a group of Somali volunteers wearing orange high-visibility vests gathered in the town square, offering medical help to those who had overdosed or fallen ill.
One man said he had served time in jail for a gang-related crime, but denied being part of one. Another young man said he had just moved from South Dakota to rebuild his life after being jailed for murder, but was let out after being wrongly accused.
"As soon as we entered the neighborhood, it was instantly like the demographics changed," Luke Freeman, a young white man who was visiting the city from Wisconsin with a friend, told Fox News Digital.
"Cedar–Riverside is very distinctly Somali. It's a more rundown neighborhood — not bad, but certainly a rougher part of town."
The pair said they had heard about "Little Mogadishu" and wanted to check it out, complimenting a meal they had just finished at a local East African restaurant.
Most older Somali residents, known as "elders," spoke little English but were welcoming, although women were far more reluctant. Younger Somalis were warmer and more talkative, greeting visitors with "bro" and eager to discuss day-to-day life in Minneapolis and their African heritage. Some admitted they wanted to be more westernized to blend in; another boasted that his rap video had millions of views on YouTube.
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A "Coming soon" sign with Arabic writing is posted on a former outdoor retailer along Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Soma Grill & Deli, a Somali cuisine spot, sits on a Cedar–Riverside corner in Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The Al-Karama / Cedar Square storefront along Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The former Midwest Mountaineering building on Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside stands closed and for sale. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A storefront on Cedar Avenue displays signs for Omar Fateh's mayoral campaign in Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A safety patrol volunteer in a reflective vest talks with residents outside a restaurant in Minneapolis' Cedar–Riverside neighborhood. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
"It's been great so far. Welcoming. ‘Minnesota nice,' as we call it," said Abdi Fatah Hassan, who came to the U.S. in 2004 at age 13. "Thank God I'm in a great community. It's close-knit, kind of feels like back home. You're not just thrown in the deep end; people show you things, help you grow, help you adapt to the country."
"Every community has its bad apples. Don't judge the few for the many. Most of us are hardworking, honest Americans — patriots, you could say."
Hussein, of CAIR–Minnesota, said that negative press about crime often overshadows the contributions Somalis have made to the state — even as the community continues to face persistent challenges.
"Somalis in Minnesota are hard-working folks — many of them work two jobs, and yet about 75% are still poor," he said. "There are entrepreneurs, successful restaurants, people in trucking, IT, and even corporate America, making significant changes. But those positive stories don't get much attention."
About 36% of Somali Minnesotans lived below the poverty line from 2019 to 2023 — more than triple the U.S. poverty rate of 11.1% — according to Minnesota Compass, a statewide data project. Somali-headed households reported a median income of around $43,600 during that period, far below the national median of $78,538.
Hussein added that Somali Minnesotans are a "very young community, still maturing politically and socially," but already shaping neighborhoods through small businesses and civic engagement.
SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER FAR-LEFT MAYOR GIVES VICTORY SPEECH IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE: 'HUMILIATING'
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The Tawfiq Islamic Center in Minneapolis is pictured at sunset. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR–Minnesota, is pictured at the organization's offices in Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
The Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a longstanding religious and cultural hub for the city's Somali community. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A mosque in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, home to a large Somali community. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Hussein's point was borne out at Karmel Mall, about three miles southwest of Cedar–Riverside, a multi-story complex buzzing with activity. The mall houses more than 200 Somali- or East African–owned businesses with modest-looking stores. Its floors are mazes of narrow corridors packed with African clothing stalls, salons, barbers, jewelry stores and halal eateries.
When Fox News Digital visited the mall on a recent Saturday evening, shoppers were eager to discuss life as Somali Americans. Many men drank coffee or tea late into the evening, the place humming like a social club. It also has a mosque.
Mahmoud Hussain, a barber and first-wave Somali arrival in the 1990s, was cutting a child's hair while a line of customers sat waiting outside. He said he was grateful for the opportunity America had given him.
"Somali people are giving, loving, strong in their roots and they adapt to other cultures," Hussain said with a bright smile.
"We came from Somalia to America directly post-war. We were one of the first people to come out and build a halal community and money-transfer businesses," he said of his family. Most people were doing taxis at the time — just getting through the day."
"When we came here, it was like a gold rush — everybody was talking about Minneapolis."
"Growing up here, you have a generational gap between your parents and understanding the society here. But America's a melting pot — we're trying to get our own foot into our roots while embracing the country that accepted us."
A small framed sign above one of his mirrors read, "In God We Trust."
He beamed with excitement when asked about it. "It means everyone's God," he said. A simple line he believes bridges his Muslim faith with the country he now calls home.
From left: hair stylist Ferdowsa Omar, hair stylist Najma Mohammad and barber Mahmoud Hussain work in the Karmel Mall in Minneapolis. ((Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital))
Nearby, a woman working in a clothing store said she is a software engineer at eBay in California. She came to the United States from Somalia at age 19 on a scholarship, pointing out that not everyone arriving from Somalia is a refugee and that Somali women are thriving in fields once closed to them.
She said she is immensely proud of her job in a traditionally male-dominated sector, "because we pass so many categories of being a minority," she said.
"First of all, we're black in tech. Then we're women, then we're Muslim women, then we are Somalis. So you see, there's a lot of categories of minority that we fall under… You've got to have the skills which means you got put in the effort."
Meanwhile, as the night drew to a close, a group of young women wearing hijabs were cleaning up inside a salon. Laughs and giggles spilled outside the half-closed shutter door, but nonetheless they too wanted to share their lived experiences growing up in Minneapolis.
"There's a big community, so it feels welcoming and weird at the same time," said Najma Mohammad, a hair stylist who came to the U.S. as a child.
Somali American barber Mahmoud Hussain trims a young customer's hair at a barbershop inside the Karmel Mall in Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
"Most people think just because some people are bad and Somali, that every Somali is bad — which is just a stereotype. We're not the people we are seen as. Most of us are here to make a difference in the world and to make our parents proud."
Fellow hair stylist Ferdowsa Omar, who came to the U.S. in 2016 from Ethiopia, said religion and the wearing of the hijab were often met with curiosity.
"In the beginning, it was kind of hard not knowing the language, but as I grew older, I found myself because I grew up with my people," Omar said. "Some people didn't know what hijab was, and when we were young, they used to look at us like they were confused, but they were always respectful about it."
"I personally don't wear [the hijab] every day, but when I do, I feel beautiful — I feel myself," Omar said before Mohammad chimed in.
"It's a religious act, so you can wear it if you want," Mohammad said. "And if you don't want to, you don't have to. But my mom and my dad have taught me to wear the hijab for religious reasons."
For them, Karmel Mall and the salon represent more than a job; they're safe spaces to work, connect and show that Somali and East African women are thriving.
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A sign marks the entrance to Karmel Mall, one of the largest Somali shopping centers in Minneapolis. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
As the stores began closing, the first floor remained full of chatter as men sat around tables sipping coffee. There are no bars for Muslims — the mall itself is the night's social center.
Back in Cedar–Riverside, behind the concrete towers, two soccer games unfolded on an all-weather field under the floodlights played by Somali men in their 20s and 30s.
For most Somali Minnesotans, this is ordinary life — work, prayer and play.
"Minnesota has had thirty years with the Somali community — and ninety-five percent of it has been positive," CAIR's Hussein said.
"We've been here thirty years. We're no longer newcomers. Our children were born here — they are Minnesotans now."
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
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“It's not a good airport at all,” President Donald Trump said of Dulles International Airport outside Washington DC, at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “It's a terrible airport.”
He's not alone in his assessment.
Operational for 60 years, Dulles regularly makes it on worst airport lists, largely due to one of its most unusual features: the people movers, more formally known as “mobile lounges,” used to ferry passengers between gates and planes.
These cumbersome vehicles — a sort of giant bus elevated on hydraulics — became a talking point for the President's cabinet meeting after a crash last month injured more than a dozen people. And now Trump is vowing big changes.
Mobile lounges are not the only problem. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later called out the airport for its “jet fuel smell.” He's announced that his department is inviting proposals and public-private partnership plans to construct new terminals and concourses there.
It may have few modern fans, but the story of Dulles' design and evolution is an interesting one, explains Bob van der Linden, commercial aviation curator for the National Air and Space Museum.
“It's the primary portal to the nation's capital, especially overseas travelers,” van der Linden said. “It's extremely important. And of course, those big runways are wonderful for big airplanes.”
Dulles was built because during World War II, it became clear that Washington National Airport wasn't able to accommodate the area's growth in air traffic. The Washington Airport Act of 1950 paved the way for work to begin, once a location had been chosen.
“They were thinking about an area in Burke, Virginia, or taking over an Air Force base — that didn't work,” van der Linden said. “They settled on Chantilly, Virginia, which was quiet, open farmland.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower selected the vast 10,000-acre site in 1958. Then the name was chosen — in honor of John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State in Eisenhower's administration.
It was built for the future. The airport was the first in the country designed to handle the commercial jets that were starting to dominate the air. Massive runways were built in anticipation of faster, bigger aircraft as the supersonic age beckoned.
Despite this, the new airport gained a reputation as a “white elephant,” said van der Linden. Many claimed it a waste of taxpayer money because, since it was 26 miles outside Washington, DC, it was thought no one would use it.
But success eventually came. Thanks, according to an analysis from George Mason University, to three factors.
First, Fairfax County, Virginia, right on the airport's doorstep, experienced significant commercial and residential growth over the years and Dulles proved to be a convenient transport option for its expanding population.
Second, airline deregulation in 1978 allowed airlines to set up “hub and spoke” route networks, connecting large air hubs like Dulles to smaller cities and drastically increasing air traffic.
Finally, airport expansion in 1999 saw the opening of a new midfield concourse terminal that increased capacity.
For all its perceived faults, Dulles has won plaudits for its aesthetics. Eero Sarrinen, the architect who designed the sweeping, contemporary lines of its original terminal said he wanted to “find the soul” of the airport, according to the Dulles website. He referred to it as “the best thing I have done.”
Sarrinen was praised by Trump earlier this week as “one of the greatest architects in the world,” calling his efforts at Dulles “a great building at a bad airport,” while teasing an “amazing plan” for the airport's reimagining.
For many, Dulles' main flaw, said van der Linden, is what made it original in the first place: it's reliance on the people-moving mobile lounges. Created by a partnership of Chrysler and train makers Budd Company, they could accommodate about 100 people. Today they're still in operation for international arrivals and Air Force flights.
“The problem was, among many, was the airport was great when it opened in 1962 and fine throughout the ‘60s, and then after deregulation, the traffic increased,” he said. “Those mobile lounges just weren't quite that useful anymore, and we needed ways to deal with it with increased traffic.”
Over the last 40 years, there's been a major push by aviation officials to modernize Dulles, van der Linden said. But until now, little progress has been made.
That could soon change if Trump delivers on this week's promise to “make it into as good as there is in the country.”
“It'll be exciting,” he added.
Dulles sudden elevation on Trump's to-do list comes after last month's incident when a mobile lounge crashed into a concourse, injuring 18 people. Other incidents have happened in the past, including one involving a Southwest Airlines ramp agent who was killed in 2012, according to The Washington Post.
It's unclear what Trump or the Department of Transportation wants to change about the “terrible” airport. In early October, Trump made an unplanned stop to Dulles, which the White House said was for the president to assess “potential future projects.”
The DOT submitted a request this week for information in approaching the design, financing and construction of a new terminal.
United Airlines, which uses Dulles as one of its hubs, released a statement in the wake of this week's comments from the administration. “We look forward to working with President Trump, Secretary Duffy, and FAA Administrator Bedford to continue to enhance the airport's infrastructure and operations in a meaningful and cost-effective way for the benefit of our customers and employees.”
Adding new facilities shouldn't be technically challenging, according to van der Linden.
“Dulles was built with an eye in the future back in 1962,” he said. It was built “so it could be expanded, because the land out there, there's lots of it, and you can add runways to it, which is a problem most airports have these days. They need more runways.”
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Annette Groos holds a sign before the start of a rally featuring former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025 for Indiana Democrats amid pressure from President Donald Trump on Republicans who control the state's legislature to redistrict congressional seats. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
Indiana Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, poses in her law office, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in LaGrange, Ind. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
Indiana Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, poses at his company's office, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Huntington, Ind. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
A general exterior view of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)
Spencer Deery's son was getting ready for school when someone tried to provoke police into swarming his home by reporting a fake emergency.
Linda Rogers said there were threats at her home and the golf course that her family has run for generations.
Jean Leising faced a pipe bomb scare that was emailed to local law enforcement.
The three are among roughly a dozen Republicans in the Indiana Senate who have seen their lives turned upside down while President Donald Trump pushes to redraw the state's congressional map to expand the party's power in the 2026 midterm elections.
It's a bewildering and frightening experience for lawmakers who consider themselves loyal party members and never imagined they would be doing their jobs under the same shadow of violence that has darkened American political life in recent years. Leising described it as “a very dangerous and intimidating process.”
Redistricting is normally done once a decade after a new national census. Trump wants to accelerate the process in hopes of protecting the Republicans' thin majority in the U.S. House next year. His allies in Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have already gone along with his plans for new political lines.
Now Trump's campaign faces its greatest test yet in a stubborn pocket of Midwestern conservatism. Although Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and the House of Representatives are on board, the proposal may fall short with senators who value their civic traditions and independence over what they fear would be short-term partisan gain.
“When you have the president of the United States and your governor sending signals, you want to listen to them,” said Rogers, who has not declared her position on the redistricting push. “But it doesn't mean you'll compromise your values.”
On Friday, Trump posted a list of senators who “need encouragement to make the right decision,” and the conservative campaign organization Turning Point Action said it would spend heavily to unseat anyone who voted “no.”
Senators are scheduled to convene Monday to consider the proposal after months of turmoil. Resistance could signal the limits of Trump's otherwise undisputed dominance of the Republican Party.
Deery considers himself lucky. The police in his hometown of West Lafayette knew the senator was a potential target for “swatting,” a dangerous type of hoax when someone reports a fake emergency to provoke an aggressive response from law enforcement.
So when Deery was targeted last month while his son and others were waiting for their daily bus ride to school, officers did not rush to the scene.
“You could have had SWAT teams driving in with guns out while there were kids in the area,” he said.
Deery was one of the first senators to publicly oppose the mid-decade redistricting, arguing it interferes with voters' right to hold lawmakers accountable through elections.
“The country would be an uglier place for it,” he said just days after Vice President JD Vance visited the state in August, the first of two trips to talk with lawmakers about approving new maps.
Republican leaders in the Indiana Senate said in mid-November that they would not hold a vote on the matter because there was not enough support for it. Trump lashed out on social media, calling the senators weak and pathetic.
“Any Republican that votes against this important redistricting, potentially having an impact on America itself, should be PRIMARIED,” he wrote.
The threats against senators began shortly after that.
Sen. Sue Glick, a Republican who was first elected in 2010 and previously served as a local prosecutor, said she has never seen “this kind of rancor” in politics in her lifetime. She opposes redistricting, saying “it has the taint of cheating.”
Not even the plan's supporters are immune to threats.
Republican Sen. Andy Zay said his vehicle-leasing business was targeted with a pipe bomb scare on the same day he learned that he would face a primary challenger who accuses Zay of being insufficiently conservative.
Zay, who has spent a decade in the Senate, believes the threat was related to his criticism of Trump's effort to pressure lawmakers. But the White House has not heeded his suggestions to build public support for redistricting through a media campaign.
“When you push us around and into a corner, we're not going to change because you hound us and threaten us,” Zay said. “For those who have made a decision to stand up for history and tradition, the tactics of persuasion do not embolden them to change their viewpoint.”
The White House did not respond to messages seeking a reaction to Zay's comments.
Trump easily won Indiana in all his presidential campaigns, and its leaders are unquestionably conservative. For example, the state was the first to restrict abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
But Indiana's political culture never became saturated with the sensibilities of Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement. Some 21% of Republican voters backed Nikki Haley over Trump in last year's presidential primary, even though the former South Carolina governor had already suspended her campaign two months earlier.
Trump also holds a grudge against Indiana's Mike Pence, who served the state as a congressman and governor before becoming Trump's first vice president. A devout evangelical, Pence loyally accommodated Trump's indiscretions and scandals but refused to go along with Trump's attempt on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn Democrat Joe Biden's victory.
“Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what was necessary,” Trump posted online after an angry crowd of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol.
Pence has not taken a public stance on his home state's redistricting effort. But the governor before him, Republican Mitch Daniels, recently said it was “clearly wrong.”
The proposed map, which was released Monday and approved by the state House on Friday, attempts to dilute the influence of Democratic voters in Indianapolis by splitting up the city. Parts of the capital would be grafted onto four different Republican-leaning districts, one of which would stretch all the way south to the border with Kentucky.
Rogers, the senator whose family owns the golf course, declined to discuss her feelings about the redistricting. A soft-spoken business leader from the suburbs of South Bend, she said she was “very disappointed” about the threats.
On Monday, Rogers will be front and center as a member of the Senate Elections Committee, the first one in that chamber to consider the redistricting bill.
“We need to do things in a civil manner and have polite discourse,” she said.
__
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Volmert from Lansing, Mich.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A second burial area for infants has been found at the site of a former so-called Mother and Baby home in western Ireland in what forensic experts said Friday marks a “significant” discovery in the ongoing excavation of the institution's grounds.
Nearly 800 infants and children died at the Tuam institution – run by the Bon Secours Sisters – over the course of 36 years. Their bodies are believed to have been disposed into a mass grave.
The discovery was made by local historian Catherine Corless in 2014, who found that 796 babies had died at the County Galway institution without burial records and that they had been placed in a decommissioned sewage tank.
This summer, an excavation overseen by the independent body Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention in Tuam (ODAIT), began.
In its latest update, ODAIT said that forensic experts found “consistent evidence” of the second burial ground.
“There were no surface or ground level indications of the possibility of a burial ground at this location prior to excavation,” it said.
Director Daniel MacSweeney told national broadcaster RTE Friday that the second burial area is about 50 to 100 meters away from the septic tank.
Since the excavation started in July, the remains of 11 infants have been found, including the bodies of four babies that were found last month, ODAIT said. Their remains have since been coffined and sent for forensic analysis.
MacSweeney said that 160 people have contacted ODAIT so far to offer their DNA to help identify the bodies. He has called upon other eligible family members to come forward to do the same.
The Tuam institution was one of dozens of “homes” where pregnant girls and unmarried women in Ireland were sent to give birth in secret for much of the 20th century.
Women were often forcibly separated from their children. Some infants were rehomed, in Ireland, the United Kingdom or as far away as the United States, Canada and Australia, but hundreds died and their remains discarded – their mothers often never knowing what truly happened to their babies.
In 2015, the Irish government set up an investigation into 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes, which found “significant quantities” of human remains on the Tuam site. The inquiry found an “appalling level of infant mortality” in the institutions and said that no alarm was raised by the state over them, even though it was “known to local and national authorities” and “recorded in official publications.”
Prior to 1960, mother and baby homes “did not save the lives of ‘illegitimate' children; in fact, they appear to have significantly reduced their prospects of survival,” it said. The state inquiry led to a formal government apology in 2021, the announcement of a redress scheme and an apology from the Sisters of Bon Secours.
As the excavation at Tuam continues, advocates and survivors are calling on the government to ensure that the other institutions are fully examined and investigated.
The forensic works at Tuam are expected to last for two years.
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you have information to share in relation to this story, ODAIT can be contacted here.
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The affordability crisis is a growth crisis.
I live in New York City, which fashions itself as many things: the financial capital of the world, the media capital of the world, and obviously, the bagel capital of the world. But I like to think of it as something else as well: the zero-sum capital of the world. Or at least, the US.
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The essential fact of life here is that more people want to live in New York than there are homes that we allow to exist. New Yorkers talk about the competition for apartments — or for slots in decent schools or tables at decent restaurants or virtually anything save tickets to your friend's improv show — as if it is a Hobbesian war of all against all.
It's not just New York. Once you start looking for that intuition, you see it everywhere. In arguments about immigration (“they're taking our jobs”), housing (“we're full”), college admissions, culture war skirmishes over who gets “replaced” and who gets “canceled,” the underlying picture is the same: If some group advances, someone else has to lose.
Social scientists have a name for this: zero-sum thinking, which is the belief that when one individual or group gains, it's usually coming at the expense of others. There's growing evidence that this mindset is now one of the quiet engines of political conflict in the US.
That sounds like bad news. But there's a more hopeful way to read this research: Zero-sum thinking is not a fixed feature of human nature. It responds to growth, to better institutions, and to the stories we tell about the economy.
And right now, our stories are more zero-sum than they should be.
At some level, zero-sum thinking is understandable. For most of human history, it was basically correct, as the chart below demonstrates.
Anthropologist George Foster argued that many peasant communities were organized around an “image of limited good”: land, wealth, status, even good luck were assumed to exist in fixed amounts, so any gain for one person was understood as a loss for someone else. The last two centuries of industrialization and technological innovation broke that logic; for the first time in history, large societies could become much richer over time, and most people's material standard of living could rise together.
In 2015, researcher Joanna Różycka-Tran and her colleagues developed a scale called “Belief in a Zero-Sum Game,” and administered it in 37 countries. They found big variation: Some societies strongly endorse the idea that social life is win-lose, others much less so. High zero-sum scores tend to show up in places like Angola or Mexico with histories of conflict, instability, and low growth — the kinds of conditions where the world really does feel like a fixed pie.
But what about the US, the richest country to ever exist? A recent paper by economists Sahil Chinoy and his colleagues tries to measure zero-sum thinking in the US today and link it to politics. They surveyed more than 20,000 Americans, asking how strongly they agreed with statements like “In the economy, when some people become rich, it must be at the expense of others.”
A few key patterns jump out from their data. Zero-sum beliefs tend to stay consistent across different subjects: people who see race relations as zero-sum also tend to see economic competition and immigration that way, suggesting this is more of a general worldview than a narrow, considered opinion on any one issue. Respondents who score higher on zero-sum thinking are more supportive of redistribution and affirmative action and more skeptical of immigration, even after you account for where they fall on the usual left-right ideological spectrum.
When the authors look across countries, they find that people who experienced faster economic growth between ages 18 and 25 are significantly less zero-sum decades later — a hint that maturing in an era of abundance, or the lack of it, leaves a lasting mark on how we think politics and the economy work. And that share appears to be growing.
Psychologist Shai Davidai recently ran 10 studies with more than 3,600 participants and found that when people perceive economic inequality as high — when the gap between rich and poor feels large, like, I don't know, in New York City — they become more likely to see success as zero-sum.
All this gets multiplied by living through a “vibecession”: years of headlines about economic crises layered on top of real problems in housing, childcare, and status competition for what feels like a fixed or shrinking number of elite slots. It's not hard to see how you get a generation that experiences the economy less as “how do we grow the pie?” and more as “which group stole my slice?”
Zero-sum thinking seems like it should go hand-in-hand with egalitarian politics. If you believe the rich got rich by taking from everyone else, you're probably more open to taxes and redistribution. And the data suggests that's broadly true: More zero-sum respondents are more supportive of economic and power redistribution.
At the same time, however, many of the same respondents are more skeptical of immigration and other policies that economists see as pro-growth, like free trade. That may be the biggest danger of a politics that leans too hard on zero-sum intuitions: it encourages us to fight over the division of the current pie at the expense of policies that would expand it.
If you're convinced the pie is fixed, you'll resist immigration, block new housing, and treat technological progress as a threat rather than a source of abundance — even when those are exactly the changes that would create more opportunity for everyone.
In a genuinely stagnant, low-growth world, this might be rational. But we are on the cusp of technologies — from AI to cheap clean energy — that could dramatically increase the size of the pie. Seeing that future through a zero-sum lens is like inheriting a pizza place and using it only to argue over the last slice of yesterday's pie. You need more pie!
Right now — as you will read again and again and again — America is in the grip of an affordability crisis. Putting aside the fact that our idea of what we should be able to “afford” has inflated along with prices and wages over the years, there's no doubt that the anger is very real, and that whichever party can best seize on the issue stands to win next November.
But what we think of as an affordability crisis is really a growth crisis. Not in the narrow sense that GDP isn't ticking up — it is — but in the sense that the parts of life people most viscerally care about, like housing and childcare and health care and college, are the parts where we've done the least to increase supply and productivity. Of course people start to think in zero-sum terms if the things they need most are rationed rather than expanded.
That's why growth matters so much more than a quarterly GDP number. When societies actually deliver sustained, broad-based gains in living standards, people learn, from experience, that it is possible for many groups to move forward at once. Generations that came of age in eras of strong growth really are less zero-sum decades late. Growth doesn't magically erase inequality or status competition, but it gives politics room to breathe.
A country that builds more housing, that uses technology to make essentials cheaper instead of just shinier, that treats immigration and innovation as ways to enlarge the pie rather than carve it up differently, is a country where zero-sum thinking slowly loses its grip.
New York will probably always feel a little like the zero-sum capital of the world; that's why if you make it here, you can make it anywhere. But if we can recognize how much of that scarcity is manmade, the easier it becomes to imagine a politics organized around adding slices to the pie, not just fighting over the last piece.
This series was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A worker shovels snow and ice in front of the Supreme Court building during the first snowfall of the winter season on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts has led the Supreme Court ‘s conservative majority on a steady march of increasing the power of the presidency, starting well before Donald Trump's time in the White House.
The justices could take the next step in a case being argued Monday that calls for a unanimous 90-year-old decision limiting executive authority to be overturned.
The court's conservatives, liberal Justice Elena Kagan noted in September, seem to be “raring to take that action.”
They already have allowed Trump, in the opening months of the Republican's second term, to fire almost everyone he has wanted, despite the court's 1935 decision in Humphrey's Executor that prohibits the president from removing the heads of independent agencies without cause.
The officials include Rebecca Slaughter, whose firing from the Federal Trade Commission is at issue in the current case, as well as officials from the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The only officials who have so far survived efforts to remove them are Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, and Shira Perlmutter, a copyright official with the Library of Congress. The court already has suggested that it will view the Fed differently from other independent agencies, and Trump has said he wants her out because of allegations of mortgage fraud. Cook says she did nothing wrong.
Humphrey's Executor has long been a target of the conservative legal movement that has embraced an expansive view of presidential power known as the unitary executive.
The case before the high court involves the same agency, the FTC, that was at issue in 1935. The justices established that presidents — Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt at the time — could not fire the appointed leaders of the alphabet soup of federal agencies without cause.
The decision ushered in an era of powerful independent federal agencies charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination, the air waves and much else.
Proponents of the unitary executive theory have said the modern administrative state gets the Constitution all wrong: Federal agencies that are part of the executive branch answer to the president, and that includes the ability to fire their leaders at will.
As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 1988 dissent that has taken on mythical status among conservatives, “this does not mean some of the executive power, but all of the executive power.”
Since 2010 and under Roberts' leadership, the Supreme Court has steadily whittled away at laws restricting the president's ability to fire people.
In 2020, Roberts wrote for the court that “the President's removal power is the rule, not the exception” in a decision upholding Trump's firing of the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau despite job protections similar to those upheld in Humphrey's case.
In the 2024 immunity decision that spared Trump from being prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Roberts included the power to fire among the president's “conclusive and preclusive” powers that Congress lacks the authority to restrict.
But according to legal historians and even a prominent proponent of the originalism approach to interpreting the Constitution that is favored by conservatives, Roberts may be wrong about the history underpinning the unitary executive.
“Both the text and the history of Article II are far more equivocal than the current Court has been suggesting,” wrote Caleb Nelson, a University of Virginia law professor who once served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.
Jane Manners, a Fordham University law professor, said she and other historians filed briefs with the court to provide history and context about the removal power in the country's early years that also could lead the court to revise its views. “I'm not holding my breath,” she said.
Slaughter's lawyers embrace the historians' arguments, telling the court that limits on Trump's power are consistent with the Constitution and U.S. history.
The Justice Department argues Trump can fire board members for any reason as he works to carry out his agenda and that the precedent should be tossed aside.
“Humphrey's Executor was always egregiously wrong,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.
A second question in the case could affect Cook, the Fed governor. Even if a firing turns out to be illegal, the court wants to decide whether judges have the power to reinstate someone.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote earlier this year that fired employees who win in court can likely get back pay, but not reinstatement.
That might affect Cook's ability to remain in her job. The justices have seemed wary about the economic uncertainty that might result if Trump can fire the leaders of the central bank. The court will hear separate arguments in January about whether Cook can remain in her job as her court case challenging her firing proceeds.
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The “Wicked” musical and its offshoot movies are meant to celebrate diversity and preach radical acceptance in the face of rising fascism. The protagonist, the witch Elphaba, is consistently misjudged for her bright green skin.
As “Wicked: For Good” has filled theaters and its publicity tour has circled the world, though, some fans have focused on a different matter of appearances: the women starring in the movie are really, really, really skinny — enough to draw attention and enthusiasm in the circles of the internet where users celebrate and promote eating disorders. Pictures of the “Wicked” leads, in strapless or backless red-carpet outfits that showcase their thinness, are shared as motivation for people to starve themselves or restrict eating.
Professional medical help and medication are often a vital part of the eating disorder recovery process. If you or a loved one are coping with an eating disorder, contact the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline for support at 866-662-1235.
“I need to know her BMI so bad,” wrote one Tumblr user, of Ariana Grande, who plays the good witch, Glinda.
“She's so goals,” wrote another user, along with a photo of Grande's exposed scapulas and upper chest from the “Wicked: For Good” premiere. Nearly 800 users liked the post.
Oona Hanson, a parent coach specializing in eating disorders, has had parents reach out over concern about the images, even if they or their kids are excited about the movie.
“Regardless of what the actual medical or health status is of these actresses, which we don't know, the ultra-thin images, I think, are very painful and can be triggering to someone who has, let's say, seen their child become emaciated from an eating disorder,” she said. “Or they know their child was looking at images that look a lot like these press tour photos.”
Contemporary culture holds that it's inappropriate to discuss the bodies, and especially the weight of the bodies, of public figures. Yet images of famous bodies are still globally marketed commodities, alongside all the shared social media photos of everyone else, and people have never stopped absorbing and responding to what they see.
And so, on and off social media, people are speculating about the apparent weight loss of Grande and her co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh, and debating its implications. Are they healthy? Is the movie safe for kids to watch? The actors themselves have not explicitly addressed the perceived change, although Grande pointedly reshared an interview from 2024 where she criticized constant speculation around her body, calling it “dangerous for all parties.”
If young people try to match what they're seeing, though, they risk being hazardously underfed themselves. As a movie marketed toward young people, around a holiday season centered on food, “Wicked: For Good” has found itself at the center of a national conversation about weight loss, eating disorders (or ED), and the endless pursuit of thinness.
“We can't just keep saying it's not your body, you can't comment on it, when not commenting on it is leading to a rise in ED culture, a rise in restrictive eating, a rise in literally just everyone wanting to be smaller,” musician Teniola Keck, who previously struggled with disordered eating, said on TikTok.
Hollywood has always had a love affair with thinness, but by the 2010s, society seemed to be changing. People embraced the ideas of “body positivity” and “body neutrality” — entertainers come in all shapes in sizes, ad campaigns and media prioritize diverse body types, and resisting the urge to comment on a person's weight has become commonplace.
None of that seemed to stop the pendulum from swinging. Coinciding with the rise of GLP-1 medications, skinny is now in. On fashion runways, fewer than 1 percent of looks presented in the recent season were on models considered plus-size. The weight-loss hashtag #SkinnyTok has gone viral; celebrities are mysteriously shrinking before our eyes. Serena Williams, whose athletic build made her both a target of disparagement and an exemplar of physical excellence during her career, has begun promoting GLP-1s for weight loss in retirement, calling it “health care.”
All of this has left people constantly, fervently talking about bodies without even being able to agree about how to talk about bodies. After losing weight, singer Meghan Trainor — who became famous in 2014 for “bringing booty back” — released a song called “Still Don't Care” earlier this month, seemingly addressing the contention: “That's the same sh*t I've heard my whole life / Said I was too thick, then I got way too thin.” That her lyrics mirror Britney Spears' “Piece of Me” from 2007 only underscores the cyclical nature of our culture's weight obsession.
Other entertainers have had more nuanced responses. Days after Trainor released her new song, Lizzo wrote about how her own body was changing, after she found exercise and Pilates in the midst of severe depression. In a public newsletter, she grappled with the timing of it all, going through her own weight loss for her own reasons when “extended sizes are being magically erased from websites. Plus sized models are no longer getting booked for modeling gigs. And all of our big girls are not-so big anymore.”
Still, Lizzo wrote, if women want to change, they should be allowed to change, even as society has “a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the ozempic boom.”
It is this conversation that the “Wicked” cast landed at the center of. People can want to change their bodies. People can change their bodies. But what happens when that change is potentially harmful to others? How does anyone discuss it? Should anyone discuss it?
Talking about people's bodies can be a trigger for those struggling with eating disorders, said Brianna Campos, a body image coach and therapist; the rampant media attention and before and after photos of the cast only add to that.
That the conversation is about their bodies more than about their performances in the movie shows how relentless the social forces focusing on women's appearances are, Campos said. Diet culture masquerading as health and wellness profits from people obsessing over their weight.
“Unless we fit the super unrealistic standard of what society says for us, you can't win. There is actually no winning,” Campos said.
For Alexa Cohen, a mental health counselor for patients struggling with eating disorders, the stars' bodies were all she could think about while watching “Wicked: For Good.” As a person in recovery herself, she noticed the way the movie seemingly emphasized Grande's figure. For her patients, even those that have only seen the discourse online, seeing these “really thin and malnourished characters” be idolized can trigger their own illnesses — especially given that the actors looked different before.
“I think seeing that change for them can set them back a little bit,” Cohen said. “Seeing that that can happen to somebody's body, and that they want it to happen to their body.”
Studies show that eating disorders have skyrocketed since the beginning of the pandemic, said Jason Nagata, professor of pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco and adolescent eating disorder specialist. At his hospital in San Francisco, hospitalizations and referrals for eating disorders doubled. Even if not diagnosed with an eating disorder, about two-thirds of teenagers nationally are trying to change their weight or change their appearance somehow, Nagata said. Despite surface-level shifts, body dissatisfaction is “widespread.” Media is part of that.
“Media portrayals matter, and are actually one of the biggest influences that we know, in the eating disorders field, to anyone's body image,” Nagata said. “But I think that teenagers and young adults are particularly susceptible.”
As so many celebrities embrace GLP-1s for weight loss — either quietly or publicly — or just suddenly appear smaller, our culture's desire to be skinny is exposed again, even as our rhetoric had seemingly shifted. As with “Wicked,” that larger trend has also dragged discussion of bodies back into the forefront. The entertainment industry has always put pressure on performers to look a certain way. Those in the public eye are not immune to society's subliminal, and now not-so-subliminal, messaging about bodies. None of us are.
“There's always going to be talk,” Cohen said. “But I feel like it's constant now.”
In a world that's so anti-fat, decisions around weight don't happen in a vacuum, Hanson said. When constantly being told your body is wrong, is not desirable, or is not worthy of care or respect, it's hard to say changing weight is a truly individual choice.
“Our preferences and desires are shaped by our culture,” Hanson said. “It's really hard to tease apart what you actually want for your own body versus what the culture is telling you you have to achieve, in order to have access to all these things that we promise people if they look a certain way.”
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Hollywood legendary actor Lorenzo Lamas endorses Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco for California governor after he says Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a "devastating" impact on the state.
EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood icon Lorenzo Lamas is endorsing a pro-law enforcement Republican for California governor after he says that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a "devastating" impact on the state.
Lamas, who is best known for his action roles in the 80's and 90's, told Fox News Digital he is endorsing Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco for governor, saying, "The impact on the state of California with the current [Newsom] administration is nothing short of devastating."
Lamas said that "over the years I've been very careful about voicing an opinion politically," noting that "sometimes it can affect who you work for, depending on a company's or studio's political point of view."
"But I think we're at a point now, not just in California, but I think nationwide, that we have to start at least voicing what we feel is wrong with what's happening," he explained.
UFC LEGEND ENDORSES PRO-LAW ENFORCEMENT PICK FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: 'WE NEED HIS STRENGTH
Riverside Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco (left) received an endorsement from Hollywood star Lorenzo Lamas (right) for California governor. (Gilbert Flores via Getty; Chad Bianco campaign)
Lamas said he was motivated to finally speak out after long watching his home state be mismanaged despite its enormous economy and abundant natural resources. He described the Democratic Party's grip on California as "a sickness that's permeated the state from the top to the bottom."
"We have to figure out what we're going to do with the people that are disenfranchised and living on the streets, the programs that supposedly are budgeted for these folks, where is that money? … There's nobody that's accounting for the millions of dollars that are spent on welfare programs that's not benefiting anybody that can use it," he said.
Regarding the several devastating natural disasters the state has experienced in recent years, Lamas said, "I grew up in Pacific Palisades, that fire devastated my hometown. The home I grew up in burned down. My elementary school burned down. Why? Because not enough budget was allocated to resources to fight the fire."
"Not only that, the people that lost their homes in the Palisades. Many of them were second, third generation people. They cannot afford to rebuild in the city that they grew up in, the city that they came to love. Why? Well, because, hey, guess what? It takes years to get rebuilding plans approved. There's just so much red tape, so much bureaucracy, and Chad wants to just eliminate it."
ERIC SWALWELL ANNOUNCES RUN FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR, VOWS TO BE 'PROTECTOR AND FIGHTER'
The aftermath of fire in Pacific Palisades and along Pacific Coast Highway. (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images))
"I've watched the wealthiest state in the nation become completely mismanaged by the current administration," he went on. "It's just it's beyond the pale what's happened to my state."
Meanwhile, Lamas said that he believes Bianco, who has framed his candidacy around cost of living and public safety issues, "is the man that can really turn this thing around."
"We've got to have a governor that's pro-law enforcement, that's going to keep our moms and our daughters safe on the streets," he said, explaining, "I have two daughters that live in Los Angeles, and there I tell them, every single day [that] their heads got to be on a swivel. You see all the crime that's rampant, not just in California, but all around the country. It's permeating this beautiful nation of ours, and it really makes me sick."
Bianco is facing a steep uphill battle to win as a Republican in deep blue California. It has been nearly two decades since a Republican won a statewide race. On the Democratic side of the aisle, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and former Rep. Katie Porter, both progressives and vocal critics of President Donald Trump, are running to replace Newsom, who is term-limited.
HALLE BERRY STUNS CROWD BY CRITICIZING GAVIN NEWSOM, SAYS HE 'PROBABLY SHOULD NOT BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT'
Sheriff Chad Bianco of Riverside County speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 15, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
On whether he believes California is ready to send a Republican to the governor's mansion, Lamas answered, "What I see in Chad is a tremendous gift of being able to present his agenda with a commonsense foundation, and that's going to appeal to anybody with half of a brain."
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"Last November 6th, America voted for commonsense. And I think it's time that California votes for commonsense, and the only person that I really feel can bring that to our state is Chad Bianco."
A spokesperson for Newsom brushed off Lamas' criticism, sending Fox News Digital a one-word response, simply asking, "Who?"
Bianco has also been endorsed by UFC legends Royce Gracie and Dan Henderson.
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been conspicuously absent from Washington since her shock announcement that she would step down from Congress, missing a full week's worth of votes as she prepares for an early retirement.
Greene, who announced her resignation last month amid a messy political divorce from President Donald Trump, has missed all nine roll-call votes taken since lawmakers returned from a Thanksgiving recess on Monday. By contrast, she was present for every vote the week before the House left town and had only missed a handful this year.
A spokesman did not return a request for comment on whether Greene would be in Washington next week or for the rest of December. However, with just eight legislative days remaining before lawmakers leave again for Christmas, her absence has frustrated Republicans who already felt she was abandoning the party.
Greene is resigning on Jan. 5, a full year before the end of the current Congress and weeks before Republicans' House majority is shaved down to almost zero due to a handful of special elections next year.
“When you run for office, you have an obligation to fulfill your term,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) previously told the Washington Examiner. He is one of three dozen House members to announce their departure at the end of next year, and Bacon had briefly considered retiring early himself.
The date Greene chose to resign also drew criticism, as it was three days after the qualifying date for a government pension.
Greene, a conservative firebrand who often clashes with leadership, has not entirely avoided the political spotlight, sitting for a soon-to-air interview with CBS's 60 Minutes in which she discussed her falling out with Trump.
On social media, she egged on Rep. Elise Stefanik's (R-NY) very public fight with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and will next week be speaking with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), another House rabble-rouser who denied reports that she may follow Greene into early retirement.
In her home district, Greene appeared for a public hearing Thursday night to denounce the construction of a bio-energy facility she cast as a “shady land deal.” In introducing herself to the audience, Greene said she was there in her “official capacity” as a lawmaker.
Greene is one of six members, two Republicans and four Democrats, to miss every House vote this week, according to a tally by longtime correspondent Jamie Dupree. One of them, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), has been on paternity leave after the birth of his first child.
Greene's shrinking footprint on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, follows an escalating set of clashes with Trump, who threatened to run a primary challenge against her next year for bucking him repeatedly on policy.
HILL REPUBLICANS KEEP BREAKING WITH TRUMP AS LAME DUCK CHATTER GROWS
For years, Greene was one of Trump's most loyal foot soldiers in Washington, but says she became disenchanted by his military interventions abroad.
“It's all so absurd and completely unserious,” Greene said in announcing her retirement on Nov. 21. “I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better.”
She is departing Washington shortly after leading a successful effort to force the release of the Epstein files, which Trump opposed until performing an about-face once it became clear the bill would pass.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Longtime broadcaster Ed Randall is working with some of the biggest names in sports to raise cancer awareness.
A teenage girl who spent her final years advocating for young people battling cancer is forever memorialized in history, thanks to a key bill passed by the House of Representatives.
Mikaela Naylon was just 16 when she died five years after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who helped lead the landmark legislation that became her namesake, said Mikaela spent much of that time fighting to give fellow children a chance to survive cancer.
He told Fox News Digital that he viewed childhood cancer patients as "the best advocates" for their cause, calling them his "better angels."
TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO HARNESS AI IN FIGHT AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCERS
The House of Representatives memorialized Mikaela Naylon on Monday after she passed away following a five-year battle with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. (Naylon Family)
"Mikaela was a great example of that," McCaul said. "She was very sick. She'd just undergone radiation and chemotherapy. She wasn't feeling very well, and I could tell. But she still made the effort to come to Washington, to go to members' offices and advocate for the legislation."
The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act is aimed at expanding children's access to existing cancer therapy trials, as well as incentivizing development of treatments and solutions for pediatric cancer.
It reauthorizes funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support pediatric disease research through fiscal year 2027, and extends the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ability to expedite review of drugs aimed at helping certain pediatric illnesses.
FORMER NBA STAR TEAMS UP WITH GOP LAWMAKER TO HELP YOUNG CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM STUTTERING DISORDER
"It's probably one of the most rewarding things I've done is to not only draw awareness to childhood cancer by forming the [Childhood Cancer Caucus] and then having an annual summit, but to be able to pass legislation that results in saving children's lives. I don't think there's anything more important than that," McCaul said.
Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, walks off the floor after the House of Representatives failed to elect a new Speaker of the House on the first round of votes at the U.S. Capitol Building on Oct. 17, 2023. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
His bill passed the House unanimously on Monday, with both Republicans and Democrats speaking out in strong support for the legislation.
Mikaela's family was in attendance to watch both its passage and the speeches lawmakers gave in favor of it.
"Nothing will take the place of her. But it helped fill kind of a void, an emptiness they have right now. And they're very proud of that, that her legacy is carried on through this legislation," McCaul, who also gave the Naylon family a tour of the U.S. Capitol, said.
Mikaela's parents Kassandra and Doug, and her brother Ayden, told Fox News Digital that she had "faced every day with hope, purpose and a fierce determination to make the world better for the kids who would come after her."
The U.S. Capitol Building pictured at sunset on Jan. 30, 2025. (Emma Woodhead/Fox News Digital)
"She believed that all children, no matter how rare their diagnosis, deserve access to the most promising treatments and a real chance at life. This legislation reflects that mission," the Naylon family told Fox News Digital.
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They thanked McCaul as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., for championing the bill, as well as advocacy groups who also helped shepherd it forward.
"Their commitment ensures that Mikaela‘s voice, and the voices of so many brave children like her, will forever be heard in the halls of Congress," the family said.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
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A high school senior was charged with federal arson after allegedly setting fire to a sleeping subway passenger in New York early Monday morning.
Hiram Carrero, 18, is accused of arson resulting in injury after authorities said he lit a piece of paper and dropped it near a 56-year-old man aboard a northbound 3 train passing 34th Street–Penn Station, the Department of Justice said Friday.
The victim then stumbled onto the platform at 42nd Street–Times Square, where his legs and torso can be seen ignited, according to surveillance images attached in the release.
Police extinguished the flames, and the victim was hospitalized in critical condition.
Carrero briefly boarded the train before fleeing and taking a bus to Harlem, according to a criminal complaint. He was arrested Thursday in Harlem, where his attorneys said he lives with his disabled mother and acts as her primary caregiver, according to the Associated Press.
This case is the latest of a string of attacks in public transport in US cities in recent years, with victims intentionally set ablaze, notably in New York and Chicago, including train workers.
US District Judge Valerie E. Caproni ordered Carrero detained, citing the “heinousness of the crime,” after prosecutors appealed another magistrate's decision to release him to home confinement under his mother's supervision, the AP reported.
Carrero was not required to enter a plea during his arraignment in Manhattan federal court. His mother attended the arraignment but declined to speak to reporters, the AP added.
She was set on fire and no one knows her name. How homelessness, crime and a broken immigration system met in a subway car
Carrero's lawyer, Jennifer Brown, acknowledged “the allegations are extremely serious,” but argued he is a “very young man with no (criminal record) and a mother willing to take him in.”
“The New York City subway is the heart of our City, with millions of people who live and work here relying on it every day,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. “New Yorkers have the right to be safe and feel safe when they ride the subway, and our Office is committed to that result.”
“This attack is among the most serious acts of violence a person can commit, and it has no place in our city—above or below ground,” New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch added.
If convicted, Carrero faces a minimum of seven years in prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 4. The case is being prosecuted federally because it was investigated by a federal task force and does not involve state charges.
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Federal agents deployed during the Trump administration's law enforcement surge in American cities have shot two Christian clergy members in the head with chemicals or projectiles. One was meditating while holding a sign, and the other had his arms outstretched in prayer. The administration says both were among groups of protesters impeding law enforcement.
Other protesters have been shoved to the ground by immigration or border agents, been chased after taunting them, or had their phones snatched away. One person wearing an animal costume was pepper sprayed while trying to assist someone who had fallen. Another person was detained by local police after trolling National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, by playing “The Imperial March” from Star Wars.
President Donald Trump says his crime and immigration crackdown, which hit New Orleans and the Twin Cities in Minnesota in recent days, is meant to address “anarchy,” describing Democrat-led cities as violent warzones that demanded a militarized response.
But in several of those cities, federal agents deployed by the president have detained, chased, shoved, sprayed or shot with projectiles people who seemed to be protesting peacefully. In a couple of cases, state or local authorities have taken the unusual step of investigating the federal agents' actions.
CNN has reviewed more than a dozen videos posted to social media that show federal officers, primarily working for the Department of Homeland Security, manhandling people who did not appear to be posing an immediate threat. The videos are snapshots and don't necessarily capture all of the circumstances before and after the confrontations.
DHS has consistently defended its officers' tactics against protesters, whom they accuse of trespassing, assaulting officers or otherwise disobeying orders. The administration has also highlighted threats to law enforcement personnel who are doing their jobs.
Since this summer, several DHS facilities have been targeted with gunfire. The agency also says its officers have had to contend with threats and doxxing against them and their families.
In Washington, DC, just before Thanksgiving, two members of the West Virginia National Guard deployed in the nation's capital as part of Trump's crackdown were shot while patrolling their streets. One later died from her injuries. The motivation of the alleged shooter, an Afghan who entered the US in 2021 after previously working with US military forces in Afghanistan, is not yet known.
“Despite these grave threats and dangerous situations our law enforcement is put in they show incredible restraint in exhausting all options before any kind of non-lethal force is used,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
Michael Hughes, the executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which advocates for officers working for DHS and other federal agencies, said during a congressional hearing this week that “constructive criticism of law enforcement is healthy, and accountability is essential.”
“But,” he added, “what we are seeing today from some public figures, segments of the media and even some elected officials is not accountability, it is vilification.”
In the cases CNN has reviewed, individual protesters who DHS detained or shot with projectiles, after accusing them of being part of groups that assaulted or impeded officers, weren't charged with crimes.
Some were issued citations for disobeying orders, which requires a lower standard of proof than a criminal charge.
As aggressive ICE tactics are caught on camera, the government says agents are being smeared
“There's just been video after video of excessive force — tackling people immediately, raids on apartment buildings,” said Katherine Hawkins, a senior legal analyst at the Project on Government Oversight who focuses on accountability at the Department of Homeland Security. “There's just rampant violations of constitutional rights.”
“It's alarming, and it seems to be spreading from one city to the next,” she added.
DHS said their officers “are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and themselves.”
Some of the protesters said they believed they were targeted because they had been a regular presence at protests outside of federal immigration facilities and had begun to annoy officers.
Increasingly intense confrontations have erupted since Trump ordered the surge of law enforcement and troops in American cities earlier this summer. Federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations often contend with incensed members of the public who follow and record them, and some of these confrontations have escalated into incidents of agents being rammed by cars or having bottles or rocks thrown at them.
But the incidents reviewed by CNN mostly involve protests outside of detention facilities, not during immigration operations which can quickly turn unpredictable and volatile when people try to interfere with arrests.
It can be difficult to hold federal agents legally accountable for their actions. They are now often masked and lack any markings that would make it easy to identify them. And a series of recent Supreme Court decisions — including two that involved incidents at the border — have severely limited the ability of people to sue federal law enforcement officers for excessive force claims.
In Broadview, Illinois, federal agents were captured on video shooting a Presbyterian minister, Rev. David Black, repeatedly with pepper balls while he was praying outside an immigration detention facility before later spraying him in the face while he and other protesters were facing off against officers.
“There was no warning for any of these things,” he later told CNN.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Black and other protesters were blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving the facility — even though video does not appear to show any vehicle attempting to leave at the time he was shot.
“Over and over again, law enforcement ordered these agitators to move off of federal property so the vehicle could move. Law enforcement verbally warned these agitators that they would use force if they did not move and stop impeding operations,” McLaughlin said. “They did not comply.”
Black joined a lawsuit against DHS that seeks to challenge the force used by officers. A federal judge issued orders limiting the kinds of force that can be used against protesters and demanding federal officers wear body cameras during their operations.
In Colorado, state authorities said they are investigating an incident in which an agent in Durango appeared to snatch a phone out of the hands of a woman who was recording him.
McLaughlin said in response to that incident: “Anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties will face consequences, which could include arrest.”
City and state officials in New Orleans, California and New York have all launched portals that encourage residents to document and submit instances of federal law enforcement acting violently or abusing their authority.
While most of these incidents involved departments under DHS, in Washington, DC, a man was detained by local police and accused of harassing members of the National Guard while walking behind them and playing “The Imperial March” from Star Wars. He has filed a lawsuit arguing his civil rights were violated.
Seth Todd didn't intend for his inflatable frog suit to become a symbol of resistance against Trump's crackdown. Todd began wearing it earlier this summer to boost the mood in Portland, which for months had been hosting consistent but mostly peaceful protests outside of an immigration detention facility.
“I think I have been a constant annoyance to them since the beginning, especially in my frog suit,” he said.
In early October, Todd was part of a crowd that was being pushed out of the facility's driveway. During a brief clash between protesters and police, a person fell to the ground, and Todd paused to help them up.
Video shows an agent spraying directly into Todd's costume's air vent from behind.
“I couldn't tell you why I was targeted,” Todd said. “I just think I was an easy target, because the air vent's right there. It's such an easy way to get somebody.”
DHS did not respond to questions about the incident involving Todd.
President Donald Trump has called Portland “a war zone” and threatened to send in National Guard troops to restore order. In response, more and more protesters are showing up in inflatable animal costumes to protest federal immigration enforcement operations in the city. CNN spoke to some of the protesters to hear why they are wearing the costumes.
Other videos showed agents appearing to go out of their way to shove protesters outside of the Portland facility. At the beginning of one video, federal officials are seen approaching a protester who was shouting at officers from behind and shoving him to the ground in an August incident.
The protester, a veteran named Daryn Herzberg, told local media he was briefly taken into custody before being cited for failing to comply with officers' orders. Herzberg has sued DHS, which in a statement said Herzberg is “well-known for acts of violence” outside the facility, including throwing rocks and “shouting inappropriate phrases.”
CNN has reached out to Herzberg for comment.
Wearing a blue thong over a giraffe onesie and his ear covered by a menstrual pad, another man, Rob Potylo, knew he looked ridiculous while trolling federal agents outside the same facility.
That was the whole point. The comedian — known professionally as Robby Roadsteamer — says he fights “absurdity with absurdity” as part of his act, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
“It's like judo,” he told CNN. “You reverse the energies back onto them, and I find usually, at that point, they're the ones that are looking bad.”
While protesting outside the Portland detention facility in mid-October, Potylo was hit several times with pepper balls fired by federal officers who were guarding the facility. At one point, video showed, he was singing an anti-ICE song to the tune of Rod Stewart's “Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?” when three officers wearing military fatigues and body armor walked out of the facility, grabbed Potylo, and marched him inside.
DHS has said Potylo was trespassing. Potylo said he did not enter federal property until he was dragged onto it.
Potylo was given a citation for failing to comply with the orders of a law enforcement officer. He has retained a lawyer and is considering legal action.
He says he defused the tension by joking around with the federal officers detaining him — some of whom were familiar with his act.
“A lot of the ICE agents knew my catalogue surprisingly too well,” he said.
CNN's Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.
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Former President Joe Biden urged elected officials, leaders and advocates to "continue the fight" for equality at the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. (via AP)
Former President Joe Biden said, "We're the United States of Amerigotit" in his latest gaffe during a speech on Friday at the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.
Biden was urging elected officials, leaders and advocates to "continue the fight" for equality when he slurred his words.
"We just have to get up. As long as we keep the faith … and remember who the hell we are. We're the United States of Amerigotit, that's who we are! We're the U.S.!" Biden said.
‘THIS GUY': SLURRING BIDEN TAKES SHOT AT TRUMP, THOSE TRYING TO ‘ERASE OUR HISTORY' AT JUNETEENTH CHURCH EVENT
Former President Joe Biden delivering a speech at the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. (AP)
Biden continued to affirm that it is time to "fight back" and protect the Constitution in the face of the Trump administration's policies and actions.
"All of us are dismayed by the present state of the union," he added. "This is no time to give up. It's time to get up. Get up and fight back. Get up. Continue to fight. And what's the fight all about? ... it's about protecting the Constitution. It's about protecting the Constitution."
TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON VOIDING BIDEN AUTOPEN ACTIONS, INCLUDING PARDONS AND COMMUTATIONS
Former President Joe Biden called on elected officials, leaders and advocates to "continue the fight" for equality. (AP)
The former president accused President Donald Trump and his loyalists of attempting to "distort and derail our fight for equality" and "further divide the country." He continued, "They're trying to turn it into something scary, something sinister. But folks, it's really not about anything that's all that complicated. At its core, it's about making every American given the opportunity to be treated with basic decency, dignity, and respect they all deserve. That's what every single American deserves, every American."
Former President Joe Biden accused President Donald Trump of attempting to "further divide the country." (AP)
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Biden was awarded the Chris Abele Impact Award during the event for his role in advancing LGBTQ+ rights during his administration.
The award was named after LGBTQ+ Victory Action board member Chris Abele.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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In their most significant move so far, the newly appointed US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisers voted Friday to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns, a massive shift in US immunization policy that experts say will lead to increased illness.
Hepatitis B vaccination has been recommended for all infants in the US since 1991, a move that helped slash infections in children from an estimated 18,000 cases per year to about 20. The current CDC vaccine schedule recommends the first dose at birth, a second dose at 1 month or 2 months, and a third at 6 months to 15 months.
On Friday, members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, voted 8-3 to instead recommend shared decision-making with health care providers for mothers who test negative for the virus and are deciding when to have their children vaccinated against hepatitis B, including at birth. If the vaccine isn't given at birth, they suggest waiting until a child is at least 2 months old.
The advisers voted 6-4 in favor of testing children for immunity to hepatitis B when parents and health care providers are determining whether the child might need subsequent vaccine doses. A resolution aligning these recommendations with the federal Vaccines for Children program was also approved 8-0.
The sitting committee members were chosen earlier this year by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, after he ousted the previous 17 advisers. Many of the new members have expressed anti-vaccine sentiments of their own, but not all agreed with Friday's changes.
“We are doing harm by changing this wording,” said Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrician at Dartmouth University who voted against the first two recommendations, on shared decision-making and immunity testing before subsequent doses.
His remarks were echoed by Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist: “This has a great potential to cause harm, and I simply hope that the committee will accept its responsibility when this harm is caused.”
Dr. Retsef Levi, another ACIP member who is a management professor at MIT, said the new recommendations are intended to put more choice in the hands of parents. “I think that the intention behind these that parents should carefully think about whether they want to take the risk of giving another vaccine to their child, and many, many of them might decide that they want to wait far more than two months, maybe years and maybe up to adulthood. I think that's going to be up to them and their physician.”
The recommendations now go to acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill, who will decide whether to approve or reject them. The agency typically aligns with its advisers' votes.
Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by an extremely infectious virus. It's transmitted through blood or genital fluids from an infected person and can be passed easily during childbirth from a woman to her child during either a vaginal delivery or C-section. However, it can also spread through bites or scratches, such as when children are playing.
After an acute hepatitis B infection, many adults clear the virus. But acute infection can lead to chronic hepatitis B, which is linked to increased risk of liver cancer, organ failure and cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver. People with chronic hepatitis B are 70% to 85% more likely to die early.
Infants and children who are infected with hepatitis B are more likely to develop chronic disease, including about 90% of infants and 30% of children ages 1 to 5.
The new votes should not change the availability of hepatitis B vaccines, and insurers and officials said that even if O'Neill signs off on the changes, parents who want to get their children vaccinated against hepatitis B will still be able to do so at no cost.
Rather, the shifting approach will create confusion that could have serious consequences, experts say.
The wording of ACIP's recommendations will signal to providers that there's something risky about the vaccine even though it has been shown to be “exquisitely low risk” over decades of testing and widespread use, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
“What this really means is that the providers are going to be confused and the patients are going to be confused, and very often, what confusion means is the wrong medical decision,” Daskalakis told CNN on Friday.
Meissner said he hopes pediatricians will continue to vaccinate newborns before they leave the hospital.
“I think to follow any other course is not in the interest of the infant,” he said. “There is no evidence of harm, and there's no reason to think that the outcome would be different if the vaccine were administered at 2 months of age instead of 1 month of age, except for, there will be more children who will be injured, who will catch the infection.”
Ex-CDC official: ‘No new science' behind vaccine change
Daskalakis said providers shouldn't “listen to ACIP at all.”
Instead, they should heed the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and other groups “actually giving good advice,” he said.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America continues to recommend routine hepatitis B vaccination for newborns, as does the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“This irresponsible and purposely misleading guidance will lead to more hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” AAP President Dr. Susan J. Kressly said in a statement. “I want to reassure parents and clinicians that there is no new or concerning information about the hepatitis B vaccine that is prompting this change, nor has children's risk of contracting hepatitis B changed. Instead, this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
The American Medical Association urged O'Neill to reject the recommendations.
“The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice's (ACIP) vote to weaken the birth-dose recommendation for the Hepatitis B vaccine is reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, lifesaving vaccine,” Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, an AMA trustee and liaison to the CDC advisory committee, said in a statement. “Today's action is not based on scientific evidence, disregards data supporting the effectiveness of the Hepatitis B vaccine, and creates confusion for parents about how best to protect their newborns.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy — the Republican doctor who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and who cast a pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary — also said Friday that O'Neill should not sign off on the new recommendations.
“As a liver doctor who has treated patients with hepatitis B for decades, this change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake,” Cassidy posted on X.
“The hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective. The birth dose is a recommendation, NOT a mandate,” he noted. “Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker. Acting CDC Director O'Neill should not sign these new recommendations and instead retain the current, evidence-based approach.”
Friday's agenda included another unusual moment: a presentation on the current vaccine schedule for children and teens from Aaron Siri, managing partner of a law firm that focuses on suing federal agencies and states over vaccine policies. It also represents patients who believe they've been injured by vaccines before the federal government's vaccine injury compensation program. Siri, a close friend of Kennedy's, worked on his presidential campaign.
In a lengthy presentation, Siri detailed the history of the US childhood vaccine schedule, often criticizing what he said was a lack of robust clinical trials and insufficient data to understand safety. He also criticized a relative lack of research into injuries people believe they've experienced as a result of vaccines and said drugmakers have “effective immunity for vaccine harms and claims.”
Meissner said Siri's presentation was “a terrible, terrible distortion of all the facts.”
“First of all, you began with slides that showed the increase in the number of vaccines that are been administered,” Meissner said. “What was your point?”
Meissner said the growth in the vaccine schedule is a reflection of scientific accomplishment, not a detriment to health.
“That's why we have the lowest rates of infectious disease in the United States, because we have the highest uptake of vaccines,” Meissner said. “And if vaccine uptake goes down, we're going to see an increase of these diseases, such as with hepatitis B, which I think is going to happen now.”
He added that just because someone had a health problem around the time they got a vaccine doesn't mean the two are related, but Siri seemed to conflate association with causation, “which isn't fair.”
“You're very smooth. You know how to present the facts that are favorable to you or to your client. That's your responsibility,” he added. “But for you to come here and make these absolutely outrageous statements about safety, I think it's a big disappointment to me, and I don't think you should have been invited.”
Siri said the United States doesn't do a good job of acknowledging and helping people who've been harmed by vaccines.
“I totally understand that an infectious disease doctor every day is confronted by folks who are harmed by infectious disease. So I understand that they are more oriented towards that,” Siri told Meissner. “And obviously for me, I every day have encountered folks who are injured by these products. And so obviously I'm more oriented to that. I accept that bias, by the way.”
Siri added that vaccine-injured patients deserve to be recognized. “Until they are recognized, treated well, accepted by medical community, don't have nasty notes put in their files … That's just going to continue to grow vaccine hesitancy in this precious program … that you're worried about. It's going to be its own undoing.”
In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Donald Trump said the vaccine committee “made a very good decision” to change the hepatitis B recommendation — then zeroed in on the rest of the childhood vaccine schedule.
“In fact, it is ridiculous! Many parents and scientists have been questioning the efficacy of this ‘schedule,' as have I!” he posted. “That is why I have just signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ‘FAST TRACK' a comprehensive evaluation of Vaccine Schedules from other Countries around the World, and better align the U.S. Vaccine Schedule, so it is finally rooted in the Gold Standard of Science and COMMON SENSE!”
Already Friday, Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg — named this week as acting director of the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — compared the US vaccine schedule to that of Denmark, a country of only 6 million people and a different health care system.
“I think one of the reasons Denmark may do a better job at making their vaccine recommendations is, it's not a politicized discussion,” said Hoeg, a dual citizen of the US and Denmark. She described a multiparty system, culture of debate and strong acknowledgment of knowns and unknowns.
Denmark's schedule is simpler, with fewer vaccines and thus less aluminum exposure, she noted.
For decades, aluminum has been used as a vaccine adjuvant – an ingredient added to create a stronger immune response. It's used in several childhood vaccines because they allow doctors to give fewer doses of a vaccine and a smaller amount of the vaccine is needed to protect the child.
Kennedy has argued that aluminum in vaccines is linked to allergies and other health conditions, despite broad evidence that using aluminum-containing adjuvants in vaccines is safe.
In the final presentation of the day, ACIP member Dr. Evelyn Griffin also described how aluminum is used in vaccines. She raised discussion questions about lower-aluminum formulations and whether vaccines that contain aluminum should be administered on the same day.
Griffin urged the committee to create a work group focusing on vaccine adjuvants and possibly other ingredients.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Demonstrators hold signs asking for the release of the Epstein files during a “No Kings” protest in downtown Las Vegas Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Steve Marcus /Las Vegas Sun via AP)
Today's live updates have ended. Read what you missed below and find more coverage at apnews.com.
A federal judge on Friday gave the Justice Department permission to release transcripts of a grand jury investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of underage girls in Florida — a case that ultimately ended without any federal charges being filed against the millionaire sex offender.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said a recently passed federal law ordering the release of records related to the cases overrode a federal rule prohibiting the release of matters before a grand jury.
The law signed last month by President Donald Trump compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to release later this month the vast troves of material they have amassed during investigations into Epstein.
When the documents will be released is unknown. The government had asked the court for permission to include the usually secret grand jury records in the files they are required to make public under the new federal law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The Justice Department hasn't set a timetable for when it plans to start releasing information, but the law set a deadline of Dec. 19.
Other news we're following:
President Donald Trump looks across as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum holds up the team name of Mexico during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The president has finally met with his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Their long-delayed first face-to-face discussion focused on next year's World Cup — and included side discussions about trade and tariffs — but immigration was not the top issue. That's despite cracking down on the border being a centerpiece of the Trump administration and a driving force in relations between both countries.
Trump has been in office for more than 10 months, taking so long to see Sheinbaum in-person is striking given that meeting with the leader of the country's southern neighbor is often a top priority for U.S. presidents.
Trump and Sheinbaum were set to meet in June at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, but that was scrapped after Trump rushed back to Washington early amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran.
▶ Read more about their first meeting and the U.S.-Mexico relationship
The clock is ticking for the government to open up its files on Jeffrey Epstein.
After months of rancor and recriminations, Congress passed and Trump signed legislation compelling the Justice Department to give the public everything it has — and it has to happen before Christmas.
On Friday a federal judge took one step toward by giving the DOJ permission to release transcripts of a grand jury investigation into Epstein's abuse of underage girls in Florida.
While there's sure to be never-before-seen material in the thousands of pages likely to be released in the transcripts and other Epstein-related records, much has already been made public.
And don't expect a “client list” of famous men who cavorted with Epstein. Though it has long been rumored, the DOJ said in July that it doesn't exist.
▶ Read more about what's expected to be made public, what isn't, and how we got to this point
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s committee voted to recommend the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine only for babies whose mothers test positive. The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses.
Singer Andrea Bocelli performs at the start of the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The president entered the White House East Room accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and the Italian tenor.
Trump said he and Bocelli are friends and he asked about four weeks ago if Bocelli would sing at the White House. Bocelli agreed during a “weak moment,” Trump said.
The private concert at the White House was attended by Republican lawmakers and members of Trump's Cabinet.
“This is a tremendous honor,” Trump said.
“We're going to hear a voice, the voice of an angel.”
Bocelli performed earlier Friday at the FIFA World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center.
President Donald Trump speaks before a concert by Andrea Bocelli in the East Room of the White House walking towards the East Room, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
The man accused of planting a pair of pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack told investigators he was “disappointed” by the outcome in 2020, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.
Pirro told ABC News Live that she believes it is “unmistakable” that Brian Cole Jr. was responsible for placing the devices based on evidence collected by investigators. Pirro also suggested that Cole may have been motivated by claims from Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was stolen.
“He was disappointed in various aspects of the election, but this guy was an equal opportunity bomber,” Pirro said. “He was disappointed to a great deal in the system. Both sides of the system.”
A judge ordered Cole to remain in jail after his first court appearance. He did not enter a plea.
Defense attorney John Shoreman declined to comment afterward, saying, “We're in the very, very early stages.”
▶ Read more about the case
FILE - A woman and a child hold hands as they walk down a street in the predominantly Somali neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)
The announcement comes after this week's launch of the operation, which primarily focused on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the U.S.. Fewer than half those detained are Somali, officials said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that the people arrested are six from Mexico, five from Somalia and one from El Salvador.
ICE said in a statement that eight of them had been charged or convicted of crimes including assault, fraud, domestic violence and driving under the influence.
Minneapolis-St. Paul, which has the nation's largest Somali community, is the latest area targeted by the Trump administration for mass deportations.
Trump recently targeted Somali immigrants in public remarks, calling them “garbage” and saying “they contribute nothing.”
The crackdown has drawn intense criticism from local and state officials who have denounced Trump's rhetoric and pledged to protect the Somali community. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said city police would not participate in federal immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration is bringing back dozens of department staffers, saying their help is needed to tackle a mounting backlog of discrimination complaints from students and families.
The workers had been on administrative leave while the department faced lawsuits challenging layoffs in the agency's Office for Civil Rights, which investigates possible discrimination in the nation's schools and colleges. But in a Friday letter, department officials ordered the workers back to duty starting Dec. 15 to help clear civil rights cases.
A department spokesperson confirmed the move, saying the government still hopes to lay them off to shrink the department.
“The Department will continue to appeal the persistent and unceasing litigation disputes concerning the Reductions in Force, but in the meantime, it will utilize all employees currently being compensated by American taxpayers,” Julie Hartman said in a statement.
A Social Security card is shown in Tigard, Ore., Oct. 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, FIle)
The Social Security Administration is hoping to cut visits to its field offices in half next year, a move that advocates for the agency fear signals more closures are coming.
Field offices have long been community-based branches that serve as the public face of the SSA, providing in-person help for people who come to apply for retirement or disability benefits, to get Social Security cards or for other important services.
A November internal field office operating plan shared with The Associated Press outlines a proposed target of 50% fewer field office visitors in fiscal year 2026, or no more than 15 million visits. In the previous year, from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, field offices saw more than 31.6 million visits by SSA recipients, according to the document.
▶ Read more about Social Security offices
Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
The Democrat says she and two staffers were pepper-sprayed and pushed by after appearing at an ICE enforcement event in her southern Arizona district.
She said there were “maybe 40 ICE agents, most of them masked in several vehicles” that some residents stopped in protest “because they were afraid they were taking people without due process.”
Grijalva, who was sworn in last month, said in a video posted online that she “was sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent” and several spoke to her aggressively.
She said she was “pushed around when I literally was not being aggressive. I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress.”
In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin characterized the group gathered in Tucson as a mob. She said two agents were seriously injured during the clash and disputed Grijalva's account: “Presenting one's self as a ‘Member of Congress' doesn't give you the right to obstruct law enforcement.”
FILE - Members of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines guard a federal building on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
The judge questioned the administration's authority and need to maintain command of the guard troops, which it first deployed to Los Angeles in June following violent protests.
At a hearing in San Francisco on Friday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer suggested conditions in Los Angeles have changed since the deployment, and he questioned whether the administration could control the troops forever.
California officials have asked Breyer to issue a preliminary injunction returning control of the remaining troops in Los Angeles to the state. Breyer did not immediately rule.
Justice Department Attorney Eric Hamilton said the remaining troops in Los Angeles were allowing immigration agents to continue their mission.
▶ Read more about the case
Trump's advisers and Ukrainian officials said they will meet for a third day after making progress on creating a security framework for postwar Ukraine and are urging Russia to commit to peace.
The officials met for a second day in Florida on Friday.
They issued a joint statement offering broad brushstrokes about the progress that they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.
The lawsuit filed Friday says agents' use of gas during protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland has sickened residents in the housing complex next door, contaminated their apartments and confined them inside.
The complaint filed by the nonprofit REACH Community Development and multiple residents says tenants have experienced difficulty breathing, coughing, headaches and other symptoms following exposure to chemicals from tear gas, smoke grenades and pepper balls.
It says some have worn gas masks indoors including while sleeping and found canisters on their balconies, in the courtyard and in the parking garage.
The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the use of chemical agents likely to infiltrate apartments unless necessary to protect against an imminent threat.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE are among named defendants. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On the operation's third day, Democratic Mayor-elect Helena Moreno said she sent a letter to Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino with a set of demands. Among them was information on how many people have been detained, their identities and charges they face.
Amid growing concerns over aggressive arrests, which have included foot and car pursuits, Moreno asked that agents stop wearing masks and for safeguards against racial profiling.
She also said detainees must have prompt access to legal representation, medical services, language interpretation and family notification.
Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga, right, looks on as Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks with the news media after departing the Supreme Court where she gave arguments in the case drawing new congressional district boundaries, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Liz Murrill urged the city's police department to “fully cooperate” with federal immigration agents who are carrying out a crackdown in the city.
In a letter sent to Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick on Friday, Murrill said she believes the department's current practices violate a state ban on sanctuary city policies.
Kirkpatrick could not immediately be reached for comment.
Florida's Republican-dominated congressional delegation is urging the Trump administration to scrap a plan that would allow new oil drilling off the state's coast.
A letter signed by Republican Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody says the Interior Department plan would put the state's thriving tourism industry at risk and disrupt military operations in a key training area.
The letter to President Donald Trump is signed by all 30 members of Congress from Florida, including 22 Republicans and eight Democrats. It represents rare pushback against the Republican president by GOP lawmakers and demonstrates how important Florida's beaches and coastal waters are to its economy.
A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also said the Trump administration should reconsider.
▶ Read more about the Florida oil drilling plan.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in an interview with the AP: “When the digital ink is still wet on the deal, I think it would be very premature for someone to say, ‘Over my dead body.' But rather one should say, ‘Yeah, this one we predicted, if it happened, that it would be a serious concern.' It has now happened, and that serious concern is going to take some time, effort, and study and possible changes in the deal.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on social media: “This deal looks like an anti-monopoly nightmare. A Netflix-Warner Bros. would create one massive media giant with control of close to half of the streaming market. It could force you into higher prices, fewer choices over what and how you watch, and may put American workers at risk.”
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., in a statement: “One company should not have full vertical control of the content and the distribution pipeline that delivers it. And combining two of the largest streaming platforms is a textbook horizontal Antitrust problem.”
Gene Simmons, vocalist for the rock band Kiss, speaks to reporters at the White House on Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Michelle Price)
The rocker surprised journalists in the James Brady Press Briefing Room, where he appeared at the podium and parried away a few questions. His appearance came as Kiss is set to be honored this weekend at the Kennedy Center.
His wife, Shannon Tweed, pleaded with him to stop and eventually led him out of the room by the arm.
Simmons joked to the reporters: “It was wonderful to talk to me,” as he left.
President Donald Trump dances toThe Village People as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and First Lady Melania smile during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Organizers brought out the Village People to perform “YMCA,” a standard on the setlist of Trump campaign events.
Naturally, Trump, who watched much of the draw from a Kennedy Center balcony, stood up and danced.
FILE - Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., speaks to members of the media during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)
Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, who sits on House committees overseeing intelligence and the armed forces, called the strategy “catastrophic to America's standing in the world and a retreat from our alliances and partnerships.”
“The world will be a more dangerous place and Americans will be less safe if this plan moves forward,” Crow said.
▶ Read more about Trump's new national security strategy document
Trump's national security strategy document released Friday lays out, as “a ‘Trump Corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine,” to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.”
The doctrine formulated by President James Monroe in 1823 was originally aimed at opposing any European meddling in the Western Hemisphere, and later used to justify U.S. military interventions across Latin America.
Along with combating drug trafficking and controlling migration, Trump's document describes a reimagined footprint after building up the largest military presence in the region in generations. That means, for instance, “targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades,” it says.
Three Somali American lawmakers from Maine issued a joint statement criticizing Trump's remarks about Somali immigrants. Rep. Mana Abdi of Lewiston, Rep. Deqa Dhalac of South Portland and Rep. Yusuf Yusuf of Portland are the first Somali Americans to serve in the Maine House of Representatives.
“An attack on Somali Americans, on TPS holders, or on any immigrant community is an attack on all Americans. Maine is stronger when we stand together, reject dehumanization, and insist on a future rooted in safety, fairness, and shared belonging,” said the statement sent Thursday.
Maine is home to several thousand residents of Somali descent.
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen under stormy skies in Washington, June 20, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's order on birthright citizenship.
His order says that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily aren't American citizens. The justices said Friday they will hear Trump's appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down the citizenship restrictions.
Those restrictions haven't taken effect anywhere in the country. The case will be argued in the spring. A definitive ruling is expected by early summer. Birthright citizenship is the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The order is part of his administration's broad immigration crackdown.
But it could happen later this month.
The government had asked the court for permission to include the usually secret grand jury records in the files they are required to make public under the new federal law. The legislation requires the Justice Department to make the documents public in a searchable and downloadable format within 30 days of Trump signing it into law.
That means no later than Dec. 19.
When the documents will be released is unknown, but they could be made public later this month.
The government had asked the court for permission to include the usually secret grand jury records in the files they are required to make public under the new federal law.
The legislation requires the Justice Department to make the documents public in a searchable and downloadable format within 30 days of Trump signing it into law.
That means no later than Dec. 19.
The Indiana state House passed a redistricting bill Friday, advancing the legislation backed by Trump to a high-stakes fight in the state Senate.
The House, with a Republican supermajority, voted 57-41 to pass the proposed congressional map that would split the city of Indianapolis into four districts and set the GOP up to win all nine of the state's congressional districts.
Republicans currently hold seven of the nine districts. It is unknown whether there are enough votes in the state Senate, which is set to convene on Monday, to give final passage to the map.
▶ Read more about redistricting action in the Indiana legislature
The Justice Department has requested the unsealing of documents from three Epstein-related separate cases:
The Florida request was approved Friday. The New York requests are pending, with the Justice Department facing a Monday deadline to make its final filing — a response to submissions by victims, Epstein's estate and Maxwell's lawyers. The judges in those matters have said they plan to rule expeditiously.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said in his order Friday that a recently-passed federal law ordering the release of records related to the cases overrode a federal rule prohibiting the release of matters before a grand jury.
The law known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, was signed last month by Trump, compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to release by Dec. 19 the vast troves of material they've amassed during investigations into Epstein.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's meeting in Florida on Thursday with Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's lead negotiator, was “productive,” according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The American and Ukrainian officials were due to brief their respective leaders on Friday and reconvene for further talks later in the day, the official added.
Trump thanked his family and first lady Melania Trump as he accepted the FIFA peace prize. He also thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for their “coordination and friendship and relationship.”
“But most importantly, I just want thank everybody,” Trump continued.
The president wore the medal around his neck and stood near a gold trophy that bore his name, depicting hands holding up the world.
Infantino stood on the other side of the trophy, lauding Trump for trying to settle global conflicts.
He said Trump had worked to obtain peace “in your way, but you obtained it in an incredible way.”
He assured Trump “You can always count on my support.”
President Donald Trump smiles after being awarded the FIFA Peace Prize during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
El presidente de la FIFA, Gianni Infantino, entrega al presidente Donald Trump el Premio de la Paz de la FIFA durante el sorteo de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol de 2026 en el Kennedy Center en Washington, el viernes 5 de diciembre de 2025. (Foto AP/Stephanie Scarbrough, Pool)
President Donald Trump shakes hands with FIFA President Gianni Infantino as he presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize during the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump has been awarded the new FIFA peace prize at the 2026 World Cup draw for what the sports governing body says are his efforts to work toward peace around the world.
The ceremony gave the soccer spectacle to set matchups for the quadrennial tournament even more of a Trumpian flair.
Trump, who has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, had been expected to receive the newly created FIFA prize. He and FIFA president Gianni Infantino are close allies, and Infantino had made it clear that he thought Trump should have won the Nobel for his efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
▶ Read the latest developments surrounding the 2026 World Cup draw
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer spoke with Vice Premier He Lifeng and had a “constructive” conversation, Bessent said in an X post Friday.
“Greer and I discussed the ongoing implementation of the Busan arrangement between President Trump and President Xi, which is going well,” Bessent said, referring to the U.S.-China trade understanding announced after Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, in October.
“I also reaffirmed the United States' commitment to continued engagement with China,” Bessent said.
President Donald Trump, center, speaking to members of the media during his arrival with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, at the Kennedy Center for the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“We are going to meet with both and we are getting along very well,” Trump said of Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who are co-hosting next year's World Cup.
Trump suggested that trade will be on the agenda for his talks with the leaders.
The data — a months-old snapshot delayed five weeks by the government shutdown — likely eases the way to a widely expected interest rate cut by the central bank next week.
Prices rose 0.3% in September from August, matching the previous month's increase, the Commerce Department said Friday.
Inflation remains above the central bank's 2% target, partly because of Trump's tariffs, but many Fed officials argue that weak hiring, modest economic growth, and slowing wage gains will steadily reduce price gains in the coming months.
The Fed's decision remains tricky: It would typically keep rates high to fight inflation. At the same time, it is worried about weak hiring and a slowly rising unemployment rate. It hopes that reducing rates will spur more borrowing and boost the economy.
An FBI truck departs the street where the FBI made an arrest and are investigating a house in Woodbridge, Va., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
The man accused of planting a pair of pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack confessed to the act in interviews with investigators, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Brian Cole Jr. also indicated that he believed the 2020 election was stolen and expressed views supportive of President Donald Trump, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss by name an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The details add to a still-emerging portrait of the 30-year-old suspect from Woodbridge, Virginia, and it was not immediately clear what other information or perspectives he may have shared while cooperating with law enforcement following his arrest on Thursday.
▶ Read more about the investigation into the pipe bombs case
Worries about inflation eased a bit among U.S. consumers this month, but their mood remains gloomy.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index, released Friday in a preliminary version, rose to 53.3 early this month from a final reading of 51 in November. This beats the 52 mark economists had forecast but it's still down considerably from 71.7 in January.
Expectations for year-ahead inflation dipped from 4.5% last month to to 4.1%, the lowest level since Trump returned to the White House and began imposing sweeping taxes — tariffs — on imports from countries around the world.
The average U.S. tariff rate has climbed from 2.4% in January to 16.8% last month, highest since 1935, according to calculations by the Budget Lab at Yale University.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem takes questions during a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)
The Homeland Security secretary says the Trump administration is expanding its travel ban from 19 to more than 30 countries.
Kristi Noem wouldn't say which countries would be included in the expansion as she spoke in an interview late Thursday with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham.
Trump is “continuing to evaluate countries,” Noem said. “If they don't have a stable government there, if they don't have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States?”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is attending the World Cup draw Friday afternoon at the Kennedy Center — her first face-to-face meeting with Trump since he returned to the White House in January.
Also on-hand will be Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, who hasn't met with Trump since the U.S. president clashed with Ontario over an ad criticizing U.S. tariff policymaking.
Officials from all three countries recently began reviewing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was negotiated during Trump's first term and replaced the 1994 NAFTA pact. While no formal meetings have been scheduled, Trump may find time to talk tariffs and trade with both Sheinbaum and Carney.
Unions say the State Department notified the employees on Monday that they would be fired on Friday.
But U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled Thursday that the union representing the employees is likely to prevail on its argument that the government funding bill that ended the shutdown prohibits the cuts.
A message to the department was not immediately returned.
The administration argued that the funding bill only prevented layoffs initiated during the shutdown. It had notified the 250 or so foreign and civil service employees of their terminations well before the shutdown started.
Illston, nominated to the bench in San Francisco by President Bill Clinton, said nothing in the “plain text” of the funding bill's layoff prohibition supports that interpretation.
First lady Melania Trump reads “How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?” to children and their families at Children's National Hospital, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
First lady Melania Trump talks to children and their families at Children's National Hospital, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
First lady Melania Trump arrives to Children's National Hospital to read a story to children, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Two patients escorted her into the festively decorated atrium at Children's National Hospital in Washington.
The first lady sat in a big red chair in front of a large Christmas tree and read, “How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney,” by Mac Barnett.
She told the children she hopes Santa will visit and “bring you a lot of toys.”
“I wish you a lot of strength,” she said.
She made small talk with the children in the audience before departing with a “Merry Christmas.” She also was to make private visits with children in the hematology/oncology wing.
Sen. Ruben Gallego is joining Democrat Eileen Higgins in Miami this weekend for early voting events. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also supported her in a video shared by her campaign on Friday. If she wins the mayoral runoff, she could become the first Democrat to lead Miami in over 25 years.
Emilio Gonzalez has received endorsements from Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and is rallying voters with Sen. Rick Scott on Friday. A loss for the Republican in the nonpartisan race could be perceived as a setback for the GOP in Florida, given how much Miami has moved to the right over the years.
Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, has been campaigning for fellow party members in Latino areas, helping New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger. Both off-year election results last month showed signs of a Hispanic shift away from Republicans.
The House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee want to hear from Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, who is retiring as the commander of U.S. forces in Central and South America, according to a person with knowledge of the request who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The committees are scrutinizing an attack in September when U.S. forces killed two survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug boat. They have already heard from the Navy admiral who commanded the special forces unit that carried out the attack, but also want to hear from Holsey. He has been commanding the campaign to destroy boats in international waters near Venezuela that are allegedly carrying drugs, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last month that Holsey would be retiring early from his command post.
It was not clear whether the Pentagon will comply with the request, and Holsey will be retiring in the coming week.
U.S. Border Patrol Commander at large Gregory Bovino arrives at a Home Depot in Kenner, La.,Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Several hundred federal agents are scouring the greater New Orleans metro area in a Border Patrol-led enforcement operation that seeks at least 5,000 arrests.
The Department of Homeland Security has already touted dozens of arrests since the operation began Wednesday, saying it is targeting people with criminal records and highlighting the arrest of a convicted sex offender. But the agency has shared only limited details of who was detained.
Immigrant rights groups have accused federal agents of racial profiling, and some New Orleans officials say 5,000 arrests is unrealistic.
In the Hispanic enclave of Kenner, a city just outside New Orleans, restaurants like Carmela Diaz's taco joint have closed down because staff and customers are afraid to leave their homes.
A federal vaccine advisory committee voted on Friday to end the longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they're born.
For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses. But U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s committee voted to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive or whose infection status is unknown.
A loud chorus of medical and public health leaders decried the decision, which marks a return to a public health strategy abandoned more than three decades ago.
▶ Read more about the vaccine panel's recommendation, and reaction to it
The area in and around Bentonville, Arkansas, best known as home to the Walmart headquarters, has emerged as a little-known hot spot in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Based on an Associated Press review of ICE arrest data, jail records, police reports and interviews with residents, immigration lawyers and watchdogs, the county offers a window into what the future may hold for places where local and state law enforcement authorities cooperate broadly with ICE.
The Department of Homeland Security now has cooperation agreements with 1,180 state and local agencies and is offering some financial incentives for local help making arrests. Records show the partnership in Arkansas has led to the detention and deportation of some violent criminals but also repeatedly used misdemeanor arrests to move people toward deportations, splitting apart families, sparking protests and spreading fear.
▶ Read more about how one county jail produces hundreds of ICE arrests under a program surging across the US
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Looking at the weather map on his computer and seeing three tropical storms forming simultaneously across Asia in late November, climatologist Fredolin Tangang's first thoughts drifted to the 2004 disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow.”
The film, in which three massive storms plunge the earth into a new ice age, goes beyond the realms of reality. But there was something about the formation of these weather systems swirling across his screen that made Tangang sit up.
They were not the strongest storms this year. But they were “unusual,” said Tangang, emeritus professor at the National University of Malaysia.
One was churning near the equator off the coast Indonesia – an area where storms rarely take shape because the planet's spin is too weak there to whip them into existence. Another was tracking for parts of Sri Lanka that are rarely hit by tropical storms. The third was late in the season, and on course to dump yet more rain on already soaked terrain in Vietnam and the Philippines.
“You realize this is like a monster,” Tangang said.
The cyclonic storms went on to unleash torrential rains and catastrophic flooding – including, in one area, the second-wettest day recorded anywhere in history – across swathes of South and Southeast Asia. They killed more than 1,700 people, according to a CNN tally from disaster agencies' figures.
Multiple countries are struggling to recover from their worst flooding in decades. Hundreds of people remain missing – likely washed away in rapid torrents of floodwater or buried beneath thick mud and debris.
The region is used to monsoon rains and frequent flooding, but the enormity of the human toll and level of destruction have shocked many, with scientists warning that, as the climate crisis intensifies, more intense extreme weather events will become the new normal.
“This is a human tragedy. It's multiple conditions happening at the same time, and that makes it rather unprecedented,” Tangang said.
“Relentless,” “rare” and “record-breaking” are the words that scientists have used to describe the biblical deluges across thousands of miles from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Driving the disaster, experts say, was an extraordinary mix of overlapping powerful weather systems, amplified by the man-made climate crisis.
Tropical Storm Senyar formed just north of the equator in the Strait of Malacca, the waterway between Indonesia's Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula – a rare occurrence that may have helped magnify the disaster as communities there weren't used to experiencing cyclones, Tangang said.
Storms rarely take shape near the equator, because the planet's spin is too weak there to provide the Coriolis force that gets a cyclone rotating.
In another unusual twist, the storm made a U-turn and moved south and eastwards – highly uncommon in this part of the world, where the earth's rotation means storms tend to track west and move northwards, he added.
Meanwhile, Cyclone Ditwah was creeping along Sri Lanka's east and north coasts, dumping massive bands of rain onto low-lying, beachy coastline and central hill country – an area that was similarly not experienced in dealing with tropical storms.
Typhoon Koto's rains triggered flooding and landslides in the Philippines, which had suffered back-to-back deadly typhoons and extensive flooding, before it moved toward an already saturated Vietnam.
A cold surge in the weeks before had blown strong winds from the north across the South China Sea, where they collected moisture and dumped it in the form of rain over Thailand and Malaysia.
In early November, two major typhoons in less than a week carved a path of destruction through the Philippines. Fung-wong's footprint spanned nearly the entirety of the archipelago, and Kalmaegi killed at least 200 people before hitting Vietnam as one of the strongest typhoons on record there.
Communities in central Vietnam had barely recovered from widespread flooding and landslides that killed at least 90 people, submerged historic neighborhoods and devastated farmland.
One meteorological station in central Vietnam recorded a national 24-hour rainfall record of 1,739 millimetres, according to Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization spokesperson.
“That's really, really enormous. It's the second-highest known total anywhere in the world for 24-hour rainfall,” she said at a briefing in Geneva.
Like a sponge full of water, the land could not take any more moisture. People had lost their homes and livelihoods and were facing yet more loss.
Then came Koto, Senyar, and Ditwah, which “created back-to-back pulses of rainfall that hit already saturated river basins,” said Joseph Basconcillo, a senior weather specialist at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
“Once the surface was soaked, additional rain quickly turned into severe flooding.”
Surging flash floods and landslides quickly overwhelmed entire communities, catching many people off guard.
“The combination of unusual storm tracks and vulnerable landscapes made the impacts far more extreme,” said Basconcillo.
Adding to the chaotic cocktail, two natural climate phenomena that usually bring above-average rainfall to the region were occurring simultaneously: La Niña and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole.
La Niña and the negative Indian Ocean Dipole cannot explain the disaster alone, but they “created a background environment that made intense rainfall more likely,” said Basconcillo. “The worst impacts occurred when this moisture aligned with strong storms and vulnerable terrain.”
In Hat Yai, in Thailand's southern Songkhla province, floodwaters as high as eight feet surged through the streets, which resident Wassana Suthi described as “like a tsunami.”
In Sumatra, Indonesia – the worst-hit country, where at least 883 people were killed – rescue teams are still trying to reach villages cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges. Abdul Ghani, a resident of Palembayan town in West Sumatra, spent days looking for his missing wife, showing a photo of her to everyone he met. “I hope they find her body, even if it's just a piece of her hand,” he told the news agency Reuters.
A thousand miles away on the other side of the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka, neighborhoods were swept away and residents continue the search for bodies in the thick mud and debris.
“We could only hear a sound like thunder,” Nawaz Nashra, from Alawathugoda village in Kandy, told Reuters. “The house next to ours collapsed as we watched. There was no time to warn anyone.”
Southeast and South Asia are among the most vulnerable places on earth to the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis, for which rich, industrialized nations bear greater historical responsibility.
Asia is warming almost twice as fast as the global average. Hotter ocean temperatures provide greater energy for storms to strengthen, and climate change is supercharging rainfall events as the warmer air can hold more moisture, which it then wrings out over towns, cities and communities.
Researchers say they are now seeing a pattern unfolding: an “accumulation of catastrophic events.”
“What we're witnessing in Southeast Asia is a relentless cycle of storms: weeks of heavy rainfall during an extreme monsoon season, with record-breaking events happening time and time again,” Davide Faranda, research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research said in a statement. “This cannot be accepted as the norm.”
An urgent phase-out of fossil fuels, which release planet-heating pollution, is vital to stave off the worst of the climate crisis. But greater investment is also needed to help vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts already happening year after year.
“As climate change increases the intensity of heavy rainfall events, investments in stronger warnings, better land-use planning, upgraded infrastructure, and nature-based solutions become essential,” said Basconcillo.
Other man-made factors likely exacerbated the disaster, including environmental degradation and rampant deforestation – often worsened or abetted by official corruption.
In Indonesia, residents and government officials have pointed to the decades of deforestation from illegal logging, mining and palm oil plantations on Sumatra that has degraded the landscape, leaving hillsides more prone to flooding and landslides. Similarly in the Philippines, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets protesting corruption over flood control projects. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is only starting to rebound from its worst financial crisis in seven decades, that has left little for funding infrastructure or public health, according to the World Bank.
At the COP30 summit in Brazil last month, the world struck a new deal that called for a tripling of funds to help countries adapt to increasingly severe climate impacts. But countries failed to agree to a roadmap away from fossil fuels, and there were no explicit commitments on deforestation or funding pledges.
“The science is really clear, things are getting worse,” said climatologist Tangang. “It's time for the world, for governments to be serious in not only in fixing the climate but to ensure that their own backyard is ready to face the impacts of climate change,” he added.
“We don't want countries getting poorer, people getting poorer, and more families losing their lives because of this.”
This week, more rains are forecast for Sumatra and Sri Lanka. A fresh storm is brewing to the east of the Philippines.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Newly released 911 calls from Texas during catastrophic flooding in July show people pleading for help as rushing waters rise around them.
Rain falls as Irene Valdez visits a make-shift memorial for flood victims along the Guadalupe River, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Damage is seen on July 8, 2025, near Hunt, Texas, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, file)
Camper's belongings sit outside one of Camp Mystic's cabins near the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area, July 7, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, file)
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — In an instant, frantic voices overwhelmed the two county emergency dispatchers on duty in the Texas Hill Country as catastrophic flooding inundated cabins and youth camps along the Guadalupe River.
A firefighter clinging to a tree who watched his wife be swept away. A family breaking through their roof, hoping for rescue. A woman calling from an all-girls camp, waters swirling around and unsure how to escape.
Their panic-stricken pleas were among more than 400 calls for help across Kerr County last summer when unimaginable floods hit during the overnight hours on the July Fourth holiday, according to recordings of the calls released Friday.
“There's water filling up super fast, we can't get out of our cabin,” a camp counselor told a dispatcher above the screams of campers in the background. “We can't get out of our cabin, so how do we get to the boats?”
Amazingly, everyone in the cabin and the rest of campers at Camp La Junta were rescued.
The flooding killed at least 136 people statewide during the holiday weekend, including at least 117 in Kerr County alone. Most were from Texas, but others came from Alabama, California and Florida, according to a list released by county officials.
One woman called for help as the water closed in on her house near Camp Mystic, a century-old summer camp for girls, where 25 campers and two teenage counselors died.
In a 9-1-1 call at 4:07 a.m. a woman calls to say that she's at Camp Mystic and the water is almost in her house. COURTESY: Kerrville Police Department.
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“We're OK, but we live a mile down the road from Camp Mystic and we had two little girls come down the river. And we've gotten to them, but I'm not sure how many others are out there,” she said in a shaky voice.
A spokesperson for the parents of the children and counselors who died at Camp Mystic declined to comment on the release of the recordings.
Many residents in the hard-hit Texas Hill Country have said they were caught off guard and didn't receive any warning when the floods overtopped the Guadalupe River. Kerr County leaders have faced scrutiny about whether they did enough right away. Two officials told Texas legislators this summer that they were asleep during the initial hours of the flooding, and a third was out of town.
Using recordings of first responder communications, weather service warnings, survivor videos and official testimony, The Associated Press assembled a chronology of the chaotic rescue effort. The AP was one of the media outlets that filed public information requests for recordings of the 911 calls to be released.
Many people were rescued by boats and emergency vehicles. A few desperate pleas came from people floating away in RVs. Some survivors were found in trees and on rooftops.
But some of the calls released Friday came from people who did not survive, said Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall, who warned that the audio is unsettling.
“The tree I'm in is starting to lean and it's going to fall. Is there a helicopter close?” Bradley Perry, a firefighter, calmy told a dispatcher, adding that he saw his wife, Tina, and their RV wash away.
“I've probably got maybe five minutes left,” he said.
Bradley Perry did not survive. His wife was later found clinging to a tree, still alive.
In another heartbreaking call, a woman staying in a community of riverside cabins told a dispatcher the water was inundating their building
“We are flooding, and we have people in cabins we can't get to,” she said. “We are flooding almost all the way to the top.”
The caller speaks slowly and deliberately. The faint voices of what sounds like children can be heard in the background.
Some people called back multiple times, climbing higher and higher in houses to let rescuers know where they were and that their situations were getting more dire. Families called from second floors, then attics, then roofs sometimes in the course of 30 or 40 minutes, revealing how fast and how high the waters rose.
In a 9-1-1 call at 4:43 a.m. a counselor from Camp La Junta calls 911 to say the cabin he is in is flooding. Campers can be heard screaming and panicking in the background. All campers and counselors from Camp La Junta were rescued. COURTESY: Kerrville Police Department.
As daylight began to break, the call volume increased, with people reporting survivors in trees or stuck on roofs, or cars floating down the river.
Britt Eastland, the co-director of Camp Mystic, asked for search and rescue and the National Guard to be called, saying as many as 40 people there were missing. “We're out of power. We hardly have any cell service,” he said.
The 911 recordings show that relatives and friends outside of the unfolding disaster and those who had made it to safety had called to get help for loved ones trapped in the flooding.
One woman said a friend, an elderly man, was trapped in his home with water up to his head. She had realized his phone cut out as she was trying to relay instructions from a 911 operator.
Overwhelmed by the endless calls, dispatchers tried to comfort the panic-stricken callers yet were forced to move on to the next one. They advised many of those who were trapped to get to their rooftops or run to higher ground. In some calls, children could be heard screaming in the background.
“There is water everywhere, we cannot move. We are upstairs in a room and the water is rising,” said a woman who called from Camp Mystic.
The same woman called back later.
“How do we get to the roof if the water is so high?“ she asked. “Can you already send someone here? With the boats?”
She asked the dispatcher when help would arrive.
“I don't know,” the dispatcher said. “I don't know.”
___
Associated Press reporters Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Ed White in Detroit; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A subway approaches an above ground station in the Brooklyn borough of New York with the New York City skyline in the background, June 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City high school senior was jailed Friday on a federal arson charge after authorities say he set a fire that severely burned a sleeping subway passenger.
Hiram Carrero, 18, was not required to enter a plea during his arraignment in Manhattan federal court. The fire early Monday morning is the latest in a string of incidents of people being lit ablaze on public transit across the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni ordered Carrero detained, citing the “heinousness of the crime,” after prosecutors appealed Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger's decision to release him to home confinement under his mother's supervision.
“It's hard for me to understand why an 18-year-old young man who's in high school is out at 3 o'clock in the morning setting people on fire,” Caproni said.
Carrero is accused in a criminal complaint of igniting a piece of paper and dropping it near the 56-year-old passenger around 3 a.m. Monday on a northbound 3 train at the 34th Street—Penn Station stop near Madison Square Garden and Macy's flagship store in midtown Manhattan.
The passenger stumbled to the platform at the next station, 42nd Street—Times Square, with his legs and torso on fire, according to surveillance images included in Carrero's criminal complaint. Police officers quickly extinguished the flames and the passenger was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.
“The victim very well could have died in this case,” prosecutor Cameron Molis said.
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Carrero was arrested Thursday in Harlem, where his lawyer said he lives with his disabled mother and acts as her primary caregiver, bringing her to medical appointments. She attended his arraignment but declined to speak to reporters.
According to the complaint, Carrero stepped onto the train only briefly, lit the fire and then fled the station while the passenger lay burning. He then took a bus home.
Carrero faces at least seven years in prison if he's convicted. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4, though that will be canceled if prosecutors bring the case to a grand jury and secure an indictment by then.
Carrero's lawyer, Jennifer Brown, said there was “no disagreement that the allegations are extremely serious.”
But, she said, Carrero is a “very young man with no (criminal) record and a mother willing to take him in.”
Before Caproni stepped in, Lehrburger had agreed to release Carrero to home confinement with electronic monitoring and a requirement that he undergo a mental health evaluation and submit to drug testing.
Caproni reversed the decision at an after-hours hearing on Friday.
Brown, attempting to convince her to uphold Carrero's release, cited news reports that investigators had been looking into whether the passenger had lit himself on fire.
Carrero's case went to federal court in part because it was investigated by a federal task force, the New York Arson and Explosives Task Force that is run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in conjunction with the city's police and fire departments. He is not facing charges in state court.
According to the complaint, investigators zeroed in on Carrero by comparing images from the incident to body-worn camera footage recorded in October when police stopped him for riding his bicycle through a red light. Brown said he was delivering for Uber Eats at the time.
Carrero and the man investigators were searching for had the same distinctive mustache, hat with white lettering across the front, backpack and gray hooded sweatshirt in both sets of images, the complaint said.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Chicago charged a man with pouring gasoline on a woman, chased her through a train car and setting her on fire. In December 2024, a woman asleep a stopped subway train in Brooklyn was killed when a stranger set her clothing on fire.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A makeshift memorial for U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe is seen outside of Farragut West Station, near the site where the two National Guard members were shot, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
INWOOD, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia National Guard member who survived last week's shooting in Washington is slowly healing, West Virginia's governor said Friday.
Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe's head wound is slowly improving and “he's beginning to ‘look more like himself,'” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a statement quoting Wolfe's parents.
Wolfe and Spc. Sarah Beckstrom were ambushed as they patrolled a subway station three blocks from the White House on Nov. 26. Beckstrom died from her injuries the next day.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was also shot during the confrontation, has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Wolfe's family expects he will be in acute care for another two or three weeks, the governor said. He asked that West Virginians and Americans continue to pray for Wolfe.
A vigil was scheduled to be held for him at his alma mater, Musselman High School, in Berkeley County on Friday night.
Wolfe, 24, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, about 75 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., was assigned to the Force Support Squadron, 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard.
He has worked as a lineman with Frontier Communications since early 2023, the company said.
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Wolfe joined the National Guard in 2019, the year he graduated from high school. At Musselman, Wolfe was an engaged and high-achieving student “who embodied the Applemen spirit, contributing positively to our school community both academically and athletically,” Principal Alicia Riggleman said.
Wolfe and Beckstrom were among more than 2,000 troops deployed to the nation's capital as part of President Donald Trump's crime-fighting mission that involved taking over the local police department.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Go back a decade and most Americans had never heard of Huawei. Today, the Chinese telecom giant is a symbol of how quickly China can dominate a strategic technology sector and in the process create new national security and market threats for U.S. government and industry.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is now worried about another Chinese company that he predicts will eclipse Huawei in both scale and consequence: BGI. It is not building cell towers or smartphones for the 5G era. It is collecting DNA.
"If Huawei was big, BGI will be even bigger," Warner said at the CNBC CFO Council Summit in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
BGI is one of the largest genomics companies in the world. It operates DNA sequencing laboratories in China and abroad. It processes genetic data for hospitals, pharmaceutical firms and researchers across dozens of countries, according to a recent report by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology.
The company began as a Beijing-based research entity, the Beijing Genomics Institute, tied closely to China's national genome projects. It later expanded into a global commercial powerhouse, selling DNA sequencing, prenatal testing, cancer screening, and large-scale population genetic analysis, according to an NBC News report.
Through subsidiaries, BGI says it operates in the U.S. Europe, and Japan. In several countries, it helped built national genetic databases and pandemic testing systems.
U.S. intelligence officials believe that global footprint gives BGI access to one the largest collections of genetic data on Earth. Lawmakers have warned that genetic data is not just medical information. At scale, it becomes a strategic asset spurring a "DNA arms race," according to a Washington Post report. DNA profiles can reveal ancestry, physical traits, disease risk, and family relationships, and when linked with artificial intelligence, the data can also be used for surveillance, tracking and long-term biological research tied to national security, according to the Washington Post's reporting.
At the CNBC event this week, Warner continued to press for more focus on BGI. "They are hoovering up DNA data," Warner said. "This level of experimentation on humans and intellectual property theft, we all should be concerned about it."
Congressional investigators have previously warned that BGI maintains close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese military, according to a report from the House Select Committee on the CCP. They argue that China makes little distinction between commercial data and state security needs.
One of the biggest fears tied to BGI and China's broader biotech push is the possibility of a genetically enhanced soldier. U.S. officials have publicly claimed that China has explored human performance enhancement and military biotechnology. U.S. defense analysts say China's research spans population DNA collection, military databases, and AI-driven human performance modeling, according to a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by U.S. Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe in 2020, when he was Director of National Intelligence during President Trump's first term.
Warner directly referenced those concerns this week.
"It's terrifying," Warner said.
Warner described China as a great nation and great competitor, and as a former telecom executive (he was among the founders of Nextel), he said what Huawei was able to execute on — producing good products at inexpensive prices before the U.S. and Western competitors were prepared — is a cautionary tale.
The BGI story looks uncomfortably familiar to Warner.
"Go back in time eight or nine years, and most people had never heard of Huawei," he said.
Huawei rose by combining massive state support, global market access and aggressive pricing, not only outcompeting Western firms on scale and cost, but positioning itself inside the world's telecom infrastructure before governments understood the security implications. Huawei was first placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019, which banned U.S. firms from selling some technology to the Chinese tech giant over national security concerns. Chip restrictions on Huawei have since become even stricter.
But Warner said by the time the U.S. moved to restrict Huawei, "[we started to] lose a little."
Much of the 5G backbone had already been shaped by Chinese technology.
During a separate interview with Javers at the CNBC CFO Council Summit, the Republican Chairman of the House committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Michigan congressman John Moolenaar, said "We've seen how they run the play of excess capacity, price manipulation, driving people out of business in different areas; they're going to continue to run that play," he said. "We want to be friendly with China, but China is not our friend. They are our foremost adversary," he added.
The Soviet Union was a military and ideological competitor, but China, in tech domain after domain, Warner says — from telecom and 5G to AI, quantum computing and biotech — is a different kind of competitor.
Warner now sees BGI following a similar model in biotechnology. Like Huawei, BGI scaled rapidly with state support. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank Foundation of Defense of Democracies called upon lawmakers of both parties earlier this year to restrict BGI's access to U.S. institutions.
Congress has been trying to pass various versions of the BIOSECURE Act, which would limit the ability of Chinese biotechs to operate in the U.S. Some U.S. hospitals and research institutions with ties to Chinese genomics firms are under federal pressure, according to the Associated Press, though some medical professionals within the U.S. say they risk losing key research support for core medical goals. BGI told the AP that the bill is "a false flag targeting companies under the premise of national security. We strictly follow rules and laws, and we have no access to Americans' personal data in any of our work," it said.
Warner said the U.S. intelligence apparatus has moved too slowly to recognize the biotech threat. He says that intelligence agencies focus too much on foreign governments and militaries, with less attention placed on commercial technology sectors. But in a world where technology supremacy is national security, Warner says more of our intelligence efforts need to reflect this shift.
Only in the past two to three years, he says, has the U.S. seriously expanded spying into AI, semiconductors, and biotechnology. Warner says we need a more "advanced approach" in this area, and he gave as one recent example when China's largest chipmaker SMIC stunned U.S. officials by producing a six-nanometer chip despite sweeping U.S. export controls. The breakthrough showed that Washington had underestimated both China's technical qualities and ability to work around restrictions. "We got caught off guard with the SMIC six-nanometer chip," Warner said.
Warner is also worried that tracking China's tech rise requires a type of deep cooperation with U.S. allies that the Trump administration has squandered, such as the global intelligence-sharing network called the "Five Eyes" alliance.
Those relationships are now under strain, he said, and key partners including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France have gone public in saying they are reluctant to share intel with the U.S. "They feel like we may be politicizing the intel product and that is not good news for America," Warner said.
Underlying his concerns about the technology competition with China in areas including AI and biotech is the U.S. ceding the global lead in standards setting. For decades, the U.S. shaped the rules for wireless networks, satellites, and internet infrastructure. That dominance help Americans lead global markets, Warner said, but now China is aggressively positioning itself as the international standards setter.
Warner described the U.S. role in international bodies as one of the "secret sauces" in the era of America's dominance of the global economy and technology, allowing the U.S. to leverage innovations occurring around the globe, "even if it didn't arise in America."
Across technology domains, influencing standards and protocols is critical to not only maintaining a competitive edge but also establishing ethical boundaries. "Will it be us or the Chinese?" Warner said. "The Chinese come in with clearly a less humanist approach. It's been effective in lots of domains. We see it on standards-setting bodies. China floods the zone with lots of engineers, almost buying off the votes. We've got to reengage for American business and government," he said.
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The Trump administration will be expanding its ban on travel for citizens of certain countries to more than 30, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, in the latest restriction to come since a man from Afghanistan was accused of shooting two National Guard members.
The expansion would build on a travel ban already announced in June by the Republican administration, which barred travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries and restricted access to the U.S. for people from seven others. In a social media post earlier this week, Noem had suggested more countries would be included.
Noem, who spoke late Thursday in an interview with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham, would not provide further details, saying President Donald Trump was considering which countries would be included.
In the wake of the National Guard shooting, the administration already ratcheted up restrictions on the 19 countries included in the initial travel ban, which include Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Haiti, among others.
Ingraham asked Noem whether the travel ban was expanding to 32 countries and asked which countries would be added to the 19 announced earlier this year.
"I won't be specific on the number, but it's over 30. And the president is continuing to evaluate countries," Noem said.
"If they don't have a stable government there, if they don't have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States?" Noem said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment about when an updated travel ban might go into effect and which countries would be included in it.
Additions to the June travel ban are the latest in what has been a rapidly unfolding series of immigration actions since the shooting Thanksgiving week of two National Guard troops in Washington.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, has been charged with first-degree murder after one of the two victims, West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, died of wounds sustained in the Nov. 26 shooting. The second victim, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was critically wounded. Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty.
The Trump administration has argued that more vetting is needed to make sure people entering or already in the U.S. aren't a threat. Critics say the administration is traumatizing people who've already gone through extensive vetting to get to the U.S. and say the new measures amount to collective punishment.
Over the course of a little more than a week, the administration has halted asylum decisions, paused processing of immigration-related benefits for people in the U.S. from the 19 travel ban countries and halted visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.
On Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was reducing the time period that work permits are valid for certain applicants such as refugees and people with asylum so they have to reapply more often and go through vetting more frequently.
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Mary Hannah Guyaux felt isolated when she chose to drop out of college.
She'd been diagnosed with epilepsy before graduating from high school in 2008. Guyaux, now 36, enrolled at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania and tried to balance college and her medical condition. However, she decided it was in her best interest to drop out after one semester.
Looking back, Guyaux doesn't regret that decision. But it was a difficult one to make in the moment.
"My family very much wanted me to stay and make the effort to continue doing it," Guyaux told Business Insider. "It was definitely a big fork in the road in terms of choices, but I didn't feel like I was doing well or succeeding."
Did you choose not to go to, or finish, college? What has your career trajectory looked like without a college degree? Share your story with this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.
After dropping out, Guyaux worked as a waitress in West Virginia until the restaurant closed. She started cleaning houses, and she grew the gig into a housekeeping business with her friend, which she operated until the pandemic.
She is now entering her fifth year of work at a construction company. She makes in the mid-five figures, and she said she's grateful for the life she has built with her husband.
Still, she said, entering the job market without a college degree wasn't easy.
"It has been surprising how, even with five years of experience in the field that I'm in and 10 years of experience running a small business, four years of being in college would get my foot further in the door than any of that," Guyaux said. "And often I feel like my résumé just gets pushed to the side."
Guyaux is among the millennials born between 1981 and 1996 who graduated from high school or college during the Great Recession. They faced a difficult labor market, whether they had a college degree or not.
Rising student debt loads and the increasing number of jobs that no longer require a degree in recent years have, however, sparked a shift in the way younger Americans perceive the value of higher education. Recent polling also shows that the percentage of Americans who view college as important has hit a new low.
Business Insider spoke to millennials without college degrees who gained fulfillment in their careers. While some said they've encountered hiring roadblocks due to the absence of a college degree, they wouldn't have done anything differently.
Guyaux said that while she's not necessarily passionate about her construction job, she's passionate about the life that it has provided for her.
"I live a very fulfilled life. I'm very blessed and very grateful for the life that I get to live," she said. "I have a wonderful husband and great friends and some really silly dogs. And I would not make a different choice."
Guyaux said that, despite being content with her employment, she would consider going back to school later in life. So would Audrey Serna, 33, who graduated from high school in 2010 and withdrew from college after two semesters.
Serna enrolled at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta but struggled to balance her schoolwork, social life, and part-time jobs. After she dropped out, she worked in the retail and restaurant industries, and she said she struggled to pay her bills and secure higher-paying jobs due to the lack of a college degree.
"I felt like a total failure," Serna told Business Insider. "In the back of my mind, I always had the motivation to get out of this trap, but I just didn't quite know how."
An added layer of stress for Serna was job hunting while pregnant, which she believes made employers hesitant to hire her. But knowing she had to financially support a child was a motivator for her, and she landed an entry-level payroll job in 2014, where she stayed until the pandemic. She was later recruited for her current role as a payroll operations manager, earning a six-figure salary.
"I tell my kids all the time, 'You don't have to go to college.' But if I had the opportunity to live a second life and I had the opportunity to go to school, then I would do it," Serna said. "I think that education obviously is important, and I totally believe that college doesn't define your worth, but I do think it can make things easier."
Data shows that amid changing perceptions on the value of a college degree, a higher education still pays off. The New York Federal Reserve wrote in an April blog post that the median worker with a college degree earned about $80,000 a year, compareed ot $47,000 for a worker with a high school diploma.
Raising a 7- and 11-year-old as a single mom, Serna doesn't have the time — or financial means — to go back to school right now, but she said she'd consider it down the road. Still, she said it's not required for a successful career.
"Never feel like because you didn't go to college, that you're less worthy or less than anybody else in the world, because that is just so far from the truth," Serna said.
Dropping out of college was Edith Marie Gillespie-Lorenzo's key to finding her passion for farming.
Gillespie-Lorenzo, 35, graduated from high school in 2008 and dropped out of the University of Massachusetts-Boston after a year. She recalled feeling at the time that college was the only acceptable option, so she enrolled; however, she struggled to maintain her grades while working part-time as a legal assistant at a law firm.
After dropping out, Gillespie-Lorenzo said she wasn't making enough money at the law firm to support herself. She knew that she enjoyed being outside and working with her hands, so she began searching for farm jobs and ultimately landed a part-time position in a vegetable field. That's where her passion for farming and agriculture ignited. Since it was seasonal work, she secured a full-time position in customer service at a mutual fund company, where she remained for seven years.
In 2021, she quit to pursue farming full-time, now working as a farm coordinator at a nonprofit in Massachusetts.
"It's my favorite thing in the world, and I couldn't imagine doing anything else," Gillespie-Lorenzo said.
She makes in the mid-five-figures, and she acknowledged that the low pay is challenging. She also said that she encountered times in her career where the absence of a college degree was a barrier to getting a higher starting salary or promotion. But to Gillespie-Lorenzo, money is not the priority for her right now — it's doing a job that brings her happiness.
Some high schools across the country are beginning to prioritize students' passions over college admissions. Business Insider recently visited a high school in rural Wyoming, for example, that presents college as just one of the options students can pursue postgrad, and helps equip them with the tools they need to take the path that's best for them, whether it's college, the workforce, or the military.
Looking back, the only regret Gillespie-Lorenzo has is not dropping out of college sooner.
"The world is so gigantic, and there are so many weird jobs that exist that colleges didn't even begin to cover," she said. "Life is too short to do anything less than what you want to do."
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The U.K. was the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy, but now generates just a fraction of its power from it — big investments are underway to change that.
The country once had more nuclear power stations than the U.S., USSR and France — combined. It was a global producer until 1970 but hasn't completed a new reactor since Sizewell B in 1995.
Today, the country takes the crown not for being a leader in atomic energy, but for being the most expensive place in the world to build nuclear projects.
Nuclear energy accounted for just 14% of the U.K.'s power supply in 2023, according to the most recent data from the International Energy Agency, trailing its European peers and well behind frontrunner France at 65%.
There is ambition to change that and have a quarter of the U.K.'s power come from nuclear by 2050. Nuclear is considered an attractive bet gas it's a low-carbon, constant energy source that can act as a baseload to complement intermittent sources like renewables.
"There's a very clear momentum that has been observed," Doreen Abeysundra, founder of consultancy Fresco Cleantech, told CNBC. It's in part due to geopolitical tensions, which pushed energy security and independence onto public agendas.
However, the U.K.'s Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce called for urgent reforms after identifying "systemic failures" in the country's nuclear framework. It found that fragmented regulation, flawed legislation and weak incentives led the U.K. to fall behind as a nuclear powerhouse. The government committed to implementing the taskforce's guidance and is expected to present a plan to do so within three months.
The U.K. is spreading its bets across tried-and-tested large nuclear projects and smaller, next-generation reactors known as small module reactors (SMRs).
British company Rolls-Royce has been selected as the country's preferred partner for SMRs, which are effectively containerized nuclear reactors designed to be manufactured in a factory. Many include passive cooling techniques, which supporters argue makes them safer and cheaper.
Nuclear has long come under fire by environmentalists due to radioactive waste and disasters like Chernobyl. Indeed, the U.K.'s first commercial plant Windscale became its worst nuclear accident in history when it melted down in 1957.
Most SMRs use light water reactor technology – think of the planned large-scale nuclear plant Sizewell C, just "shrunk down," said Abeysundra – which is tried and tested.
Other designs, known as "advanced" reactors, are more experimental. For example, those that change the cooling solution or solvent, which is typically used in the process of separating and purifying nuclear materials.
The U.K.'s first SMR will be at Wylfa, in Wales, though no timeline has been given for its completion. The site will house three SMRs and grow over time.
In September, the country signed a deal with the U.S. to enable stronger commercial ties on nuclear power and streamline licensing for firms that want to build on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
However, "the first thing is, there is not, at the moment, a single SMR actively producing electricity under four revenues. They will all come at best in the 30s," Ludovico Cappelli, portfolio manager of Listed Infrastructure at Van Lanschot Kempen, told CNBC.
While SMRs are a "game changer" thanks to their ability to power individual factories or small towns, their days of commercial operation are too far away, he said. From an investment standpoint, "that is still a bit scary," he added.
To secure the large baseloads needed to offset the intermittency of renewables, "we're still looking at big power stations," added Paul Jackson, Invesco's EMEA global market strategist.
SMRs "probably" do have a role — "they can clearly be more nimble" — but it will take time to roll them out, Jackson said, casting doubt on the U.K.'s ability to be a leader in nuclear, as France and China are already miles ahead.
The U.K. government body Great British Energy-Nuclear is set to identify sites for an additional large-scale plant, having already acquired one in Gloucestershire, in the west of England, as well as the site in Wales.
"We are reversing a legacy of no new nuclear power being delivered to unlock a golden age of nuclear, securing thousands of good, skilled jobs and billions in investment," a spokesperson for the U.K. government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told CNBC.
"Sizewell C will deliver clean electricity for the equivalent of six million of today's households for at least six decades, and the UK's first small modular reactors at Wylfa will power the equivalent of three million homes, bringing energy security," they added.
The U.K. has a strong legacy to build on. It pioneered fresh funding mechanisms to make large-scale nuclear projects investible so that they are less reliant on direct government funding, such as a Contract for Differences, which was used for Hinkley Point C.
The mechanism guarantees a fixed price for the electricity generated over a long period of time in order to de-risk investments in an industry that's known for running over time and budget. Hinkley Point C was initially expected to cost £18 billion (over $24 billion) but the bill has slowly crept up.
"That fixes one part of the equation, the price risk," Cappelli said of nuclear investments, but the second risk is construction delays.
The Regulated Asset Base (RAB), first used for nuclear at Sizewell C, attempts to reconcile this. Investors get paid from the day they cut a check for a nuclear project, rather than the day it starts operating. Sizewell C is expected to cost £38 billion to build.
Private market investors are increasingly interested in next-generation nuclear as a way to offset soaring energy demands from AI, resulting in a host of young companies trying to build out facilities. Perhaps the most famous is Oklo, a U.S. firm that was taken public by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman.
The U.K.'s advanced modular reactor hopeful Newcleo, which uses lead for cooling, moved its headquarters from London to Paris in 2024 — a strategic move to deepen its European footprint. At the time, it told World Nuclear News that it still plans to have a commercial reactor up and running in the U.K. by 2033, but the firm has since scaled back its British efforts.
Meanwhile, Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion call the U.K. home. They both focus on nuclear fusion, the process of generating power by combining atoms, though this technology is yet to get out of the lab. All of today's nuclear power comes from fission, where atoms are spit. The U.K. announced £2.5 billion for a world-first fusion prototype in June.
The U.K. faces challenges in access to relevant talent, which is crucial for scaling projects effectively. The country is heralded for its world-class universities and technical know-how, "but that is very much book knowledge," said Van Lanschot Kempen's Cappelli.
"What we need is real on-the-ground expertise, and that we are probably lacking for the simple reason that we haven't been doing it for a very long time," he said.
For Abeysundra, there's one area where the U.K. stands out: its mindset. "There is so much knowledge, innovation, and that can-do attitude, which I don't see as much in other nations," she said, pointing to the U.K.'s trailblazing role in the Industrial Revolution and establishment of offshore wind energy.
The U.K. government positioned nuclear energy as a key element of the future clean energy workforce in its Clean Energy Jobs Plan released in October, while its national roadmap for nuclear skills, set out in 2024, focuses on apprenticeships, PhDs and upskilling mid-career workers. Industry-led initiatives such as the Energy Skills Passport also support the likes of oil and gas workers to gain green skills.
Perhaps the toughest issue, however, is the supply chain.
Uranium, the fuel used to make a nuclear reaction, is dominated by just four countries, including Russia. Global demand for uranium could rise by nearly a third by 2030 and more than double by 2040, according to the World Nuclear Association, adding further reliance on a select few countries and pressure on developers.
The U.K. government has allocated funding to build up the supply chain and has committed to preventing the import of nuclear fuel from Russia by 2028. Fuel for Sizewell C will come from European or "Western suppliers," Cappelli noted.
However, for him, it poses the question: How secure is nuclear energy really? "We have to build nuclear power plants, but we need to build the value chain," Cappelli added.
Workers, expertise and funding are required for nuclear energy, but the supply chain is also key, he said. Otherwise, there will be "the same issues that we had with gas," a nod to the U.K.'s reliance on just one supplier. Instead of gas, it will be with uranium.
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Meta is delaying the release of new mixed reality glasses code-named "Phoenix."
The company planned to release the new device in the second half of 2026, but it is pushing back its timeline to the first half of 2027, Maher Saba, VP of Reality Labs Foundation, wrote in a Thursday memo to employees, which was seen by Business Insider.
In a separate memo, also viewed by Business Insider, metaverse leaders Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns said moving the release date back is "going to give us a lot more breathing room to get the details right."
They added, "There's a lot coming in hot with tight bring-up schedules and big changes to our core UX, and we won't compromise on landing a fully polished and reliable experience."
Meta declined to comment.
The "Phoenix" mixed reality glasses, which were previously reported on by The Information, have a goggle-like form factor and are connected to a puck to help power them, according to two employees who have seen the device and spoke anonymously as they are not authorized to talk to the press.
The two employees said the model looks similar to Apple's mixed reality glasses Vision Pro. There was some skepticism among leaders about the puck, but they chose to keep it to help keep the glasses lighter and more comfortable, and to prevent it from overheating, they said.
Saba said in the memo that at a recent meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Reality Labs (RL) leaders received feedback on their plans for 2026, which he said "focused on making the business sustainable and taking extra time to deliver our experiences with higher quality."
"Based on that, many teams in RL will need to adjust their plans and timelines," he added. "Extending timelines is not an opportunity for us to add more features or take on additional work."
Meta also plans to release a new "limited edition" wearable device code-named "Malibu 2" in 2026, according to Saba.
Meta is starting work on its next-generation Quest device, a product that Aul and Cairns wrote will be focused on immersive gaming, and represent a "large upgrade" in capabilities from its existing devices, and "significantly improve unit economics."
In October, Meta reorganized its metaverse unit and tapped Aul, who led products for Meta Horizon, and Cairns, who was previously in charge of virtual reality hardware, to co-lead its efforts, Business Insider previously reported. The company is now considering budget cuts of up to 30% within its Reality Labs division, which could impact employees working on its virtual spaces platform, Horizon Worlds.
The company has also expanded its AI hardware push by acquiring Limitless, a startup that makes AI-powered pendant devices, the company announced Friday.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at jmann@businessinsider.com or Signal at jyotimann.11. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
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A jury on Friday issued an $11.5 million verdict against the world's largest HR organization over allegations it had racially discriminated and retaliated against a former employee.
The Society for Human Resource Management, known as SHRM, was found liable for racial discrimination and retaliation and hit with a ruling of $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million for punitive damages, according to Ariel DeFazio, a lawyer for the plaintiff.
SHRM said it plans to appeal the decision. "Today's decision does not reflect the facts, the law, or the truth of how SHRM operates," the trade group said in a statement. "We have acted with integrity, transparency, and in full alignment with our values and obligations."
SHRM was sued in 2022 by Rehab Mohamed, who worked at the trade group as an instructional designer from 2016 to 2020. The case was tried over the course of five days in a Colorado federal court.
"The optics are bad because they've held themselves out as an authority on best practices," said Alice K. Jump, an employment attorney and partner at law firm Reavis Page Jump.
Mohamed said in her suit that she was racially discriminated against by a white supervisor and faced retaliation for complaining to management. She said she raised concerns about racial discrimination and retaliation with leadership, including SHRM's CEO, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., and its head of human resources, throughout the summer of 2020.
While testifying on December 4, Taylor said he wasn't involved in Mohamed's termination. A former SHRM employee, Mike Jackson, who said he was responsible for investigating the matter, told the court that Mohamed's was the only discrimination claim he had ever investigated.
In response to questions from Hunter Swain, another of Mohamed's lawyers, Jackson said that he left SHRM in 2021 and his title was manager of employee experience. He said he became a certified HR professional while employed there and that he had undergone one training session on HR investigations just a few months before the discriminatory events that Mohamed cited in her lawsuit took place.
When asked by Swain what he learned from the training, Jackson said he couldn't remember any specifics.
SHRM has consistently denied Mohamed's claims. In September, SHRM asked the court to bar Mohamed from introducing evidence or argument that the organization is a specialist in HR best practices.
The following month, US District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher denied SHRM's request, saying its "asserted expertise in human resources is integral to the circumstances of this case and cannot reasonably be excluded."
In his testimony, Taylor said SHRM's work includes advising HR professionals about best practices, including those pertaining to investigating internal complaints of discrimination and retaliation. He said SHRM has a set of curricula around best practices for investigating employment complaints.
The verdict was not surprising given that SHRM promotes itself as an expert in HR, Boston employment lawyer Evan Fray-Witzer told Business Insider. "You're going to be held to a higher standard," he said.
In recent years, SHRM has been embroiled in various controversies, as Business Insider recently reported. These include a new attendance policy that penalizes workers who arrive even a minute after 9 a.m.; a memo about a "conservative" dress code that bans sequins; and a companywide meeting in which Taylor said some staffers were "entitled," "complacent," and "sloppy."
During pre-trial discovery for Mohamed's case, SHRM revealed the existence of two other discrimination complaints from employees. One case, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2018, was settled. The other, filed with a California regulator in 2021, is pending. SHRM also denied wrongdoing in those cases.
"We are very happy that the jury spent a week listening very closely to the evidence and that they decided, as a result, to hold SHRM accountable," Mohamed's lawyer, DeFazio, told Business Insider. She said the verdict would "send a message to workplaces in the entire country."
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Elon Musk's SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.
At the elevated price, Musk's aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.
SpaceX has been investing heavily in reusable rockets, launch facilities and satellites, while competing for government contracts with newer space players, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. SpaceX is far ahead, and operates the world's largest network of satellites in low earth orbit through Starlink, which powers satellite internet services under the same brand name.
A SpaceX IPO would include its Starlink business, which the company previously considered spinning out.
Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla's annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn't love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw "spurious lawsuits," and can "make it very difficult to operate effectively."
However, Musk said during the meeting that he wanted to "try to figure out some way for Tesla shareholders to participate in SpaceX," adding, "maybe at some point, SpaceX should become a public company despite all the downsides."
WATCH: What retail investors should know about OpenAI and SpaceX
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The crypto market entered another volatile session today as several major developments converged. SpaceX shifted another large Bitcoin stack. Chainlink whales intensified accumulation. Tapzi, with its best crypto presale, advanced its early momentum while investors hunted for high-growth altcoins to invest in.
Besides these events, traders prepared for critical macro data and an options expiry that could inject fresh turbulence. Each sector now sends signals that shape sentiment across the entire ecosystem. Consequently, many investors want clarity about where the strongest opportunities may emerge next as the best altcoins to buy now.
Tapzi continues to draw rising interest due to its strong position in Web3 gaming. The platform builds a Skill-to-Earn model that rewards player performance instead of luck. This idea appeals to competitive gamers who want real fairness. It also appeals to investors who want long-term sustainability with the best altcoins to buy now for holding.
Tapzi introduces classic games such as Chess, Checkers, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and Tic Tac Toe. These games run on smart contracts and require players to stake $TAPZI to enter PvP matches. The winner collects the pool. Hence, rewards come from actual gameplay and not inflationary emissions.
Furthermore, Tapzi sets its token supply at 5 billion with structured vesting. This keeps the economy transparent and predictable. Free Mode simplifies onboarding and helps casual players join without friction.
Additionally, developers gain tools, SDKs, staking modules, and a path to launch new skill-based titles. The platform also targets major investor regions across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This helps Tapzi reach both gaming communities and capital-heavy markets. Tapzi Price: The presale price sits at $0.0035, while the launch price is set at $0.01. This early gap adds speculative interest for early buyers of this best gaming crypto to invest in.
A major market shift is forming inside Web3 gaming. Many GameFi platforms lost momentum due to bots, high inflation, and casino-style mechanics. Tapzi uses a different approach that removes unsustainable systems.
Consequently, retention improves as players gain reasons to return. Moreover, prize pools grow as the player base expands. This strengthens long-term token demand.
The global gaming market could pass $400 billion by 2028. Over 1.5 billion mobile gamers remain unlinked from Web3. This gap gives Tapzi massive room to scale. Significantly, Tapzi focuses on user experience by removing gas fees during gameplay. These details encourage mainstream adoption.
Many analysts believe the next crypto to explode may emerge from utility-driven gaming. Therefore, Tapzi sits in a strong position as interest continues to rise. Developers also want simpler tools, and Tapzi offers a launchpad specifically for them. This creates a circular ecosystem where more games attract more players and larger prize pools.
Elon Musk's SpaceX moved another batch of Bitcoin worth nearly $100 million. Arkham Intelligence tracked 1,083 BTC sent into new wallets. This marks the eighth observed transfer. Many traders think the company rotates funds for improved organization and custody. The latest activity occurred as Bitcoin fell near $91,000 ahead of key inflation data.
SpaceX still holds more than 5,000 BTC worth over $460 million. These movements follow a consistent pattern over recent months. Besides the transfer to Coinbase Prime, several hundred coins moved to fresh on-chain addresses. These addresses remain untouched after previous rotations.
Consequently, traders continue to speculate about SpaceX's long-term strategy. Some think the firm may prepare for institutional-grade custody. Others believe the company builds a deeper Bitcoin treasury structure. However, no evidence supports selling pressure from these movements. Most coins remain under the control of the main wallet cluster.
Chainlink shows signs of stabilization despite recent fluctuations. The token trades near $13.49 after a mild decline during the past 24 hours. However, the broader seven-day performance remains positive. Many traders now watch whale accumulation activity for early signals.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed that whales bought over 4.7 million LINK within two days. This level of accumulation historically builds strong momentum. Additionally, Chainlink continues to secure partnerships across industries that need reliable off-chain data.
Source
Moreover, the oracle network now plays a major role inside the DeFi stack. Many protocols rely on Chainlink for accurate external data. This gives LINK long-term demand outside market hype. Hence, each accumulation event strengthens confidence among institutional and retail traders.
Chainlink whales often accumulate during uncertain conditions. This behavior usually precedes increased volatility and renewed upside interest. Consequently, traders monitor LINK closely as accumulation rises while the broader market shows cautious optimism.
Today's market narrative blends gaming innovation, whale accumulation, and major corporate Bitcoin activity. Tapzi stands out due to its sustainable Skill-to-Earn design, developer ecosystem, and strong presale structure.
Chainlink gains renewed strength from heavy whale buying and persistent network demand. SpaceX's ongoing Bitcoin rotations continue to draw attention as markets look for clues into institutional strategy.
Moreover, the broader environment remains sensitive to macro updates and options expiries. Hence, investors continue to evaluate the best altcoins to invest in with strong fundamentals and clear utility. Tapzi, Chainlink, and Bitcoin now form three major focal points as the crypto market enters another critical phase.
Join Tapzi's $500,000 community giveaway and compete across nine prize categories to earn $TAPZI tokens—sign up today and become an early adopter!
Michelle is an editor at CoinCentral & Blockonomi, covering the latest trends in crypto, blockchain, and digital finance. With a sharp eye for detail and a passion for emerging technologies, Michelle ensures every story delivers clarity, accuracy, and insight to our readers.
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Traditionally, thieves usually targeted some form of tangible good — whether it's physical or digital currency, jewelry, or a car.
But when it comes to mining cryptocurrencies, things get a little stranger. As Bloomberg reports, local law enforcement is hunting down about 14,000 illegal Bitcoin mining operations in Malaysia, which they say have stolen around $1.1 billion in electricity over the last five years.
Police have resorted to using drones and even handheld sensors that can pick up irregular power use to catch them in their act, a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse that highlights how lucrative mining the digital token can be — if the power is on someone else's dime, at least.
Bitcoin rallied this year, hitting a record high of over $126,000 in October. While the currency has collapsed substantially since then, mining the coin has proven profitable enough over the last couple of years for thousands to risk stealing electricity from the grid for their ill-gotten gains.
Besides causing over a billion dollars in losses for Malaysia's state-owned energy company Tenaga Nasional, illegal mining operations could wreak havoc on the country's grid as well.
“The risk of allowing such activities to happen is no longer about stealing,” Malaysia's deputy minister of energy transition and water transformation, Akmal Nasir, who chairs a special task force specifically set up to crack down on illegal Bitcoin mining, told Bloomberg. “You can actually even break our facilities. It becomes a challenge to our system.”
Rolling power outages in Iran last year, for instance, sparked a heated debate over the role of illegal Bitcoin mining. Kuwait similarly cracked down on crypto mining earlier this year amid a “major” power crisis that has led to blackouts.
Worldwide, Bitcoin mining operations chew through a gargantuan amount of power, consuming more electricity than an entire country each year. The United States has embraced the token wholeheartedly, accounting for over 75 percent of mining activities, according to a recent report by the University of Cambridge.
That's despite other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, implementing alternative ways to validate transactions that reduce electricity consumption dramatically.
To cash in on the trend, illegal operations are cropping up across Malaysia, turning abandoned malls and industrial spaces into crypto mining sites.
For legal operations, miners have to pay for their power and taxes. But for many, the benefits of running their hardware with stolen power have outweighed the risks of getting caught in Malaysia.
“Even if you run it properly, the challenge is that the market itself is very volatile,” Nasir told Bloomberg. “I don't see any well-run mining that can be considered as successful legally.”
Akmal likened the illegal operations to being run “by the syndicate,” implying they were operating like organized crime.
“It does have modus operandi,” he said.
More on Bitcoin: Crypto Company Creates Bizarre Drug
I'm a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
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Input Output, the engineering firm best known for building Cardano, has begun a sweeping restructuring that includes a name change and a move into technology sectors far beyond its blockchain origins.
The company said on December 5 that it will drop “Global” from its name and operate as Input Output Group. It plans to expand into quantum computing, digital identity, fintech, and healthcare.
Charles Hoskinson, the company's founder, said the redesign reflects how far the organization has evolved from its initial focus on blockchain protocol engineering.
He described the new phase as an effort to build a global technology group capable of addressing complex problems across fintech, privacy, artificial intelligence, and healthcare.
Hoskinson added that the firm will continue to support Cardano's core development.
“As Input Output Group, we are entering a new chapter of expansion, investment, and innovation across the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and emerging markets,” he noted.
The shift mirrors a broader trend in the crypto industry as firms diversify into areas that blend distributed systems, data infrastructure, and machine intelligence.
A recent UN analysis estimates that rapid innovation could push the AI sector toward $5 trillion within a decade. That scale, the report said, will shape adjacent fields such as digital identity and quantum computing.
By adding these sectors to its portfolio, Input Output aims to expand its commercial pipeline and attract enterprise clients.
Notably, the company has already advanced its privacy technology work through Midnight. The blockchain is designed to support data protection and compliance for institutional users.
Meanwhile, the restructuring arrives at a difficult time for Cardano, which has struggled to keep pace with competitors such as Solana and Ethereum.
For context, Cardano hosts less than $50 million in stablecoin supply. On the other hand, rival ecosystems like Ethereum support hundreds of billions of these assets.
Considering this, Hoskinson argued that Cardano's slower uptake stems from narrative challenges, not technical limits.
“It's not a technology problem. It's not a node problem. It's not a problem of imagination and creativity. It's not a problem of execution. We can pretty much do anything. It's a problem of governance and coordination and ultimately accountability and responsibility,” Hoskinson said.
Input Output is trying to counter that gap through a new coalition with Cardano's founding organizations. The effort aims to accelerate integrations for tier-one stablecoins and custody providers.
The firm hopes these additions will improve liquidity, deepen infrastructure, and strengthen Cardano's appeal to developers and financial institutions.
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The CEO of a $15 trillion Wall Street giant just called traditional finance “really kind of scary.”
Abigail Johnson, who runs Fidelity, says the current financial system is the most complicated web of basically reconciliation processes built on “primitive technology” — and that blockchain will eventually replace it.
But it won't be an easy path.
“It's got to be an evolutionary process and it'll be some combination of competitive forces and regulatory standards that will kind of push it kicking and screaming along,” Johnson said at an A16Z crypto event on December 4.
Johnson's critique reveals how even traditional finance leaders see the current system as fundamentally broken. The industry is trapped at the “lowest common denominator” of decades-old technology, with a combination of inertia and the inability of smaller players to upgrade that's keeping everything intact.
Cue blockchain, a technology that Johnson has been betting on since 2013.
But enthusiastic blockchain adoption alone won't push the industry, according to Johnson.
Instead, it will be a forced migration.
For one, competitive forces means that institutions who don't upgrade lose market share to those that do. If one bank offers instant settlement with a blockchain while competitors take three days using legacy systems, customers will move their business. If one brokerage can custody Bitcoin while another can't, advisors and clients interested in crypto assets will go elsewhere.
Fidelity, with Johnson at the helm, experienced those headwinds firsthand.
The firm faced “surprisingly immature but very loud” anti-crypto sentiment from traditional finance leaders for years, Johnson said. “I just had to be patient and keep going and that the noise would pass.”
Indeed, the noise has passed.
In the past year, some of Wall Street's biggest banks have begun to experiment with crypto, while digital asset treasuries and exchange-traded funds have deployed billions to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies.
Then there's regulatory standards. These mean governments mandate improvements for the characteristics that blockchain enables — be it transparency, settlement speed, or interoperability.
Across the world, regulation is already coming into effect. In the US, the Genius Act is already operating while the market structure bill, dubbed Clarity Act, awaits approval from the Senate, hopefully by early 2026. And in Europe, MiCA has been active since late 2024.
At its core, the problem isn't necessarily that financial institutions don't want to upgrade. It's that they can't.
“There's a real kind of existential challenge for the industry because at least some of the bigger players would like to upgrade the broader infrastructure a little faster,” Johnson said.
“But the industry is a democratic place and there's a lot of small players who just don't have the wherewithal to participate in that kind of an upgrade.”
Since everything is interconnected, the weakest link determines the system's overall capabilities. And that weakest link is stuck on decades-old technology.
Fidelity has been betting on blockchain for over a decade.
In 2013, the firm pioneered Bitcoin custody services for its clients, while setting up mining operations. Fidelity's Bitcoin mining outlet, in fact, has given the firm “probably the highest single highest ROI business” Johnson said.
The company's ETF, FBTC, holds the second most Bitcoin after BlackRock, with around $20 billion in assets under management, according to Dune Analytics.
Fidelity recently launched a tokenised money market fund designed to interoperate with stablecoins, allowing clients to earn yield then flip into crypto when needed. And in mid November, the firm saw its new Solana ETF debut.
Still, Johnson admitted she underestimated how long the transition would take.
“I didn't fully appreciate how slow change really is in our traditional business because there's just so many forces that keep everybody kind of together and tight doing what they've always been doing,” she said.
Pedro Solimano is DL News' Buenos Aires-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.
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Home Altcoins Argentina's Capital Adopts Blockchain Tools, Adding Dogecoin to Its Public Service Strategy
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Instead of treating digital assets as a side industry, the city is weaving them into day-to-day governance in an effort to modernize payments, attract talent, and escape long-standing financial bottlenecks.
One of the city's newest initiatives lets residents pay certain local taxes using multiple cryptocurrencies – Dogecoin included. The choice caught global attention not because of the payment rails themselves, but because a meme token has now been given a real administrative role. In a country where traditional banking is slow and often restrictive, the additional option is meaningful.
doge is everywherehttps://t.co/KRVhwCG78l
— Dogecoin (@dogecoin) December 5, 2025
What makes the initiative unusual is that Buenos Aires is pairing adoption with mandatory public education. Through a joint program with Binance, residents can attend workshops explaining how wallets work, how to avoid scams, and how blockchain fits into everyday financial habits like savings or remittances. City officials argue that widespread understanding is essential if digital tools are going to support public services rather than create new risks.
While Argentina's capital is working on payments, other countries are exploring different types of blockchain infrastructure. Japan, for instance, is evaluating the XRP Ledger as a potential backbone for a national digital-ID system – an ambitious step that could reshape how citizens verify credentials or access government services. If implemented, analysts say it would be one of the largest zero-knowledge deployments ever attempted by a government.
The broader takeaway is simple: governments aren't just watching crypto anymore. They're beginning to build with it. Whether through municipal tax systems, nationwide identity frameworks, or partnerships with private firms, blockchain is steadily moving from speculative asset category to practical public-sector technology.
An international arrest warrant has been requested for Hayden Davis, co-creator of the LIBRA token, which became the center of a major political scandal in Argentina.
Argo Blockchain has successfully paid off a $35 million loan from Galaxy Digital, which it took out in 2022 to avoid bankruptcy during a tough period for cryptocurrencies.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has officially vetoed House Bill 2324, a legislative proposal that aimed to create a state-managed reserve fund for holding seized cryptocurrency assets.
Arizona's latest attempt to integrate digital assets into its public finance system faced a mixed outcome this week.
Arizona's bid to become the first U.S. state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves has been shut down.
In an effort to broaden its investor base, the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) will undergo a 3-for-1 stock split on June 16, making shares more affordable for everyday investors.
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest doubled down on its crypto exposure this week, snapping up 240,507 shares of BitMine (BMNR) worth roughly $9 million across three of its exchange-traded funds - even as the stock slid nearly 10% on Thursday.
Ark Invest has made another significant purchase of Coinbase shares, acquiring a total of 64,358 shares for $11.5 million on Monday, as the stock plummeted by 17.6% during a turbulent market session.
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has shaken up its portfolio by snapping up $2.2 million worth of Coinbase shares, signaling a renewed focus on the major crypto exchange.
eToro's entrance to the Nasdaq was met with enthusiasm on Wednesday, as shares surged nearly 30% by market close — and Ark Invest wasted no time getting in on the action.
ARK Invest has continued to capitalize on the dramatic rise of Circle's stock, unloading a sizable portion of its holdings just weeks after the stablecoin issuer's public debut.
Ark Invest sold 12,077 shares of Coinbase—valued at $2.7 million—from its Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) on Wednesday.
Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, has significantly increased its stake in Robinhood by purchasing 45,792 shares, valued at over $800,000, during a recent market downturn.
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest is doubling down on crypto exposure, ramping up its purchases of Coinbase and Bitcoin-linked ETFs as the firm positions for what it believes will be a near-term easing in market stress.
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has expanded its position in Tom Lee's Ether treasury firm BitMine, while trimming one of its long-standing bets on Tesla.
Circle's arrival on the New York Stock Exchange sent shockwaves through the market, and Cathie Wood's ARK Invest wasted no time jumping in.
ARK Invest has quietly deepened its exposure to Solana by adding a staked SOL investment to two of its tech-focused ETFs, signaling growing confidence in the blockchain's long-term potential.
On Monday, Ark Invest sold 44,609 shares of its spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund ARKB worth $2.8 million from its ETF Next Generation Internet (ARKW).
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest spent the past week lightening its stake in Circle Internet Group just as the stable-coin issuer's share price went vertical.
On Thursday, Ark Invest, led by Kathy Wood, made some interesting trades, the most significant of which was the sale of Tesla Inc (TSLA) shares.
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Professor Andrew Urquhart is Professor of Finance and Financial Technology and Head of the Department of Finance at Birmingham Business School (BBS).
This is the tenth installment of the Professor Coin column, in which I bring important insights from published academic literature on cryptocurrencies to the Decrypt readership. In this article, I discuss how crypto's relationship with equities has evolved.
Not so long ago, Bitcoin was marketed as the ultimate diversifier—an asset supposedly immune to whatever was happening in equity markets. Early academic work backed that up: Liu and Tsyvinski (2021) showed that major cryptocurrencies had minimal exposure to standard stock, bond and FX risk factors, and that their returns were mainly driven by crypto-specific forces like momentum and investor attention, not equity markets.
Fast-forward to the last couple of years, and that story looks very different. A growing literature now finds that crypto and equities are tightly intertwined, especially during stress. For a fintech audience, the key message is simple: you can't treat crypto as “off-grid” risk anymore. It behaves more and more like a high-beta tech sector—with some nasty tail behaviour on top.
A recent survey by Adelopo et al (2025) and co-authors reviews the evidence on how cryptocurrencies interact with traditional financial markets. They document clear time-varying and non-linear linkages between crypto and stock markets, with particularly strong connections during major macro and geopolitical events like COVID-19 or the Russia–Ukraine war.
Studies looking specifically at technology and blockchain-linked stocks confirm this. Umar et al (2021) finds strong connectedness between cryptocurrency markets and the technology sector while Frankovic (2022) shows that Australian “cryptocurrency-linked stocks” experience significant return spillovers from crypto prices, especially for firms more deeply involved in blockchain activity. In other words, listed equity is now a transmission channel for crypto risk.
Several recent papers make the “crypto ↔ equity” link very explicit:
Global spillovers: Vuković (2025) uses a Bayesian Global VAR to show that adverse shocks originating in the cryptocurrency market depress stock markets, bond indices, exchange rates and volatility indices across a wide set of countries—not just the U.S.
Equity–crypto co-movement: Ghorbel and co-authors (2024) study connectedness between major cryptocurrencies, G7 stock indices and gold. They find that cryptocurrencies have become important senders and receivers of shocks, with stronger ties to equities in recent years and particularly during turbulent periods.
U.S. and Chinese stock markets: Lamine et al (2024) examine spillovers between U.S./Chinese equities, cryptocurrencies and gold. They find significant dynamic risk spillovers from crypto to these stock markets, again concentrated in high-volatility episodes.
Exchange-level contagion: Sajeev et al (2022) document a contagion effect of Bitcoin on major stock exchanges (NSE India, Shanghai, London and Dow Jones), using volatility spillover and correlation analysis from 2017–2021.
International organisations tell a similar story. An IMF departmental paper on “Spillovers Between Crypto and Equity Markets” finds that Bitcoin shocks can explain a non-trivial share (roughly mid-teens percent) of variation in global equity volatility, and that this influence has strengthened over time as institutional and derivative markets matured.
The common conclusion: crypto is now firmly embedded in the global risk ecosystem.
Professor Coin: How Crypto Derivatives Have Impacted Digital Markets
Why does Bitcoin now look so much like a high-beta tech stock?
Duration and interest-rate sensitivity: Both crypto and growth equities are essentially claims on uncertain future cash flows or network value. When real rates rise, discount factors bite hard—and both sectors sell off together.
Investor base and leverage: Retail trading, momentum strategies and derivatives are heavily used in both arenas. Products like futures, options and leveraged ETFs allow shocks in one market to be magnified and replicated in the other.
Institutional portfolio construction: As crypto has been added to multi-asset and hedge-fund portfolios, its returns inevitably become entangled with traditional cross-asset positioning. When funds de-risk, everything in the “risky bucket” goes out together.
Professor Coin: Do Managed Crypto Funds Outperform the Market?
For portfolio construction, the message is uncomfortable but clear:
Crypto does diversify in quiet periods—correlations can still be modest in benign regimes.
But during stress, when diversification is most valuable, correlations and spillovers spike.
Bitcoin and major altcoins behave less like “digital gold” and more like levered proxies for global risk sentiment.
That doesn't make crypto useless as an investment—but it does mean that treating a 5–10% crypto allocation as “uncorrelated upside” is no longer defensible based on the data.
Going forward, one open question for both academics and practitioners is whether spot ETFs and broader institutional adoption will further tighten these linkages, or whether a new use-case (such as genuine payment or settlement adoption) could create more idiosyncratic drivers again.
For now, the evidence points in one direction: when global markets catch a cold, crypto doesn't sit it out anymore—it coughs along with everything else.
Adelopo, I., et al. (2025). “Interconnectedness among cryptocurrencies and financial markets: A review.” Financial Innovation. SpringerLink
Frankovic, J. (2022). “On spillover effects between cryptocurrency-linked stocks and cryptocurrencies.” Global Finance Journal, 54, 100719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfj.2021.100719 IDEAS/RePEc
Ghorbel, A., et al. (2024). “Connectedness between cryptocurrencies, gold and stock markets: A network approach.” European Journal of Management and Business Economics, 33(4), 466–489. Econstor
IMF (2022). Spillovers Between Crypto and Equity Markets. IMF Departmental Paper. IMF eLibrary IMF eLibrary+1
Lamine, A., et al. (2024). “Spillovers between cryptocurrencies, gold and stock markets.” Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, 29(57), 21–40. Emerald
Liu, Y., & Tsyvinski, A. (2021). “Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency.” Review of Financial Studies, 34(6), 2689–2727. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhaa113 OUP Academic
Sajeev, K. C., et al. (2022). “Contagion effect of cryptocurrency on the securities market.” Journal of Economic Studies, 49(7), 1390–1410. PubMed Central
Umar, Z., Kenourgios, D., & Papathanasiou, S. (2021). “Connectedness between cryptocurrency and technology sectors: Evidence from implied volatility indices.” Finance Research Letters, 38, 101492. ScienceDirect
Vuković, D. B., et al. (2025). “Spillovers between cryptocurrencies and financial markets.” Journal of International Money and Finance, 150, 102963. IDEAS/RePEc
BREAKING: Carvana, Comfort Systems, CRH To Join S&P 500
The average analyst price target for Strategy (MSTR) implies 184% upside for the bitcoin holding company from Friday's close, which is nearly twice the implied upside for any other large-cap stock (with a market cap over $10 billion), according to an Investor's Business Daily analysis using FactSet data. That either makes MSTR the stock most loved by Wall Street analysts,…
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For the past few years, stablecoins have been defined by a narrow reality: essentially a two-horse race between Tether's USDT and Circle's (CRCL) USDC, with most activity concentrated on crypto-native exchanges.
What comes next looks materially different, Alchemy co-founder and President Joe Lau told CoinDesk in an interview.
The near-term trajectory for stablecoins has lots of directions, Lau said, but one theme dominates: stablecoin adoption is “exploding.” The reason, he argued, is that stablecoins deliver tangible advantages that traditional payments and banking systems struggle to match, most notably 24/7 settlement and digital-native money movement.
“Stablecoins and deposit tokens are rapidly becoming the consumer and enterprise layers of the modern internet-native financial system. With this foundation, money can move with the safety of the banking system and the speed of the internet," Lau said.
Banks are increasingly evaluating stablecoins, he said, alongside fintechs building money-movement and payments products.
Lau pointed to payment platforms and processors, highlighting Stripe's activity in the space, as well as payroll providers and corporate treasury solutions that are now considering stablecoins as part of their operational stack.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to assets like fiat currencies or gold. They underpin much of the crypto economy, serving as payment rails and a tool for moving money across borders. USDT is the largest stablecoin, followed by USDC.
Total stablecoin market capitalization reached $300 billion in September, a 75% increase from a year earlier, according to a report from Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Wall Street giant Citi (C) said the stablecoin market is growing faster than expected. This prompted the bank to recently lift its 2030 forecast for issuance to $1.9 trillion in its base case and $4 trillion in a bull case, up from $1.6 trillion and $3.7 trillion, respectively.
Lau also said that regulatory clarity is drawing more traditional players into the sector.
As the rules become clearer, he expects broader adoption from traditional finance — banks, neobanks, fintechs focused on moving money, and large payments companies — because stablecoins plug directly into the kinds of use cases those firms already serve.
However, Lau sees another major force shaping the future: banks are launching tokenized deposits, which he describes as an “alternative” that complements stablecoins.
In this model, Lau said, banks can offer customers many of the same benefits associated with stablecoins, low transfer fees and faster settlement, but do so under existing regulatory frameworks, with the funds remaining at the bank.
Today, he said, moving money from a standard bank account can still mean wires, fees and friction. With tokenized deposits, such as JPM Coin, customers can get more stablecoin-like functionality without leaving the bank environment. Lau added that HSBC has also signaled interest in tokenized deposits, and he expects more banks to follow.
In Lau's view, tokenized deposits and stablecoins are currently in competition but complementary, as they tend to serve different users. Stablecoins are more open-ended, he said, because they can settle between any two parties. Tokenized deposits are more closed-loop, he said, because they're typically designed for a bank's own customers. He noted that JPM Coin is limited to JPMorgan clients and is likely to be used first by institutions and corporate clients.
Over time, however, Lau expects the boundary to blur.
He said banks are starting with tokenized deposits but are already thinking about building rails for other tokenized assets. Meanwhile, he said, stablecoin issuers are looking toward becoming more bank-like, driven in part by capital efficiency. Lau argued that banks' fractional banking model can be more capital efficient than stablecoin structures that require 1:1 backing, and that this gap is one reason stablecoin issuers may want closer alignment with the banking model.
For now, Lau said, the two instruments remain complementary. However, he also framed tokenized deposits as an early-stage development: only a handful of banks have seriously invested in this so far, he said, and as more do, adoption will grow, and stablecoins and deposit tokens will begin to compete more directly.
“Tokenized deposits transform the banking system into programmable infrastructure. Stablecoins modernize the dollar for consumers and global markets. As the two converge, money becomes both fully compliant and instantly accessible," he added.
Read more: S&P's Tether Downgrade Revives 'De-pegging' Risk Warning, HSBC Says
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Bitcoin's price couldn't maintain above $92,000, and the recent rejection at that level pushed it south hard to just over $88,000 yesterday.
Most altcoins have followed suit, with almost all charts deep in the red today. ZEC and CC lead on the way south.
The new month began on the wrong foot yet again for the largest cryptocurrency. The asset had recovered some ground following the November crash and stood above $91,000. However, the bears returned on Monday and initiated a violent leg down that drove BTC to just under $84,000.
After losing more than seven grand in hours, bitcoin bounced off almost as quickly and reclaimed the $90,000 line by Tuesday. Moreover, it kept climbing in the following days and challenged the $94,000 resistance on a couple of occasions.
However, it couldn't penetrate that level, and the subsequent retracement drove it to the $91,000-$92,000 range. That was until Friday, when the bears took control of the market again after the release of the US PCE and Core PCE data.
BTC dumped to $88,000 in minutes, dragging the altcoins with it and triggering $500 million in liquidations. It has bounced since then, but it's still below $90,000 as of press time. Its market cap has dropped to $1.8 trillion, while its dominance over the alts stands above 57% on CG.
Most larger-cap alts are in the red as well today. Ethereum is inches above $3,000 after a 3.4% decline, while XRP is close to breaking below $2.00 after another 2% drop. SOL, ADA, LINK, HYPE, DOGE, and XLM are with losses of up to 5%, while SUI, ENA, PEPE, UNI, and DOT have dropped by 6-7%.
Even more profound losses come from ZEC and CC, both of which have dumped by double digits. In contrast, BCH and TRX have posted minor gains.
The total crypto market cap has shed around $60 billion in a day and is down to $3.130 trillion on CG.
Jordan got into crypto in 2016 by trading and investing. He began writing about blockchain technology in 2017 and now serves as CryptoPotato's Assistant Editor-in-Chief. He has managed numerous crypto-related projects and is passionate about all things blockchain.
Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. Full disclaimer
Colorado made headlines in 2022 when Governor Jared Polis launched the nation's first state cryptocurrency tax payment program, positioning the state as a “crypto-forward” pioneer. Yet two years later, the results paint a stark picture of how little Coloradans actually use digital currencies for legitimate purposes.
The numbers tell the story. Since September 2022, Colorado has collected just $57,211 in cryptocurrency tax payments out of billions in total revenue. That represents a microscopic 0.0005% of the state's $11 billion annual income tax collection alone.
While Colorado residents actively invest in new and traditional digital assets, they're clearly not using these digital currencies for everyday transactions like paying taxes. Still, much research the best place to buy Polygon (MATIC), a popular blockchain network known for its lowtransaction fees, as well as established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. DespitePolygon's utility in decentralised finance applications and its growing ecosystem of blockchainprojects, along with the widespread adoption of other major cryptocurrencies, the gap betweeninvestment interest and practical usage for government payments remains substantial.
Colorado's cryptocurrency story shows interesting contrasts. While people aren't using crypto much for everyday government payments, the state has accidentally shown why good blockchain monitoring is so important. Recent work by companies like Elliptic proves how well new tracking tools can spot and expose bad networks, showing that the crypto compliance industry is getting much better.
Finding out that Xinbi Guarantee was registered in Colorado actually shows how well modern blockchain detective work functions. What might have stayed hidden in regular banking was discovered through smart cryptocurrency analysis. This is real progress in the industry's ability to stay transparent and accountable, which are important things that real investors think about when they look for a place to buy cryptocurrency.
Colorado's situation shows how regulators are getting better at telling the difference between legitimate cryptocurrency use and criminals. The state's PayPal system for crypto tax payments handled only 48 payments totalling $17,544 in 2024, but it shows a smart approach to digital money integration. As they are immediately turning crypto into dollars, Colorado demonstrates how governments can try new things while keeping their normal ways of working.
This balanced approach makes Colorado a state that's interested in crypto but also focused on security, helping make the whole digital asset space more legitimate.
Jacob Sims, a Harvard researcher focusing on transnational crime, mentioned that setting up a business in the United States offers credibility to both lawful and unlawful operations alike. Foreign corporations have the opportunity to open bank accounts in the US market and employ workers while forging business partnerships. According to him, this facade of legitimacy is very important.
The Xinbi case highlights the changing landscape of cryptocurrency, showcasing its potential while underscoring the need for improved regulation. Xinbi and Huione Guarantee processed over $24 billion in transactions, with both platforms operating publicly on Telegram, demonstrating crypto's global reach.
Governments are strengthening efforts to combat misuse, but the quick adaptability of platforms like Xinbi and Huione shows the resilience of the crypto market. Telegram removed accounts linked to these platforms, and Huione was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, yet both quickly adjusted, reflecting the rapidly evolving nature of digital currency.
This situation raises important questions about cryptocurrency governance. Colorado has seen a modest increase in crypto adoption, prompting lawmakers to consider its potential benefits. Governor Polis has been a strong advocate for crypto, emphasising technological progress and the need for oversight.
Elliptic is now tracking 30 Chinese-language platforms, highlighting the global scope of the issue. The combination of Telegram and Tether's stablecoin has led to new digital marketplaces, and if proper governance is implemented, it could bring greater transparency and accountability, unlocking crypto's full potential for the future.
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Using the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have created an extraordinary set of images showing debris disks in a wide range of exoplanetary systems. These dusty structures reveal where small bodies orbit their stars and provide rare insights into the earliest stages of planetary development. Gaël Chauvin (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), project scientist for SPHERE and co-author of the study, explains: "This data set is an astronomical treasure. It provides exceptional insights into the properties of debris disks, and allows for deductions of smaller bodies like asteroids and comets in these systems, which are impossible to observe directly."
In our own solar system, once you look past the Sun, the planets, and dwarf planets such as Pluto, an enormous variety of smaller ("minor") bodies comes into view. Scientists pay particular attention to objects ranging from about a kilometer to several hundred kilometers in size. Those that occasionally release gas and dust to form visible features like a tail are called comets, while those that do not show such activity are labeled asteroids.
These small bodies preserve clues to the solar system's earliest days. During the long process in which tiny grains grew into planets, intermediate objects known as planetesimals formed. Asteroids and comets are remnants of that transitional phase, planetesimals that never developed into full-size planets. In this sense, they are (somewhat) altered traces of the same ingredients that once built Earth.
Searching for small bodies in exoplanetary systems
Astronomers have identified more than 6000 exoplanets (that is, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun), giving us a clearer picture of how planetary systems vary throughout the galaxy. Directly imaging these worlds is still extremely difficult. Fewer than 100 exoplanets have been photographed so far, and even the largest ones appear only as featureless points of light.
This challenge becomes even greater when searching for small bodies. As Dr. Julien Milli, astronomer at the University Grenoble Alpes and co-author of the study, notes: "Finding any direct clues about the small bodies in a distant planetary system from images seems downright impossible. The other indirect methods used to detect exoplanets are no help, either."
Dust provides the key to detecting hidden planetesimals
The breakthrough comes not from the small bodies themselves, but from the dust created when they collide. Young planetary systems are especially active. Planetesimals frequently crash into each other, sometimes merging into larger bodies and sometimes fragmenting into smaller ones. These events release vast amounts of fresh dust.
The physics behind dust visibility is surprisingly intuitive. Breaking an object into many tiny pieces preserves its total volume, but dramatically increases its surface area. For example, if a one kilometer wide asteroid were crushed into dust grains just one micrometer across (a millionth of a meter), the overall surface area would increase by a factor of one billion. More surface area means far more light reflected from the star, which makes the dust easier to detect. By observing that dust, astronomers can infer details about the unseen small bodies producing it.
How debris disks evolve over time
Debris disks do not remain bright forever. As a young system matures, collisions become rarer. Dust can be pushed outward by radiation pressure from the central star, swept up by planets or planetesimals, or spiral inward and fall into the star.
Our solar system provides a late-stage example. After billions of years, two major planetesimal belts remain: the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Kuiper belt beyond the giant planets. A population of smaller dust grains also persists, creating zodiacal dust. Under especially dark skies, sunlight scattered by this dust can be seen shortly after sunset or before sunrise as a faint glow called zodiacal light.
For observers studying our solar system from afar, these faint leftovers would be hard to detect. The new research, however, shows that similar dusty structures around younger systems should be visible for roughly the first 50 million years of a debris disk's lifetime. Capturing these images is extremely challenging. The task has been compared to photographing a thin cloud of cigarette smoke beside a blinding stadium floodlight from several kilometers away. SPHERE, which began operating on one of ESO's Very Large Telescopes (VLT) in spring 2014, was created specifically for such situations.
How SPHERE blocks starlight to reveal faint features
The fundamental idea behind SPHERE is familiar from everyday experience. If the Sun is shining directly into your eyes, you might raise a hand to shield the glare so you can see what lies around it. SPHERE uses a coronagraph to achieve the same effect when imaging exoplanets or debris disks. By inserting a small disk into the path of the star's light, the instrument blocks most of the glare before the image is captured. This method only works if the optical system remains extremely stable and precise.
To maintain this stability, SPHERE relies on a highly advanced version of adaptive optics. Turbulence in Earth's atmosphere distorts incoming starlight, and SPHERE continually monitors these distortions and corrects them in real time using a deformable mirror. An optional component can also isolate "polarized light," which is characteristic of light reflected by dust rather than emitted directly from a star. This additional filtering enhances SPHERE's ability to detect faint debris disks.
A major survey reveals 51 debris disks in sharp detail
The new study presents a unique set of debris disk images created by analyzing starlight scattered by tiny dust particles. "To obtain this collection, we processed data from observations of 161 nearby young stars whose infrared emission strongly indicates the presence of a debris disk," says Natalia Engler (ETH Zurich), the lead author of the research. "The resulting images show 51 debris disks with a variety of properties -- some smaller, some larger, some seen from the side and some nearly face-on -- and a considerable diversity of disk structures. Four of the disks had never been imaged before."
Working with such a large sample makes it possible to find broader patterns. The analysis revealed that more massive young stars tend to host more massive debris disks. Systems where dust is concentrated farther from the star also show a tendency toward more massive disks.
Rings, belts, and hints of unseen planets
One of the most compelling aspects of the SPHERE results is the wide range of structures inside the disks. Many show rings or band-like patterns, with material clustered at specific distances from the star. This arrangement resembles our own solar system, where small bodies gather in the asteroid belt (asteroids) and the Kuiper belt (comets).
These structures are thought to be shaped by planets, especially large ones that clear out paths as they orbit. Some of the planets responsible have already been detected. In other cases, sharp edges or asymmetries in the disks strongly suggest the presence of planets that have not yet been directly observed. Because of this, the SPHERE survey provides a valuable set of targets for upcoming facilities. Instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under construction by ESO should be capable of directly imaging at least some of the planets that are sculpting these dusty rings and gaps.
Study authors and publication details
The results described here have been published as Natalia Engler et al., "Characterization of debris disks observed with SPHERE," in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The MPIA researchers involved are Gaël Chauvin, Thomas Henning, Samantha Brown, Matthias Samland, and Markus Feldt, in collaboration with Natalia Engler (ETH Zürich), Julien Milli (CNRS, IPAG, Université Grenoble Alpes), Nicole Pawellek (University of Vienna), Johan Olofsson (ESO), Anne-Lise Maire (CNRS, IPAG, Université Grenoble Alpes), and others.
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by Todd Bishop on Dec 6, 2025 at 10:23 amDecember 6, 2025 at 10:53 am
LAS VEGAS — Speaking this week on the Amazon Web Services re:Invent stage, AWS executive Colleen Aubrey delivered a prediction that doubled as a wake-up call for companies still thinking of AI as just another tool.
“I believe that over the next few years, agentic teammates can be essential to every team — as essential as the people sitting right next to you,” Aubrey said during the Wednesday keynote. “They will fundamentally transform how companies build and deliver for their customers.”
But what does that look like in practice? On her own team, for example, she challenged groups that once had 50 people taking nine months to deliver a new product to do the same with 10 people working for three months.
Meanwhile, non-engineers such as finance analysts are building working prototypes using AI tools, contributing code in Amazon's Kiro agentic development tool alongside engineers and feeding those prototypes into Amazon's famous PR/FAQ planning process on weekly cycles.
Those are some of the details that Aubrey shared when we sat down with her after the keynote at the GeekWire Studios booth in the re:Invent expo hall to dig into the themes from her talk. Aubrey is senior vice president of Applied AI Solutions at AWS, overseeing the company's push into business applications for call centers, supply chains, and other sectors.
Continue reading for takeaways from the conversation, watch the video below, and listen to the conversation starting in the second segment of this week's GeekWire Podcast.
The ‘teammate' mental model changes everything. Aubrey draws a clear line between single-purpose AI tools that do one thing well and the agentic teammates she sees emerging — systems that take responsibility for whole objectives, and require a different kind of management.
“I think people will increasingly be managers of AI,” she said. “The days of having to do the individual keystrokes ourselves, I think, are fast fading. And in fact, everyone is going to be a manager now. You have to think about prioritization, delegation, and auditing. What's the quality of our feedback, providing coaching. What are the guardrails?”
Amazon Connect crosses $1 billion. AWS's call center platform reached $1 billion in annual revenue on a run rate basis, with Aubrey noting it has accelerated year-over-year growth for two consecutive years.
This week at re:Invent, the team announced 29 new capabilities across four areas: Nova Sonic voice interaction that Aubrey says is “very close to being indistinguishable” from human conversation; agents that complete tasks on behalf of customers; clickstream intelligence for product recommendations; and observability tools for inspecting AI reasoning.
One interesting detail: Aubrey said she's often surprised by Nova Sonic's sophistication and empathy in complex conversations — and equally surprised when it fails at basic tasks like spelling an address correctly.
“There's still work to do to really polish that,” she said.
The ROI question gets a “yes and no.” Asked whether companies are seeing the business value to justify AI agent investments, Aubrey offered a nuanced response. “I observe companies to struggle to realize the business impact,” she said. But she said the value often shows up as eliminating bottlenecks — clearing backlogs, erasing technical debt, accelerating security patching — rather than immediate revenue gains.
“I'm not going to see the impact on my P&L today,” she said, “but if I fast forward a year, I'm going to have a product in market where real customers are using and getting real value, and we're learning and iterating where I might not have even been halfway there in the past.”
Her advice for companies still hesitating: “If you don't start today, that's a one way door decision… I think you have to start the journey today. I would suggest people get focused, they get moving, because if you don't, I think that becomes existential.”
Trust requires observability. Aubrey says companies won't get full value from AI teammates if they can't see how they're reasoning.
“If you don't trust an AI teammate, then you're never going to realize the full benefit,” she said. “You're not going to give them the hard tasks, you're not going to invest in their development.”
The solution is treating AI inspection the same way you'd manage a human colleague: understand why it took an action, audit the quality, and iterate.
“You can refine your knowledge bases. You can refine your workflows. You can refine your guardrails, and then confidently keep iterating… the same way we do with each other. We keep iterating, we keep learning, and we keep getting better,” she said.
Product updates: Beyond Connect, Aubrey offered updates on other parts of her portfolio of Amazon's applied AI solutions.
She teased “a few other new investment areas” expected to come in early 2026.
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Taking custom loops to a whole 'nother level.
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We're back with another classic from TrashBench, the ingenious modder who has previously dunked GPUs into transmission fluid to cool them. Perhaps that's not very convenient, so why not try something far more feasible and, maybe even genuinely practical? Taking an air cooler, dismantling it, and turning it into a Frankenstein AIO that can tame GPUs like it's a walk in the park.
Our journey starts with a Thermalright Peerless Assassin, a competent cooler on its own, but clearly, there's room for improvement. One by one, the fins from its heatsink are removed until the heatpipes running through the finstack are exposed just enough. Then, a disc cutter is carefully run through the top to get access to the magic sauce.
For those unaware, the heatpipes inside an air cooler are hollow, with a small amount of liquid inside that evaporates and condenses during heat cycles, acting as a phase-change system. That's enough to cool a CPU when combined with fans on either side. So, when we cut the tops off the pipes, we see channels inside leading directly to the base plate, which enables this madness.
Thin water tubes are connected and secured to these pipes, and once initial leaks are fixed, a pump at the other end successfully injects green-colored water through them, bringing this custom apparatus to life. It's time for testing, and an MSI RTX 3070 is the first recipient of this honor.
After being stripped down to expose the die, the DIY cooler is retrofitted on top with surprising conviction, and the whole thing is put on a test bench. On the side is a portable ice chiller, on which a 12V diaphragm pump is mounted to power the entire setup. Once turned on, ice-cold water flows through the heat pipes, touching the 3070's GPU, which sits at a casual -14 degrees Celsius.
Owing to his name, TrashBench runs a bunch of games and benchmarks on this new below-zero RTX 3070, and compared to the stock results, we see an average 10% uplift across the board. The unlocked cooling headroom enables a +320 MHz overclock that delivers decent improvements, but it's not drastic.
This is where the GTX 960 comes in.
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The same story follows: the graphics card is disassembled, and its stock cooler/shroud is replaced with our mighty water-injected cooler. But the results here are far more impressive; Cyberpunk 2077 shows a massive 21% increase in FPS, while COD: Black Ops 7 demonstrates a 220 MHz uplift in boost clocks. Overall, across all tests, the GTX 960 saw a ~17% performance bump.
TrashBench doesn't declare the experiment a success or a failure at the end. Still, we're pretty confident in singing its praises — this seems like a legit upgrade to an existing air cooler, turning it into a pseudo AIO that can help overclock GPUs without requiring a full-blown liquid nitrogen setup. It's wild but just accessible enough to be something truly special, adding the "fun" in functional.
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In September, popular creator IShowSpeed live-streamed his meeting with the popular humanoid influencer Rizzbot.
Rizzbot has more than a million followers (and 800 million views) across social media and is known for its comedic roasting of subjects, as well as giving people the middle finger. Speed, meanwhile, has more than 50 million followers (and 6 billion views) across various platforms and is known for his dramatic behavior while livestreaming.
What happened when the two parties met is the subject of a lawsuit that Rizzbot's creators, Social Robotics, detailed in a petition filed in November against Speed, né Darren Jason Watkins Jr., his management company, Mixed Management, and another producer who was with Speed's team that day. The petition, obtained by TechCrunch, alleges that Speed inflicted “irreparable damage” to Rizzbot.
The lawsuit alleged that — and the livestream video shows that — Speed repeatedly punched Rizzbot in the face, put it in a chokehold, at one point pinned it to the couch, and threw it to the ground.
“Speed absolutely knew that this was not an appropriate way to interact with a sophisticated robot and knew that such actions with inflict irreparable damage to Rizzbot,” the petition read. “These actions resulted in the total loss of the Rizzbot.”
The petition read that Speed's handling of the robot caused “complete loss of functionality,” and that Rizzbot had “significant damages” to its mouth and neck.
“Additionally, the head cameras no longer function, the ports behind the neck which connect to robot's sensors that allow it to see and hear are dead, and the robot is unstable and cannot walk straight any longer,” the petition alleges. The petition is asking for compensation for damages, including actual and lost profit, though Rizzbot's legal team declined to comment on the dollar amount the owner is seeking.
The Austin Police had to be called after the incident, according to the petition and a police report obtained by TechCrunch. The responding officer noted damages to Rizzbot done without the owner's “implied consent,” and that the owner wanted to press charges. The petition states that an investigation is ongoing.
Speed's management team did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
When reached, Social Robotics' lawyer, Joel Levine, said the lawsuit came after talks stalled with Speed's team regarding how to compensate Rizzbot's owner for the damage done to the robot.
“This was an event that was live-streamed so there's not a ton of discrepancy as to the facts,” Levine told TechCrunch. “What we're looking for is some accountability.”
The petition said that Speed “failed to act as a careful, reasonable, and prudent person,” and that he “wrongfully exercised control over,” Rizzbot. It also said that as a result of the destruction, the team behind Rizzbot has lost out on economic opportunities since Rizzbot is indefinitely unable to partake in high-profile appearances and deals, including scheduled upcoming ones with CBS's The NFL Today and Mr. Beast.
“This is no doubt a monumental setback for the Rizzbot in terms of viral momentum and financial gain from the exposure,” the petition said. “Being in a MrBeast production is akin to being in a Super Bowl Commercial.”
The petition read that in the month before the livestream, Rizzbot generated more than 600 million views on TikTok and 200 million on Instagram. In the 28 days after the incident, however, the petition alleges that Rizzbot was unable to make new content and therefore saw a more than 70% decrease in viewership. The “intentional destruction of Rizzbot caused significant financial damage that is likely permanent given the viral nature of social media,” the petition read.
Levine said there has been no formal answer to his plaintiff's suit just yet and noted that they are still in the very early stages of litigation. When asked for comment, Rizzbot told TechCrunch via email it had to get “a whole new body” after Speed “wrecked” its last one.
“Everything's brand new except my Nike kicks and cowboy hat,” Rizzbot told TechCrunch in a statement. “Now I'm back online, and I feel like I've mastered the rizz game, and next I'll be working on complex movements with my legs, like twerking – hopefully you'll see my gyrating hips on some new TV appearances shortly – stay tuned, fam.”
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The case adds to ongoing questions about the durability of the 12V-2x6 power connector.
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A Reddit user has reported that Nvidia — a company with a $5.2 trillion market cap — declined to replace their brand-new GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition, one of the best graphics cards, and that the company is trying to “burn my house down” after the card's 12V-2x6 connector lost its retention clip during the first attempt to remove the cable.
The post, shared on Thursday, December 4, in the PCMR Reddit, includes support transcripts in which the user says they were initially told the connector was safe to use before the case was escalated and ultimately ruled “customer-induced damage.”
The retention clip plays an important role in anchoring the plug inside the socket and helps ensure full insertion. This is particularly important because Nvidia attributed the widespread RTX 4090 melting incidents to partially seated 12VHPWR connectors, and the revised 12V-2x6 standard was introduced with the RTX 50 series to improve reliability.
A clip failure removes one of the few mechanical safeguards that prevent the plug from backing out under cable tension. Support logs quoted by the user indicate an initial assessment that “everything looks totally normal from pictures.” However, the customer insisted that, after seeing the disasters the connector has caused, they weren't willing to leave it as is. The nature of the replies led the original poster and those commenting to speculate that Nvidia support was relying on AI to analyze the customer's pictures and respond to their concerns.
This isn't a first for the 5080, which has been the subject of at least one earlier Reddit thread in which an owner asked whether a broken clip could cause long-term issues. Other reports include a 5080 power cable allegedly melting at the power supply side and isolated cases of 5090 connector damage. These incidents have not yet formed a clear pattern, but they sit alongside high-profile reminders that the underlying design may be flawed.
Warranty outcomes have varied across vendors. In the RTX 4090 cycle, Nvidia said it would handle RMAs for connector-related failures, even when third-party adapters were involved. Board partners did not always match that posture.
MSI previously rejected an RMA when a CableMod adapter was used, and the case only came to light after customers shared support transcripts. Cooler Master sparked its own controversy when a representative advised a user to dismantle part of a 12V-2x6 plug to fit an RTX 5070 Ti. The company later apologized and withdrew the connector from sale, noting that its internal guidance had been incorrect.
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The Reddit user behind the new 5080 claim says they have asked Nvidia to reconsider the diagnosis, arguing that a mechanical failure on the first unplug should not be treated as misuse.
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by Todd Bishop on Dec 6, 2025 at 7:56 amDecember 6, 2025 at 8:00 am
Amazon is experimenting again. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we dig into our scoop on Amazon Now, the company's new ultrafast delivery service. Plus, we recap the GeekWire team's ride in a Zoox robotaxi on the Las Vegas Strip during Amazon Web Services re:Invent.
In our featured interview from the expo hall, AWS Senior Vice President Colleen Aubrey discusses Amazon's push into applied AI, why the company sees AI agents as “teammates,” and how her team is rethinking product development in the age of agentic coding.
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> GrapheneOS has officially confirmed a major new hardware partnership—one that marks the end of its long-standing Pixel exclusivity. According to the team, work with a major Android OEM began in June and is now moving toward the development of a next-generation smartphone built to meet GrapheneOS' strict privacy and security standards.
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It's impossible to escape the Apple/Google duopoly but at least GrapheneOS makes the most out of Android regarding privacy.I still wish we could get some kind of low resource, stable and mature Android clone instead of Google needlessly increasing complexity but this will over time break app compatibility (Google will make sure of it)Edit: I do think Pixel devices used to be one of the best but still I'd like to choose my hardware and software separately interoperating via standards
I still wish we could get some kind of low resource, stable and mature Android clone instead of Google needlessly increasing complexity but this will over time break app compatibility (Google will make sure of it)Edit: I do think Pixel devices used to be one of the best but still I'd like to choose my hardware and software separately interoperating via standards
Edit: I do think Pixel devices used to be one of the best but still I'd like to choose my hardware and software separately interoperating via standards
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There are technical reasons, but as ever the real underlying causes are incentives. Companies realized that the OS is a profit center, something they can use to influence user behavior to their benefit. Before the goal was to be a hardware company and offer the best hardware possible for cost. Now the goal is to own as large a slice of your life as possible. It's more of a social shift than a technological one. So why would a company, in this new environment, invest resources in making their hardware compatible with competing software environments? They'd be undercutting themselves.That's not to say that attempts to build interoperability don't exist, just that they happen due to what are essentially activist efforts, the human factor, acting in spite of and against market forces. That doesn't tend to win out, except (rarely) in the political realm.i.e. if you want interoperable mobile hardware you need a law, the market's not going to save you one this one.
That's not to say that attempts to build interoperability don't exist, just that they happen due to what are essentially activist efforts, the human factor, acting in spite of and against market forces. That doesn't tend to win out, except (rarely) in the political realm.i.e. if you want interoperable mobile hardware you need a law, the market's not going to save you one this one.
i.e. if you want interoperable mobile hardware you need a law, the market's not going to save you one this one.
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But, I'd guess this accounts for a relatively small fraction of corporate decision on lock-in strategies for rent extraction - advanced users should be able to treat their cell phones OS like laptops, with the same basic concepts, eg just lock down the firmware for the radio output, to keep the carriers happy, and open everything else, maybe with a warranty void if you swap out your OS. Laws are needed for that, certainly.
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https://www.fcc.gov/oet/ea/rfdevice> INTENTIONAL RADIATORS (Part 15, Subparts C through F and H)> An intentional radiator (defined in Section 15.3 (o)) is a device that intentionally generates and emits radio frequency energy by radiation or induction that may be operated without an individual license.> Examples include: wireless garage door openers, wireless microphones, RF universal remote control devices, cordless telephones, wireless alarm systems, Wi-Fi transmitters, and Bluetooth radio devices.https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A...Other countries have similar regulations.PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
> INTENTIONAL RADIATORS (Part 15, Subparts C through F and H)> An intentional radiator (defined in Section 15.3 (o)) is a device that intentionally generates and emits radio frequency energy by radiation or induction that may be operated without an individual license.> Examples include: wireless garage door openers, wireless microphones, RF universal remote control devices, cordless telephones, wireless alarm systems, Wi-Fi transmitters, and Bluetooth radio devices.https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A...Other countries have similar regulations.PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
> An intentional radiator (defined in Section 15.3 (o)) is a device that intentionally generates and emits radio frequency energy by radiation or induction that may be operated without an individual license.> Examples include: wireless garage door openers, wireless microphones, RF universal remote control devices, cordless telephones, wireless alarm systems, Wi-Fi transmitters, and Bluetooth radio devices.https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A...Other countries have similar regulations.PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
> Examples include: wireless garage door openers, wireless microphones, RF universal remote control devices, cordless telephones, wireless alarm systems, Wi-Fi transmitters, and Bluetooth radio devices.https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A...Other countries have similar regulations.PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A...Other countries have similar regulations.PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
Other countries have similar regulations.PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
PCs don't have that restriction.You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
You might be able to get to the point where you have a broadcast license and can get approved to transmit in the cellphone radio spectrum and get FCC approval for doing so with your device... but if you were to distribute it and someone else was easily able to modify it who wasn't licensed and made it into a jammer you would also be liable.The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
The scale that the cellphone companies work at such liability is not something that they are comfortable with. So the devices they sell are locked down as hard as they can to make it clear that if someone was to modify a device they were selling it wasn't something that they intended or made easy.
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Since a PC was a big box of parts anyone could manufacture one. A modern phone is much more complicated.As to why there aren't a plethora: the market doesn't demand it that much. The people doing it aren't wildly successful. Perhaps that's changing (I hope so) but I know very few people outside this community who have ever thought “I wish I could have a third party version of Android”.
As to why there aren't a plethora: the market doesn't demand it that much. The people doing it aren't wildly successful. Perhaps that's changing (I hope so) but I know very few people outside this community who have ever thought “I wish I could have a third party version of Android”.
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IBM didn't think to lock it down, the BIOS was the main blocker and was relatively quickly reverse-engineered (properly, not by copying over the BIOS source IBM had included in the reference manual). They tried to fix some with the MCA bus of the PS/2 but that flopped.> almost every phone has closed driversLots of hardware manufacturers refuse to provide anything else and balk at the idea of open drivers. And reverse engineering drivers is either not worth the hassle for the manufacturer or a risk of being sued.> Why are there not yet a plethora of phones on the market that allow anyone to install their OS of choice?Incentive. Specifically its complete lack of existence.
> almost every phone has closed driversLots of hardware manufacturers refuse to provide anything else and balk at the idea of open drivers. And reverse engineering drivers is either not worth the hassle for the manufacturer or a risk of being sued.> Why are there not yet a plethora of phones on the market that allow anyone to install their OS of choice?Incentive. Specifically its complete lack of existence.
Lots of hardware manufacturers refuse to provide anything else and balk at the idea of open drivers. And reverse engineering drivers is either not worth the hassle for the manufacturer or a risk of being sued.> Why are there not yet a plethora of phones on the market that allow anyone to install their OS of choice?Incentive. Specifically its complete lack of existence.
> Why are there not yet a plethora of phones on the market that allow anyone to install their OS of choice?Incentive. Specifically its complete lack of existence.
Incentive. Specifically its complete lack of existence.
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Very little of it was open, including the headliner apps of WordPerfect and 123.Google had the benefit of three decades to study IBM's loss of control to prevent it with Android. Aside from China, they have been largely successful.
Google had the benefit of three decades to study IBM's loss of control to prevent it with Android. Aside from China, they have been largely successful.
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That's a long running effort, going all the way from lobbying (DMCA and their ilk), to all kinds of hardware root-of-trust, encrypted and signed firmware, OS kernels and drivers etc etc. And yes, today we have the transistor budgets to spend on things like this, which wasn't an option back when the PC architecture was devised.
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Same question, how does Graphene get patches?
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Currently they're only permitted to release binaries of the patches due to the embargo, this is why these patches are in the parallel stream/optional (so people unhappy with being unable to see the sources won't have them shoved down their throats).I don't have URLs at hand at the moment but all these questions have been asked many times and explained extensively on their discussion forum.I, for one, feel safe. I was patched since late October (IIRC) for the vulnerabilities that Android-related outlets were warning about in early December.It's quite surreal how unsafe the standard Android is. And how Google and the big companies pretend old devices (these running Android 11, 12, 13, not updated for several years) are safe and secure. While all it takes is the user stumbling upon one malicious we page or getting a WhatsApp message they won't even see.
I don't have URLs at hand at the moment but all these questions have been asked many times and explained extensively on their discussion forum.I, for one, feel safe. I was patched since late October (IIRC) for the vulnerabilities that Android-related outlets were warning about in early December.It's quite surreal how unsafe the standard Android is. And how Google and the big companies pretend old devices (these running Android 11, 12, 13, not updated for several years) are safe and secure. While all it takes is the user stumbling upon one malicious we page or getting a WhatsApp message they won't even see.
I, for one, feel safe. I was patched since late October (IIRC) for the vulnerabilities that Android-related outlets were warning about in early December.It's quite surreal how unsafe the standard Android is. And how Google and the big companies pretend old devices (these running Android 11, 12, 13, not updated for several years) are safe and secure. While all it takes is the user stumbling upon one malicious we page or getting a WhatsApp message they won't even see.
It's quite surreal how unsafe the standard Android is. And how Google and the big companies pretend old devices (these running Android 11, 12, 13, not updated for several years) are safe and secure. While all it takes is the user stumbling upon one malicious we page or getting a WhatsApp message they won't even see.
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GrapheneOS wants to make a FOSS Android with the security model that makes it hard for any bad party to break into the phone.LineageOS wants to make a FOSS Android that respects user's privacy first and foremost - it implements security as best as it can but the level of security protections differs on different supported devices.Good news is that if you have a boot passphrase, it's security is somewhat close to GrapheneOS - differing in that third parties with local access to the device can still brute-force their access whereas with GrapheneOS they can't - unless they have access to hardware level attacks.
LineageOS wants to make a FOSS Android that respects user's privacy first and foremost - it implements security as best as it can but the level of security protections differs on different supported devices.Good news is that if you have a boot passphrase, it's security is somewhat close to GrapheneOS - differing in that third parties with local access to the device can still brute-force their access whereas with GrapheneOS they can't - unless they have access to hardware level attacks.
Good news is that if you have a boot passphrase, it's security is somewhat close to GrapheneOS - differing in that third parties with local access to the device can still brute-force their access whereas with GrapheneOS they can't - unless they have access to hardware level attacks.
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Is that actually true? It's such a big deal, and I see little to no work being done on this front.Anyone have any idea what GrapheneOS actually deblobbed?
Anyone have any idea what GrapheneOS actually deblobbed?
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For a list of security features see here [0].[0] https://grapheneos.org/features
[0] https://grapheneos.org/features
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LineageOS has a place for those who care less about security and more about features, "freedom", compatibility, community etc...I was a LOS user and maintained my own forks for devices, but switching to GrapheneOS was a good decision and I don't really miss anything.
I was a LOS user and maintained my own forks for devices, but switching to GrapheneOS was a good decision and I don't really miss anything.
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You can have root to control your own device on Lineage, but not Graphene.
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I stand corrected. Still, as you say, less point in it since it breaks their security model.
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If neither of the two major players can make an open, secure, _simple_, easy-to-understand, bloat-free OS, then we somehow need another player.Presently (and I confess, my bias to seek non-state solutions may show here), it seems that a non-trivial part of the duopoly stems from regulatory capture insofar as the duopoly isn't merely software, but extends all the way to TSMC and Qualcomm, whose operations seem to be completely subject to state dictates, both economic/regulatory and of the darker surveillance/statecraft variety (and of those, presumably some are classified).I'm reminded of the server market 20ish years ago, where, although there were more than two players, the array of simple, flexible linux distros that are dominant today were somewhere between poorly documented and unavailable. I remember my university still running windows servers in ~2008 or so.What do we need to do to achieve the same evolution that the last 2-3 decades of server OS's have seen? Is there presently a mobile linux OS that's worth jumping on? Is there simple hardware to go with it?
Presently (and I confess, my bias to seek non-state solutions may show here), it seems that a non-trivial part of the duopoly stems from regulatory capture insofar as the duopoly isn't merely software, but extends all the way to TSMC and Qualcomm, whose operations seem to be completely subject to state dictates, both economic/regulatory and of the darker surveillance/statecraft variety (and of those, presumably some are classified).I'm reminded of the server market 20ish years ago, where, although there were more than two players, the array of simple, flexible linux distros that are dominant today were somewhere between poorly documented and unavailable. I remember my university still running windows servers in ~2008 or so.What do we need to do to achieve the same evolution that the last 2-3 decades of server OS's have seen? Is there presently a mobile linux OS that's worth jumping on? Is there simple hardware to go with it?
I'm reminded of the server market 20ish years ago, where, although there were more than two players, the array of simple, flexible linux distros that are dominant today were somewhere between poorly documented and unavailable. I remember my university still running windows servers in ~2008 or so.What do we need to do to achieve the same evolution that the last 2-3 decades of server OS's have seen? Is there presently a mobile linux OS that's worth jumping on? Is there simple hardware to go with it?
What do we need to do to achieve the same evolution that the last 2-3 decades of server OS's have seen? Is there presently a mobile linux OS that's worth jumping on? Is there simple hardware to go with it?
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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162368https://sailfishos.org
https://sailfishos.org
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Reading time 7 minutes
There are a lot of high-tech “smart” glasses nowadays, and not all of them are created equal. Some of them have screens, some of them have AI, others… well, they don't have much to offer at all. But if there's one thing that you might want out of a pair of glasses with wires in them, it's audio.
I've maintained that glasses are perfect conduits for open-ear audio, and as someone who's worn the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses extensively over the past two years, I can speak from experience. Having speakers in your glasses lets you take hands-free calls, listen to music while still hearing your surroundings, and theoretically, you don't need to reach for a separate device like wireless earbuds or headphones to do all that, since your glasses are waiting patiently on your face.
But what if you don't want all the potentially problematic stuff that comes with smart glasses, like AI, or discreet cameras, or screens? What if you just want to listen to stuff? For that, you have options, and one of them (if you're a certain type of person) is Chamelo's Music Shield.
Chamelo Music Shield
The Chamelo Music Shield audio glasses pack a lot of volume and have cool adjustable lenses but are lacking in features.
Pros
Cons
The $260 Music Shield are a… distinct pair of wraparound audio glasses. They're made by Chamelo, an eyewear company backed by an unlikely star: former New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury, who is officially listed as Chamelo's Chief Brand Officer. While Marbury and company call Chamelo glasses “smart,” the word is out on that one.
Unlike other pairs of smart glasses like Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses and the Meta Ray-Ban Display, the Music Shield lack most of what makes other frames smart. There's no voice assistant, there's no camera, there's no computer vision, and there's no screen. There is, however, a set of speakers, which you may have already gathered from the name. With those speakers, you can do a few things, like (duh) listen to music. On that front, Chamelo does a pretty decent job.
In my testing, I found that the Music Shield sound… pretty okay. The volume is good enough, which is a major component of audio in glasses like this, since you'll be contending with ambient noise while you listen. I wore the Music Shield on the streets of New York, and while they mostly held up against environmental noise, I definitely had to crank the volume to at least 80%. I have to do the same most of the time on Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, so this is no surprise.
Most likely, if you're interested in Chamelo glasses, you'll want to use them in some kind of sports environment, though. Wraparound shades are ideal for things like snowboarding, skiing, or cycling because they protect your eyes from the wind and help you see where you're going without getting blinded by air or snow. I didn't get a chance to test the Music Shield on the slopes, unfortunately, but based on the louder environments I did test them in, I'd wager they could still be heard in fast-paced, wind-heavy action. Though having tried the Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses, I'm less confident they're the best in that department.
The Oakley Meta Vanguard have big sound that's unlike any I've heard in smart glasses, and comparing one-to-one, I don't think Chamelo quite reaches the same volume. It also doesn't quite have the same fidelity. I had some issues while calling, where the call audio was much quieter than music playback despite cranking my phone volume up. I've reached out to Chamelo to clarify that issue and will update this review if/when that issue is resolved. On the bright side, at least the person I called could hear me loud and clear.
Like I mentioned, the Music Shield sound very good, but there's still a slight tinniness compared to beefier smart glasses like the Oakley Meta Vanguard. The low end is lacking, and the mids and highs come off as a little stiff. The Music Shield still sound much better than other glasses I've tried, like the Solos AirGo A5, but they're not dethroning Meta. To test the Music Shield, I tried to put myself in a sports mindset by listening to energetic music like jazz/fusion guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka and Daft Punk. I wasn't under- or overwhelmed. Let's just call it whelmed.
From an audio quality perspective, I wouldn't be upset with the fidelity of the Music Shield if I bought them with my own hard-earned money, but having tried a direct competitor like the Oakley Meta Vanguard, I might not be as impressed. Meta's version does cost a great deal more at $500, but you also get a lot of extra features there as well, including certain health integrations with Garmin smartwatches, cameras, a voice assistant, and more touch controls.
There is one thing that the Music Shield have that Meta's offerings definitely don't, though.
If you've seen Chamelo's audio glasses in your research online, the electrochromic dimming probably caught your eye. By tapping or sliding your finger on the right arm of the glasses, you can automatically adjust the tint of the wraparound lens on the fly. This feature, I'm happy to report, works well. The response time when tapping or sliding is quick, and the range of tint levels is fairly wide.
As a bit of background, electrochromic glass is a thing found in various gadgets now, including some rearview mirrors in cars. The technology works by applying an electric current to a special film or gel that's adhered to a piece of glass. That jolt actually changes the tint in response, creating an automatically dimmable panel of glass. I'm not going to lie… it's fun.
As functional as transition lenses are in smart glasses, electrochromic lenses and their ability to adjust tint instantly and to a level you've specified are a superior experience to their photochromic counterparts. Maybe that's just a personal gripe, but my experience is that transition lenses never get nearly as dark or as bright as you want them to, and certainly not as quickly as I'd like. Chamelo's Music Shield does not have that problem.
Electrochromic lenses likely haven't been adopted widely due to their additional cost and the strain they add to batteries, but it seems to me that if Chamelo can do it, other makers of smart glasses ought to look into the possibility, too. Sorry, Meta, transition lenses just aren't it.
If there's another point I can give the Music Shield, it's that they are fairly lightweight for their size. Chamelo's glasses weigh 49g, which is well under the Oakley Meta Vanguard, at 66g. That's not surprising since the Vanguard have a lot more going on inside, but it's still notable if you're in the market for a pair of lightweight glasses and don't care about cameras and AI.
The lightness also makes the Music Shield fairly comfortable to wear over longer periods. I wore the glasses in hour increments, and while they did get a little irksome toward the end of the hour, I would say no more than most glasses (smart and dumb) that I own. The nose pads, while I still think Oakley's are more comfortable, do a pretty good job of holding up the weight on my nose in a way that's not aggravating.
Luckily, since these are sports glasses, they fit snugly, which is great if you're like me and have a narrower head. It'll also help ensure they don't fly off when you're bombing a hill on a bike or snowboard. The look of the Music Shield is, uh… something. I'm not a wraparound shades guy. Maybe you are, and if that's your thing, then go for it, but on a scale of 1 yeehaw out of 10, I'm giving them 8 yeehaws. The glasses are also IPX4 rated, which makes them resistant to water splashes (light rain) and sweat, but not fully waterproof. Don't wear these in the pool. There is no prescription lens compatibility.
While Chamelo purposely focuses mostly on audio, I do find the Music Shield to be a little lacking in terms of features. There is no companion app for one, though Chamelo's website confusingly mentions “app-enabled controls” for some reason; there is no voice assistant; there is no touch bar on the arm for controlling volume. For $260, those are things that I'd expect, but maybe adding electrochromic lenses comes at a cost both literally and figuratively. Those aren't dealbreakers, but it does make doing things like checking the battery interesting. The best way I've identified to monitor the battery level is natively through iOS, which will tell you (like it does with other Bluetooth devices) how much juice you have.
Speaking of battery life, I found that the Music Shield live up to their claim of having 6.5 hours of music playback/calling. After two hours of music playback at 80% volume, the glasses dropped from 90% to 50% battery. It's not quite as good as Meta and its Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 AI glasses, which claim 8 hours on a single charge, but it's solid. I do like the inclusion of an easily accessible on/off button, though there are no sensors that detect when the glasses are folded, so you'll have to use it each time you want to turn the glasses off. To charge the Music Shield, there's an included magnetic cable. Unlike the Oakley Meta glasses, there is no charging case, just a fairly nondescript (somewhat chonky) carrying case.
Not everyone will find audio glasses useful, but some might. If you're looking for a device that provides decent open-ear audio and wind protection, and you love the wraparound look, they should be on your radar. If you want more features that other truly smart glasses have to offer, though, these are not the specs for you.
The Music Shield are a bit of a contradiction; they're obnoxious (the look), but also barebones (the features). I personally would have liked to see a bit more out of the glasses with a $260 price tag—touch controls for volume, app support, maybe a voice assistant. But if none of that bothers you, then maybe you'll feel fine wrapping your hands and your head around these glasses. Personally, I still think the Oakley Meta Vanguard take the cake, but then again, this review is about the only time you'll catch me wearing the same glasses as someone who's into bass fishing, so who am I to say?
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For $130 you can get some of the best-sounding wireless earbuds I've listened to all year.
It is my pleasure to welcome Robosen's Soundwave.
The Antigravity A1 drone offers an experience akin to being in a glass orb hovering 500 meters above the earth.
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Best I could do would be two 5070 Tis.
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"With great prices comes great responsibility", or so the saying goes. The DDR5 shortage has led to near-hyperinflation on the best RAM, and stores everywhere are raising prices by the day, all while manufacturers continue to issue alerts. Some chipmakers are dropping out of the consumer market entirely. However, the ongoing crisis does make for some amusing, or should we say heart-warming anecdotes, like this Facebook PC enthusiast who traded 192GB of DDR5-5200 RAM worth $2,200 for one RTX 5070 Ti worth roughly $800, despite his memory being worth roughly triple what he got in return.
The trade took place in the Facebook group "Pc, Gaming, Setups, and Building Advice", where one Abdul Kareem As, who had a Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200 C38 192GB (4x48GB), traded the RAM haul for a PNY RTX 5070 Ti graphics card. Like us, you're probably thinking that this negotiation wasn't the smartest deal in history.
Abdul was fully aware of the apparent delta in market value between the two items, though. In a comment, he says that "he's not greedy like others here" and says he reportedly bought the RAM for $375 and ultimately got an RTX 5070 Ti for that amount.
True to his word, he states that it "would have felt unethical to sell at such a high price" and that he's happy with his decision. Likewise, he didn't want to parcel out the kit for maximum profit either. It's safe to say he bows to no one, and this is probably the best Christmas story we techies will see this year.
The exchange took place on Thursday, and today's prices pin the Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200 C38 192GB memory kit's value at around $2,201.99, which is more than 3X the $649.99 price when the memory kit hit the retail market last year. We did some digging for the cheapest no-frills memory and found a Crucial 96 GB DDR5-5600 kit for $749.99, so you could complete the set with two of those. For a 4 x 48 GB kit, you'd have to spring $1,999.99 for G.Skill's 192 GB DDR-6000 set.
As for the graphics card, it's a no-frills, solid PNY RTX 5070 Ti. Another dive into Newegg pulls out a couple of RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards from Zotac, MSI, and Gigabyte for $749.99, with the standard low-end tag hovering around $800. So all things considered, Abdul's grand generosity had a $600 to $700 value, meaning "fair" value for the trade would have been closer to two 5070 Ti cards, not one.
He also mentioned that he had a choice between getting the graphics card or an Asus 27" QD-OLED 240 Hz display. There's no telling what exact model that would be, but it's possible it's the ROG Strix XG27AQDMG, a 1440p WOLED display that goes for $699. If it's specifically a QD-OLED display, our bet is on the ROG Strix XG27UCDMG, a 4K variant that would set you back a nice $949. Abdul would perhaps have been wiser to exchange the display for both pieces of hardware, or for one of them plus some cash.
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Nevertheless, while it's easy to deride Abdul's negotiation savvy, it's worth noting that the rise in DDR5 prices was so rapid and violent that anyone not following the space closely might not be aware of the price crisis. Even so, it seems Abdul was fully aware of the value of the goods he was carrying, but decided instead to make someone's day.
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Reading time 3 minutes
A pseudonymous trader, known only as AlphaRaccoon, on prediction market Polymarket has drawn sharp scrutiny after reportedly turning a $1.15 million profit in under 24 hours by betting on Google's 2025 Year in Search rankings. The positions covered niche questions, such as whether the singer d4vd would top the list or if Pope Leo XIV would crack the top five. Blockchain records show the bets landed just before Google published the data related to these markets for the first time.
Notably, these were not the only Google-related bets in AlphaRacoon's history. Months earlier, in November 2025, the user pocketed over $150,000 by nailing the exact launch day of Google's Gemini 3.0 AI model; however, the bet regarding the specific release date of Gemini 3.0 was not nearly as asymmetric as some of the more recent bets associated with Google's 2025 Year in Search. Across 23 Google-related markets this time, the account hit 22 correct outcomes, according to a report in Forbes. This included a nearly 20x gain on predicting d4vd would be the most searched person of the year.
A Google insider has officially been exposed on Polymarket.
This dude just profited $1,000,000 in a single day betting on the Google search markets.
Google accidentally pushed the results early, then removed them, but not before it revealed he went 22/23 on his bets and… pic.twitter.com/44raBXoD4x
— haeju.eth (@JeongHaeju) December 4, 2025
Polymarket trader Haeju Jeong, who is also a blockchain engineer, laid out the case bluntly on X. “This isn't a lucky streak,” they wrote, sharing screenshots of the profile and markets. “He's a Google insider milking Polymarket for quick money.”
Polymarket's own Polymarket Money account amplified the situation without taking sides in the larger debate regarding potential insider trading. “$1.15M profit in 24 hours trading Google search markets,” it posted, tagging the profile with a simple question: “Who is AlphaRaccoon?”
To be clear, no hard proof ties AlphaRaccoon to Google as of yet, and the user hasn't commented on the matter publicly. The evidence remains circumstantial for the time being, and it's unclear if there is any ongoing investigation into these trades from either Google or Polymarket. While a real-world identity has yet to be tied to these trades publicly, the reality is that the money can be traced on the completely public and transparent, albeit pseudonymous, blockchain ledger upon which they were made.
While critics of AlphaRaccoon's recent trades decry the episode as cheating, the reality is that this is what people who love prediction markets want to see.
These types of markets were outlawed in an earlier age of the internet due to concerns around gambling addiction and potential manipulation of public events. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 clamped down on online platforms, treating many bets as unregulated futures and blocking payment processors from facilitating trades. However, Kalshi avoided the UIGEA issue by getting regulated by the CFTC as a platform for legitimate financial derivatives rather than gambling, while Polymarket initially came to prominence using crypto to get around payment restrictions. Polymarket was fined by the CFTC in 2022 and had to stop offering services to the U.S., but it is currently betting on the relaxed regulatory environment under Trump and is slowly bringing back services focused on sports gambling, for now.
Advocates say unrestricted prediction markets can offer better information verification by pooling bets on specific claims being true or false and effectively making cheap talk on social media more expensive. If insiders flood these sorts of markets with their own bets, the argument goes, sharpened prices should indirectly provide unknown information to market observers. However, many critics argue that these platforms are simply mechanisms for gambling where information insiders have an unfair advantage or even avenues for election or corporate manipulation.
“Why are you saying this as it was a bad thing? You want insider trading!” one user wrote on X.
Why are you saying this as it was a bad thing? You want insider trading!
People bet to learn when it's released. Someone just told them. Prediction markets are information markets / crowdfunding of information. The market learned the information before it was public,…
— Juraj Bednar (@jurbed) December 4, 2025
While traditional finance bans insider trading on stocks, no explicit rules bind prediction market participants on platforms like Polymarket. When public companies are involved in these sorts of markets, it creates a potential loophole for trading on similar information without SEC oversight.
Accusations of insider trading on prediction markets also aren't new. Traders have faced similar heat over other bets, such as the Nobel Peace Prize winner. In terms of insider trading in the crypto market more generally, there was also the recent case of suspicious trades made in the days prior to the announcement of an acquisition deal made by crypto exchange Coinbase.
These sorts of cases continue to bring up the question of whether crypto is being used for the often-touted use case of “democratized finance” or simply enabling insider profiteering for a new set of institutional overlords, including those around President Trump.
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The company's first product, the Atlas Eon 100 scalable DNA data storage service, has been announced.
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Atlas Data Storage, a DNA-based storage tech startup, has announced its first commercial offering. Rather than releasing DNA storage hardware to the masses, the company has begun to offer Atlas Eon 100, which it claims to be the “world's first scalable DNA data storage offering.” Alongside the launch, there are some mighty big claims about how dense and how durable DNA storage can be, with quite a few magnetic tape comparisons thrown in.
“Atlas is proud to be the only company in the world delivering storage products based on DNA technology at scale,” said Bill Banyai, Founder of Atlas Data Storage. “This is the culmination of more than ten years of product development and innovation across multiple disciplines. We intend to offer new solutions for long-term archiving, data preservation for AI models, and the safeguarding of heritage and high-value content.”
It sounds pretty compelling, so let's take a closer look at the claims and comparisons. On its website and in its PR, Atlas headlines its communications to call out the durability of DNA.
We've discussed DNA storage and this aspect of the technology before. Atlas' specific claims for its Eon 100 product/service are that these capsules can “store [data] for millennia with no refresh needed,” and that they are stable to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
It compares these stats with magnetic tape, directly, which it says requires continuous refresh cycles every 7-10 years, and requires storage facilities with “specialized temperature and humidity controls.” The firm also insists that duplication is easier and faster with DNA.
Storage density is another feather in the DNA storage cap. Atlas specifically claims that its archive solution can store a colossal 60PB of data in 60 cubic inches. The illustration appears to show six trays of those pill-sized capsules. According to my math, 60 cubic inches is a smidgen under a liter, a single liter. Back to U.S. friendly units, and that's a little bit larger than a quart. Please do your own conversions if you want that in hogsheads or firkins.
Whatever units you prefer, though, the 60PB Atlas Eon 100 storage rack is about 1,000 denser (thus smaller) than if LTO-10 tape were used to hold the same data.
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Atlas was scheduled to demonstrate Eon 100 at the AIMA Conference in Baltimore yesterday. But the firm doesn't sell Eon 100 directly through the web right now. Interested parties are asked to reach out via its web form. So we don't know about pricing plans, for example.
Reading through the firm's materials, it seems to leverage synthesized DNA from Twist Bioscience. We have heard of this company previously, due to its DNA storage collaborations with Microsoft.
It is exciting to hear about the commercialization of DNA storage gaining momentum, through service offerings like this. However, making this durable and dense bio-inspired data storage mainstream still looks a long way off. We can visualize laptops with DNA data capsule ports for vast local write-once read-many storage, but it could easily be a decade (or longer) before such high-tech sorcery becomes reality.
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It was only back in June that Android 16 delivered a raft of new features for Google's operating system, but the company just announced another bumper package of updates, including more customization options, better parental controls, and smart notifications.
You can now create custom icon shapes, cohesive themes, and extend dark mode to apps that don't have their own dark theme. The overhauled parental controls let you manage screen time, downtime, app usage, and rewards directly on your kid's devices, while AI-powered notification summaries give you a TL;DR of long messages or group chats. Related notifications are also now grouped, and lower-priority notifications, like promotions, are silenced.
There are nifty new accessibility features too. Expressive Captions now have the relevant emotion tags, and they're rolling out in English-speaking YouTube videos as well as across Android. Configurable AutoClick for mouse users reduces strain, Guided Frame is now more descriptive about what's in the camera's view on the Pixel camera app, and you can launch Voice Access with a voice command to Gemini. Fast Pair for hearing aids is also expanding (now available for Demant, Starkey support coming in early 2026), and better voice dictation with TalkBack is coming soon. These features are coming to Pixel devices first, but will follow to third-party devices in time.
Google is also showing some love to older versions of Android, with features that aren't 16-specific, such as Emoji Kitchen stickers, the ability to leave and report group chats in Google Messages, the option to check for scams with Circle to Search, and pinned tabs in Chrome just like on desktop. My favorite new feature is Call Reason, which enables you to flag your call to any saved contact as “urgent.” —Simon Hill
Sony has released the A7 V, an upgrade to the prosumer full-frame Alpha 7 camera. The mark 5 version of the A7 brings a new 33-MP partially stacked CMOS sensor and the BIONZ XR2 processor, which brings the AI processing unit into the processor. Also notably improved in this update is the In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS), which is now up to 7.5 stops. There are 16 stops of dynamic range, 30-fps shooting with full autofocus, and Sony's remarkably good AI subject and eye detection as well.
While the A7 series skews toward the still-photo shooter, there are some video improvements worth noting, include 7K oversampled 4K/60-fps full-frame recording. There's also 4K/120 fps available in Super 35-mm mode (APS-C). Alas, there's no open gate recording here. That's reserved for the high-end flagships like the A1.
I've had a chance to test out the A7 V for a few days, and so far the outstanding feature is the autofocus, which is by far the most accurate system I've ever used in a camera at this price. The low-light possibilities of 7.5-stop IBIS are also impressive. The Sony A7 V will be available at the end of December for $2,899. You can preorder today at Adorama and B&H Photo. —Scott Gilbertson
Even the best folding phones right now only have a single fold, mostly going from regular phone size to a 7- or 8-inch tablet, but Samsung is about to unfurl its Galaxy Z TriFold in the US. Despite the name, it has two folds, but that lets you go from a regular (but pretty thick) phone to a whopping 10-inch tablet that's just 3.9-mm thick (ignoring the camera module).
Naturally, it is a specs beast with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for Galaxy inside, a 200-MP camera, and a 5,600-mAh three-cell battery (the biggest Samsung has put in a folding phone so far). It also supports 45W fast charging, has 16 GB of RAM, and comes with 512 GB or 1 TB of storage. But it's really all about that mammoth 10-inch AMOLED screen. The resolution is 2160 x 1584 pixels, it can hit 1,600 nits peak brightness, and it supports a 120-Hz adaptive refresh rate.
We knew it was coming because Samsung has been teasing a trifold all year, but it will be the first such design to land stateside. The Huawei Mate XT, which I went hands-on with at MWC, never made it to the US. While a 10-inch screen in your pocket is great if you love to watch movies or multitask on your phone (Samsung will allow three apps side-by-side), the Galaxy Z TriFold is thick when closed (12.9 mm discounting the camera module), very heavy (309 grams), and will likely cost a frightening amount of money (I'm guessing $3K-ish). It will land in the US in the first quarter of 2026. —Simon Hill
A popular accessory for e-readers has been a page-turning remote, allowing you to turn the page with a click of the remote in your hand instead of needing to swipe or click on the device itself. It's a popular choice for power readers who have accessories to hold up their e-reader for them, and a remote is a good ergonomic and accessibility option. These page turners have only been third-party accessories until now, with Kobo dropping the Kobo Remote just in time for the holiday season. It's built to connect with any Kobo e-reader with Bluetooth capabilities, and Kobo promises it will have a long battery life (which is important, speaking as someone whose cheap third-party page turner died every time I tried to use it.) It's a fun gift for anyone with a Kobo e-reader, but it makes me wonder: Where's the Kindle version, Amazon? Hopefully we'll see an option from all popular e-reader makers next year, but for now, Kobo is the first. —Nena Farrell
With the new generation of voice assistants, better conversationality is the big promise. Amazon expanded the conversation options with its new assistant, Alexa+, by adding a new jump-to-scene feature with Fire TVs that lets you ask for a specific scene in a show or movie and Amazon's assistant will immediately play your entertainment of choice from that point. You can describe scenes for Alexa+ to find, by saying things like “the scene in Mamma Mia where Sophie sings 'Honey, Honey'" or “the card scene in Love Actually” and Alexa+ will now be able to find it. Amazon promises this will work with thousands of movies on Prime Video, and that it'll work with all Fire TV devices that have Alexa+ compatibility, which includes the second generations of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K, the third-gen Fire TV Cube, plus a handful of different Fire TVs. —Nena Farrell
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Russian drones with Starlink Mini terminals on board are still being spotted despite assurances, a year earlier, of ‘good solutions' to prevent this from happening.
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Ukraine's Defence Express news has highlighted the continuing issue of Russian drones with access to Starlink satellite internet guidance. Despite assurances from U.S. Pentagon officials from over a year ago, drones from the Russian aggressors are still flying into Ukrainian airspace to strike their targets – with Starlink hardware clearly strapped to them, claims the source (machine translation).
The new report, on what seems to be an ongoing issue, has been sparked by one of the first sightings of a crashed/disabled ‘Molniya' (Lightning) strike drone. This is shown in pictures originally shared by Serhiy ‘Flash' Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian electronic warfare and communications expert, who is active on Telegram social media.
In the images, a Starlink Mini is clearly perched atop the grounded drone. ‘Flash' doesn't insist this drone actually came from Russia, but the overall design and internal components (like the battery) suggest it was very likely a Russian device.
Perhaps even more serious than this latest spotting is the Ukraine Defense Express assertion that Starlink usage by Russian drones hasn't been totally stopped since it was first documented in 2024.
Later that same year, the US Defense Department's assistant secretary for space policy, John Plumb, told Bloomberg that the Russian military's unauthorized use of SpaceX's Starlink internet had been blunted. An IMI report says that Plumb wasn't specific about the measures put in place to deny Russian access, but that it was a “good solution” for Starlink and Ukraine.
Russian Shahed-136 drones have previously been seen kitted out with Starlink gear. The Ukraine Defense Express says that Russia's recently unveiled RD-8 mother drone is Starlink controllable, too. Evidence of this wasn't reproduced within the source story.
If the Ukraine Defense Express is correct, though, it is unsettling to know that the incessant Russian drone onslaught hitting Ukraine's military, civilians, and key infrastructure could be weakened with just a little more political will.
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https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO9MwTHCoR_/?igsh=MTZybml2NDB...The screenshots/videos of them doing it are pretty wild, and insane they are editing creators' uploads without consent!
The screenshots/videos of them doing it are pretty wild, and insane they are editing creators' uploads without consent!
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To me, this clearly looks like a case of a very high compression ratio with the motion blocks swimming around on screen. They might have some detail enhancement in the loop to try to overcome the blockiness which, in this case, results in the swimming effect.It's strange to see these claims being taken at face value on a technical forum. It should be a dead giveaway that this is a compression issue because the entire video is obviously highly compressed and lacking detail.
It's strange to see these claims being taken at face value on a technical forum. It should be a dead giveaway that this is a compression issue because the entire video is obviously highly compressed and lacking detail.
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Also the voice is pretty unemotional and nothing to do with the original voice. And it being a default that you can't even seem to disable...
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I am by no means fluent in French, but I speak it well enough to get by with the aid of the subtitles, so that was fine. In an ideal world, I'd have the original French audio with English subtitles, but that did not appear to be an option.
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Such as?This seems like such an easy thing for someone to document with screenshots and tests against the content they uploaded.So why is the top voted comment an Instagram reel of a non-technical person trying to interpret what's happening? If this is common, please share some examples (that aren't in Instagram reel format from non-technical influencers)
This seems like such an easy thing for someone to document with screenshots and tests against the content they uploaded.So why is the top voted comment an Instagram reel of a non-technical person trying to interpret what's happening? If this is common, please share some examples (that aren't in Instagram reel format from non-technical influencers)
So why is the top voted comment an Instagram reel of a non-technical person trying to interpret what's happening? If this is common, please share some examples (that aren't in Instagram reel format from non-technical influencers)
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Rheet Shull's video is quite high quality and shows it.When it was published I went to Youtube's website and saw Rick Beato's short video mentioned by him and it was clearly AI enhanced.I used to work with codec people and have them as friends for years so what TFA is talking about is definitely not something a codec would do.
When it was published I went to Youtube's website and saw Rick Beato's short video mentioned by him and it was clearly AI enhanced.I used to work with codec people and have them as friends for years so what TFA is talking about is definitely not something a codec would do.
I used to work with codec people and have them as friends for years so what TFA is talking about is definitely not something a codec would do.
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After posting a cogent explanation as to why integrated AI filtering is just that, and not actually part of the codec, Youtube creates dozens of channels with AI-generated personalities, all explaining how you're nuts.These channels and videos appear on every webpage supporting your assertions, including being top of results on search. Oh, and AI summaries on Google searxh, whenever the top is searched too.
These channels and videos appear on every webpage supporting your assertions, including being top of results on search. Oh, and AI summaries on Google searxh, whenever the top is searched too.
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It's difficult for me to read this as anything other than dismissing this person's views as being unworthy of discussing because they are are "non-technical," a characterization you objected to, but if you feel this shouldn't be the top level comment I'd suggest you submit a better one.Here's a more detailed breakdown I found after about 15m of searching, I imagine there are better sources out there if you or anyone else cares to look harder: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1lllnse/youtube_sh...To me it's fairly subtle but there's a waxy texture to the second screenshot. This video presents some more examples, some of them have are more textured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86nhP8tvbLY
Here's a more detailed breakdown I found after about 15m of searching, I imagine there are better sources out there if you or anyone else cares to look harder: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1lllnse/youtube_sh...To me it's fairly subtle but there's a waxy texture to the second screenshot. This video presents some more examples, some of them have are more textured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86nhP8tvbLY
To me it's fairly subtle but there's a waxy texture to the second screenshot. This video presents some more examples, some of them have are more textured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86nhP8tvbLY
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Perhaps a useful analogy is "breaking userspace." It's important to correctly diagnose a bug breaking userspace to ship a fix. But it's a bug if its a change that breaks userspace workflows, full stop. Whether it met the letter of some specification and is "correct" in that sense doesn't matter.If you change someone's appearance in your post processing to the point it looks like they've applied a filter, your post processing is functionally a filter. Whether you intended it that way doesn't change that.
If you change someone's appearance in your post processing to the point it looks like they've applied a filter, your post processing is functionally a filter. Whether you intended it that way doesn't change that.
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No need to downplay it.
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ETA: I rewatched the video to the end, and I do see that they pose the question about whether it is targeted at certain content at the very end of the video. I had missed that, and I don't think that's what's happening.
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If your compression pipeline gives people anime eyes because it's doing "detail enhancement", your compression pipeline is also a filter. If you apply some transformation to a creator's content, and then their viewers perceive that as them disingenuously using a filter, and your response to their complaints is to "well actually" them about whether it is a filter or a compression artifact, you've lost the plot.To be honest, calling someone "non-technical" and then "well actually"ing them about hair splitting details when the outcome is the same is patronizing, and I really wish we wouldn't treat "normies" that way. Regardless of whether they are technical, they are living in a world increasingly intermediated by technology, and we should be listening to their feedback on it. They have to live with the consequences of our design decisions. If we believe them to be non-technical, we should extend a lot of generosity to them in their use of terminology, and address what they mean instead of nitpicking.
To be honest, calling someone "non-technical" and then "well actually"ing them about hair splitting details when the outcome is the same is patronizing, and I really wish we wouldn't treat "normies" that way. Regardless of whether they are technical, they are living in a world increasingly intermediated by technology, and we should be listening to their feedback on it. They have to live with the consequences of our design decisions. If we believe them to be non-technical, we should extend a lot of generosity to them in their use of terminology, and address what they mean instead of nitpicking.
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I'm not critiquing their opinion that the result is bad. I also said the result was bad! I was critiquing the fact that someone on HN was presenting their non-technical analysis as a conclusive technical fact.Non-technical is describing their background. It's not an insult.I will be the first to admit I have no experience or knowledge in their domain, and I'm not going to try to interpret anything I see in their world.It's a simple fact. This person is not qualified to be explaining what's happening, yet their analysis was being repeated as conclusive fact here on a technical forum
Non-technical is describing their background. It's not an insult.I will be the first to admit I have no experience or knowledge in their domain, and I'm not going to try to interpret anything I see in their world.It's a simple fact. This person is not qualified to be explaining what's happening, yet their analysis was being repeated as conclusive fact here on a technical forum
I will be the first to admit I have no experience or knowledge in their domain, and I'm not going to try to interpret anything I see in their world.It's a simple fact. This person is not qualified to be explaining what's happening, yet their analysis was being repeated as conclusive fact here on a technical forum
It's a simple fact. This person is not qualified to be explaining what's happening, yet their analysis was being repeated as conclusive fact here on a technical forum
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I don't really see where you said the output was "bad," you said it was a compression artifact which had a "swimming effect", but I don't really see any acknowledgement that the influencer had a point or that the transformation was functionally a filter because it changed their appearance above and beyond losing detail (made their eyes bigger in a way an "anime eyes" filter might).If I've misread you I apologize but I don't really see where it is I misread you.
If I've misread you I apologize but I don't really see where it is I misread you.
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He's getting his compassionate nodding and emotional support in the comments over there.I agree that him being non-technical shouldn't be discussion-ending in this case, but it is a valid observation, wether necessary or not.
I agree that him being non-technical shouldn't be discussion-ending in this case, but it is a valid observation, wether necessary or not.
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"Non-technical" isn't an insult.What you call "well actually"ing is well within limits on a technical forum.
What you call "well actually"ing is well within limits on a technical forum.
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I agreed that the output was bad! I'm not dismissing their concerns, I was explaining that their analysis was not a good technical explanation for what was happening.
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This is going to be a huge legal fight as the terms of service you agree to on their platform is “they get to do whatever they want” (IANAL). Watch them try to spin this as “user preference” that just opted everyone into.
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Also, no one else can bear the shear amount of traffic and cost
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"Meta has been doing this; when they auto-translate the audio of a video they are also adding an Al filter to make the mouth of who is speaking match the audio more closely. But doing this can also add a weird filter over all the face."I don't know why you have to get into conspiracy theories about them applying different filters based on the video content, that would be such a weird micro optimization why would they bother with that
I don't know why you have to get into conspiracy theories about them applying different filters based on the video content, that would be such a weird micro optimization why would they bother with that
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Excessive smoothing can be explained by compression, sure, but that's not the issue being raised there.
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Video compression operates on macroblocks and calculates motion vectors of those macroblocks between frames.When you push it to the limit, the macroblocks can appear like they're swimming around on screen.Some decoders attempt to smooth out the boundaries between macroblocks and restore sharpness.The giveaway is that the entire video is extremely low quality. The compression ratio is extreme.
When you push it to the limit, the macroblocks can appear like they're swimming around on screen.Some decoders attempt to smooth out the boundaries between macroblocks and restore sharpness.The giveaway is that the entire video is extremely low quality. The compression ratio is extreme.
Some decoders attempt to smooth out the boundaries between macroblocks and restore sharpness.The giveaway is that the entire video is extremely low quality. The compression ratio is extreme.
The giveaway is that the entire video is extremely low quality. The compression ratio is extreme.
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https://blog.metaphysic.ai/what-is-neural-compression/See this paper:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11379Look at figure 5 and beyond.Here's one such Google paper:https://c3-neural-compression.github.io/
See this paper:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11379Look at figure 5 and beyond.Here's one such Google paper:https://c3-neural-compression.github.io/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11379Look at figure 5 and beyond.Here's one such Google paper:https://c3-neural-compression.github.io/
Look at figure 5 and beyond.Here's one such Google paper:https://c3-neural-compression.github.io/
Here's one such Google paper:https://c3-neural-compression.github.io/
https://c3-neural-compression.github.io/
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Neural compression wouldn't be like HVEC, operating on frames and pixels. Rather, these techniques can encode entire features and optical flow, which can explain the larger discrepancies. Larger fingers, slightly misplaced items, etc.Neural compression techniques reshape the image itself.If you've ever input an image into `gpt-image-1` and asked it to output it again, you'll notice that it's 95% similar, but entire features might move around or average out with the concept of what those items are.
Neural compression techniques reshape the image itself.If you've ever input an image into `gpt-image-1` and asked it to output it again, you'll notice that it's 95% similar, but entire features might move around or average out with the concept of what those items are.
If you've ever input an image into `gpt-image-1` and asked it to output it again, you'll notice that it's 95% similar, but entire features might move around or average out with the concept of what those items are.
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I don't think that's actually what's up, but I don't think it's completely ruled out either.
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It looks like they're compressing the data before it gets further processed with the traditional suite of video codecs. They're relying on the traditional codecs to serve, but running some internal first pass to further compress the data they have to store.
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Seriously?Then why is nobody in this thread suggesting what they're actually doing?Everyone is accusing YouTube of "AI"ing the content with "AI".What does that even mean?Look at these people making these (at face value - hilarious, almost "cool aid" levels of conspiratorial) accusations. All because "AI" is "evil" and "big corp" is "evil".Use occam's razor. Videos are expensive to store. Google gets 20 million videos a day.I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
Then why is nobody in this thread suggesting what they're actually doing?Everyone is accusing YouTube of "AI"ing the content with "AI".What does that even mean?Look at these people making these (at face value - hilarious, almost "cool aid" levels of conspiratorial) accusations. All because "AI" is "evil" and "big corp" is "evil".Use occam's razor. Videos are expensive to store. Google gets 20 million videos a day.I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
Everyone is accusing YouTube of "AI"ing the content with "AI".What does that even mean?Look at these people making these (at face value - hilarious, almost "cool aid" levels of conspiratorial) accusations. All because "AI" is "evil" and "big corp" is "evil".Use occam's razor. Videos are expensive to store. Google gets 20 million videos a day.I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
What does that even mean?Look at these people making these (at face value - hilarious, almost "cool aid" levels of conspiratorial) accusations. All because "AI" is "evil" and "big corp" is "evil".Use occam's razor. Videos are expensive to store. Google gets 20 million videos a day.I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
Look at these people making these (at face value - hilarious, almost "cool aid" levels of conspiratorial) accusations. All because "AI" is "evil" and "big corp" is "evil".Use occam's razor. Videos are expensive to store. Google gets 20 million videos a day.I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
Use occam's razor. Videos are expensive to store. Google gets 20 million videos a day.I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
I'm frankly shocked Google hasn't started deleting old garbage. They probably should start culling YouTube of cruft nobody watches.
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To solve this problem of adding compute heavy processing to serving videos, they will need to cache the output of the AI, which uses up the storage you say they are saving.
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Google has already matched H.266. And this was over a year ago.They've probably developed some really good models for this and are silently testing how people perceive them.
They've probably developed some really good models for this and are silently testing how people perceive them.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_PoopExamples:https://youtu.be/XyuHSjXo2Nkhttps://youtu.be/wUmretPQAHohttps://youtu.be/JD3L9h45fOshttps://youtu.be/Hn0QvVgmMaQ
Examples:https://youtu.be/XyuHSjXo2Nkhttps://youtu.be/wUmretPQAHohttps://youtu.be/JD3L9h45fOshttps://youtu.be/Hn0QvVgmMaQ
https://youtu.be/XyuHSjXo2Nkhttps://youtu.be/wUmretPQAHohttps://youtu.be/JD3L9h45fOshttps://youtu.be/Hn0QvVgmMaQ
https://youtu.be/wUmretPQAHohttps://youtu.be/JD3L9h45fOshttps://youtu.be/Hn0QvVgmMaQ
https://youtu.be/JD3L9h45fOshttps://youtu.be/Hn0QvVgmMaQ
https://youtu.be/Hn0QvVgmMaQ
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[1] https://github.com/vivianhylee/seam-carving
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Though there is a LOT of room to subtly train many kinds of lossy compression systems, which COULD still imply they're doing this intentionally. And it looks like shit.
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A legal experiment for sure. Hope everyone involved can clear their schedules for hearings in multiple jurisdictions for a few years.
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That doesn't include all of the transcoding and alternate formats stored, either.People signing up to YouTube agree to Google's ToS.Google doesn't even say they'll keep your videos. They reserve the right to delete them, transcode them, degrade them, use them in AI training, etc.It's a free service.
People signing up to YouTube agree to Google's ToS.Google doesn't even say they'll keep your videos. They reserve the right to delete them, transcode them, degrade them, use them in AI training, etc.It's a free service.
Google doesn't even say they'll keep your videos. They reserve the right to delete them, transcode them, degrade them, use them in AI training, etc.It's a free service.
It's a free service.
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It is bad enough we can deepfake anyone. If we also pretend it was uploaded by you the sky is the limit.
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And over time the AI content will improve enough where it becomes impossible and then the Great AI Swappening will occur.
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There's already popular subreddits (something blursed ai I think) where people upload this type of content and it's getting decent engagement it seems
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It seems like a minor difference, but the undifferentiated unlabeled short form addiction feed is much worse.Reddit has been heading that way though. It hasn't gone all in yet.
Reddit has been heading that way though. It hasn't gone all in yet.
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And what for? Tiktok creators already generate content for them
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There's a component of people around here who will shrug or even cheer. That's because we are losing any belief in compassion or optimism about uplifting humanity. When I really think about it, it's terrifying.We are headed for a world where normal people just step over the dying, and where mass exploitation of the “weak” gets a shrug or even approval. Already there in some areas and sectors.Is this the world you want, folks? Unfortunately I've met a disturbing number of people who would say yes.Now consider that this includes children, whose childhood is being stolen by chum feeds. This includes your own relatives. This includes your friend who maybe has a bit of an addictive personality who gets sucked into gambling apps and has their life ruined. Or it's you, maybe, though I get the sense there's a lot of “high IQ” people who think they can't be conned.
We are headed for a world where normal people just step over the dying, and where mass exploitation of the “weak” gets a shrug or even approval. Already there in some areas and sectors.Is this the world you want, folks? Unfortunately I've met a disturbing number of people who would say yes.Now consider that this includes children, whose childhood is being stolen by chum feeds. This includes your own relatives. This includes your friend who maybe has a bit of an addictive personality who gets sucked into gambling apps and has their life ruined. Or it's you, maybe, though I get the sense there's a lot of “high IQ” people who think they can't be conned.
Is this the world you want, folks? Unfortunately I've met a disturbing number of people who would say yes.Now consider that this includes children, whose childhood is being stolen by chum feeds. This includes your own relatives. This includes your friend who maybe has a bit of an addictive personality who gets sucked into gambling apps and has their life ruined. Or it's you, maybe, though I get the sense there's a lot of “high IQ” people who think they can't be conned.
Now consider that this includes children, whose childhood is being stolen by chum feeds. This includes your own relatives. This includes your friend who maybe has a bit of an addictive personality who gets sucked into gambling apps and has their life ruined. Or it's you, maybe, though I get the sense there's a lot of “high IQ” people who think they can't be conned.
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The conspiracy theory that this is done to make people get used to AI content is the kind of bs that would be derided and flagged otherwise… but since it is anti-tech, it's fine. Shows how the site is going.
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ffmpeg -i source.mkv -i suspect.mkv -filter_complex "blend=all_mode=difference" diff_output.mkvI saw these claims before but still have not found someone to show a diff or post the source for comparison. It would be interesting.
I saw these claims before but still have not found someone to show a diff or post the source for comparison. It would be interesting.
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Edit: The changes made by the ai are a lot more vissible in the higher quality video uploaded to patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/136994036 (this was also linked in the pinned comment on the youtube video)
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We need more people experimenting with creating a better platform for content creators. Not least so people like Beato, but not as well known, don't constantly get harassed by fraudulent and incorrect copyright infringement claims.
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OR they need to justify the mountain of money they burned on AI somehow.Also there are alternatives to Youtube in the Fediverse like PeerTube.
Also there are alternatives to Youtube in the Fediverse like PeerTube.
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As it is, when a video has a catchy clickbait title, I screenshot the thumbnail and have ChatGPT give me the solution. Or I'll copy the URL into a transcript fetcher and feed that into Gemini so I can ask specific questions.He who clickbaits is demoted to the role of “Suggest a topic for me to ask ChatGPT about”.
He who clickbaits is demoted to the role of “Suggest a topic for me to ask ChatGPT about”.
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edit: here's the effect I'm talking about with lossy compression and adaptive quantization: https://cloudinary.com/blog/what_to_focus_on_in_image_compre...The result is smoothing of skin, and applied heavily on video (as Youtube does, just look for any old video that was HD years ago) would look this way
The result is smoothing of skin, and applied heavily on video (as Youtube does, just look for any old video that was HD years ago) would look this way
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That would presumably be an easy smoking gun for some content creator to produce.There are heavy alterations in that link, but having not seen the original, and in this format it's not clear to me how they compare.
There are heavy alterations in that link, but having not seen the original, and in this format it's not clear to me how they compare.
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People in the media business have long found their media sells better if they use photoshop-or-whatever to give their subjects bigger chests, defined waists, clearer skin, fewer wrinkles, less shiny skin, more hair volume.Traditional manual photoshop tries to be subtle about such changes - but perhaps going from edits 0.5% of people can spot to bigger edits 2% of people can spot pays off in increased sales/engagement/ad revenue from those that don't spot the edits.And we all know every tech company is telling every department to shoehorn AI into their products anywhere they can.If I'm a Youtube product manager and adding a mandatory makeup filter doesn't need much compute; increases engagement overall; and gets me a $50k bonus for hitting my use-more-AI goal for the year - a little thing like authenticity might not stop me.
Traditional manual photoshop tries to be subtle about such changes - but perhaps going from edits 0.5% of people can spot to bigger edits 2% of people can spot pays off in increased sales/engagement/ad revenue from those that don't spot the edits.And we all know every tech company is telling every department to shoehorn AI into their products anywhere they can.If I'm a Youtube product manager and adding a mandatory makeup filter doesn't need much compute; increases engagement overall; and gets me a $50k bonus for hitting my use-more-AI goal for the year - a little thing like authenticity might not stop me.
And we all know every tech company is telling every department to shoehorn AI into their products anywhere they can.If I'm a Youtube product manager and adding a mandatory makeup filter doesn't need much compute; increases engagement overall; and gets me a $50k bonus for hitting my use-more-AI goal for the year - a little thing like authenticity might not stop me.
If I'm a Youtube product manager and adding a mandatory makeup filter doesn't need much compute; increases engagement overall; and gets me a $50k bonus for hitting my use-more-AI goal for the year - a little thing like authenticity might not stop me.
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These people are having a moral crusade against an unannounced Google data compression test thinking Google is using AI to "enhance their videos". (Did they ever stop to ask themselves why or to what end?)This level of AI paranoia is getting annoying. This is clearly just Google trying to save money. Not undermine reality or whatever vague Orwellian thing they're being accused of.
This level of AI paranoia is getting annoying. This is clearly just Google trying to save money. Not undermine reality or whatever vague Orwellian thing they're being accused of.
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https://blog.metaphysic.ai/what-is-neural-compression/Instead of artifacts in pixels, you'll see artifacts in larger features.https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11379Look at figure 5 and beyond.
Instead of artifacts in pixels, you'll see artifacts in larger features.https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11379Look at figure 5 and beyond.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11379Look at figure 5 and beyond.
Look at figure 5 and beyond.
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The people fixated on "...but it made eyes bigger" are missing the point. YouTube has zero motivation to automatically apply "photo flattery filters" to all videos. Even if a "flattery filter" looked better on one type of face, it would look worse on another type of face. Plus applying ANY kind of filter to a million videos an hour costs serious money.I'm not saying YouTube is an angel. They absolutely deploy dark patterns and user manipulation at massive scale - but they always do it to make money. Automatically applying "flattery filters" to videos wouldn't significantly improve views, advertising revenue or cut costs. Improving compression would do all three. Less bandwidth reduces costs, smaller files means faster start times as viewers jump quickly from short to short and that increases revenue because more different shorts per viewer/minute = more ad avails to sell.
I'm not saying YouTube is an angel. They absolutely deploy dark patterns and user manipulation at massive scale - but they always do it to make money. Automatically applying "flattery filters" to videos wouldn't significantly improve views, advertising revenue or cut costs. Improving compression would do all three. Less bandwidth reduces costs, smaller files means faster start times as viewers jump quickly from short to short and that increases revenue because more different shorts per viewer/minute = more ad avails to sell.
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>Automatically applying "flattery filters" to videos wouldn't significantly improve views, advertising revenue or cut costs.You can't know this. Almost everything at YouTube is probably A/B tested heavily and many times you get very surprising results. Applying a filter could very well increase views and time spent on app enough to justify the cost.
You can't know this. Almost everything at YouTube is probably A/B tested heavily and many times you get very surprising results. Applying a filter could very well increase views and time spent on app enough to justify the cost.
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> This level of AI paranoia is getting annoying.Lets be straight here, AI paranoia is near the top of the most propagated subjects across all media right now, probably for worse. If it's not "Will you ever have a job again!?" it's "Will your grandparents be robbed of their net worth!?" or even just "When will the bubble pop!? Should you be afraid!? YES!!!" and also in places like Canada where the economy is predictably crashing because of decades of failures, it's both the cause and answer to macro economic decline. Ironically/suspiciously it's all the same re-hashed redundant takes by everyone from Hank Green to CNBC to every podcast ever, late night shows, radio, everything.So to me the target of one's annoyance should be the propaganda machine, not the targets of the machine. What are people supposed to feel, totally chill because they have tons of control?
Lets be straight here, AI paranoia is near the top of the most propagated subjects across all media right now, probably for worse. If it's not "Will you ever have a job again!?" it's "Will your grandparents be robbed of their net worth!?" or even just "When will the bubble pop!? Should you be afraid!? YES!!!" and also in places like Canada where the economy is predictably crashing because of decades of failures, it's both the cause and answer to macro economic decline. Ironically/suspiciously it's all the same re-hashed redundant takes by everyone from Hank Green to CNBC to every podcast ever, late night shows, radio, everything.So to me the target of one's annoyance should be the propaganda machine, not the targets of the machine. What are people supposed to feel, totally chill because they have tons of control?
So to me the target of one's annoyance should be the propaganda machine, not the targets of the machine. What are people supposed to feel, totally chill because they have tons of control?
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/05/ai-deepfakes...
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/@linguoermechanic
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You can see it on many MANY channel thumbnails now. At least with the people I follow. I'm not a fan.
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There is no way Google thinks it's in their interest to serve up clean data to anyone but themselves.
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A lot of folks here hate AI and YouTube and Google and stuff, but it would be more productive to hate them for what they are actually doing.But most people here are just taking this headline at face value and getting pitchforks out. If you try to watch the makeup guy's proof, it's talking about Instagram (not YouTube), doesn't have clean comparisons, is showing a video someone sent back to him, which probably means it's a compression artifact, not a face filter that the corporate overlords are hiding from the creator. It is not exactly a smoking gun, especially for a technical crowd.
But most people here are just taking this headline at face value and getting pitchforks out. If you try to watch the makeup guy's proof, it's talking about Instagram (not YouTube), doesn't have clean comparisons, is showing a video someone sent back to him, which probably means it's a compression artifact, not a face filter that the corporate overlords are hiding from the creator. It is not exactly a smoking gun, especially for a technical crowd.
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I have a funny attitude towards Google: I am a big privacy nut, have read the principle books on privacy, etc. That said, usually running all Google web properties in DuckDuckGo web browser, I tweak my privacy settings, etc. and then still use Google properties.YouTube is probably the highest value Google property for me (despite Gemini use, love using Google Cloud Platform, etc.)I find that the availability of an infinite number of Qi Gong exercise videos, philosophy, tiny bit of politics, science, and nature videos that is it almost infinitely better than HBO, Netflix, etc. I am a paid subscriber to all these services so I am comparing Apples to Apples here.I do hate spending 10 seconds opening a video and realizing that it was created artificially, but I immediately stop watching it so the overhead isn't too bad.One new feature I really like is if I am watching a long philosophy or science video, I paste the URI into Gemini and ask for a summary and to use what Gemini knows about me to suggest ways the material jives with my specific interests. After watching a long video it is very much worth my time getting a summary and comments that also pull in other references.Sorry for the noisy reply here, but I am saying to use Google properties mindfully, balancing pros and cons, and just use the parts that are useful and only open up sharing private information when you get something tangible for it.
YouTube is probably the highest value Google property for me (despite Gemini use, love using Google Cloud Platform, etc.)I find that the availability of an infinite number of Qi Gong exercise videos, philosophy, tiny bit of politics, science, and nature videos that is it almost infinitely better than HBO, Netflix, etc. I am a paid subscriber to all these services so I am comparing Apples to Apples here.I do hate spending 10 seconds opening a video and realizing that it was created artificially, but I immediately stop watching it so the overhead isn't too bad.One new feature I really like is if I am watching a long philosophy or science video, I paste the URI into Gemini and ask for a summary and to use what Gemini knows about me to suggest ways the material jives with my specific interests. After watching a long video it is very much worth my time getting a summary and comments that also pull in other references.Sorry for the noisy reply here, but I am saying to use Google properties mindfully, balancing pros and cons, and just use the parts that are useful and only open up sharing private information when you get something tangible for it.
I find that the availability of an infinite number of Qi Gong exercise videos, philosophy, tiny bit of politics, science, and nature videos that is it almost infinitely better than HBO, Netflix, etc. I am a paid subscriber to all these services so I am comparing Apples to Apples here.I do hate spending 10 seconds opening a video and realizing that it was created artificially, but I immediately stop watching it so the overhead isn't too bad.One new feature I really like is if I am watching a long philosophy or science video, I paste the URI into Gemini and ask for a summary and to use what Gemini knows about me to suggest ways the material jives with my specific interests. After watching a long video it is very much worth my time getting a summary and comments that also pull in other references.Sorry for the noisy reply here, but I am saying to use Google properties mindfully, balancing pros and cons, and just use the parts that are useful and only open up sharing private information when you get something tangible for it.
I do hate spending 10 seconds opening a video and realizing that it was created artificially, but I immediately stop watching it so the overhead isn't too bad.One new feature I really like is if I am watching a long philosophy or science video, I paste the URI into Gemini and ask for a summary and to use what Gemini knows about me to suggest ways the material jives with my specific interests. After watching a long video it is very much worth my time getting a summary and comments that also pull in other references.Sorry for the noisy reply here, but I am saying to use Google properties mindfully, balancing pros and cons, and just use the parts that are useful and only open up sharing private information when you get something tangible for it.
One new feature I really like is if I am watching a long philosophy or science video, I paste the URI into Gemini and ask for a summary and to use what Gemini knows about me to suggest ways the material jives with my specific interests. After watching a long video it is very much worth my time getting a summary and comments that also pull in other references.Sorry for the noisy reply here, but I am saying to use Google properties mindfully, balancing pros and cons, and just use the parts that are useful and only open up sharing private information when you get something tangible for it.
Sorry for the noisy reply here, but I am saying to use Google properties mindfully, balancing pros and cons, and just use the parts that are useful and only open up sharing private information when you get something tangible for it.
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The videos on the start page are still misaligned. Which looks almost hilariously amateurish.
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Strongly recommend. We'll get local AIs that can skip the cruft soon enough anyway.
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I wonder if it will end up being treated as part of a codec instead of edits to the base film, and can then be re-run to undo the video's?It feels like there needs to be a way to verify that what you uploaded is what's on the site.
It feels like there needs to be a way to verify that what you uploaded is what's on the site.
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It's the other way around isn't it? "AI" is a subset of ML.
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I don't understand the justification for the expense or complexity.
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I just completely despair. What the fuck happened to the internet? Absolutely none of these CEOs give a shit. People need to face real punishments
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And then the discourse is so riddled with misnomers and baited outrage that it goes nowhere.The other example in submitted post isn't 'edits to videos' but rather the text descriptions of automated captions. The Gemini/AI engine not being very good at summarizing is a different issue.
The other example in submitted post isn't 'edits to videos' but rather the text descriptions of automated captions. The Gemini/AI engine not being very good at summarizing is a different issue.
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The key section:> Rene Ritchie, YouTube's creator liaison, acknowledged in a post on X that the company was running “a small experiment on select Shorts, using traditional machine learning to clarify, reduce noise and improve overall video clarity—similar to what modern smartphones do when shooting video.”So the "AI edits" are just a compression algorithm that is not that great.
> Rene Ritchie, YouTube's creator liaison, acknowledged in a post on X that the company was running “a small experiment on select Shorts, using traditional machine learning to clarify, reduce noise and improve overall video clarity—similar to what modern smartphones do when shooting video.”So the "AI edits" are just a compression algorithm that is not that great.
So the "AI edits" are just a compression algorithm that is not that great.
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It looks like quality cleanup, but I can't imagine many creators aren't using decent camera tech and editing software for shorts.
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And as you say, arbitrarily applying quality cleanup is making assumptions of the quality and creative intent of the submitted videos. It would be one thing if creators were uploading raw camera frames to YouTube (which is what smartphone camera apps are receiving as input when shooting video), but applying that to videos that have already been edited/processed and vetted for release is stepping over a line to me. At the very least it should be opt-in (ideally with creators having the ability to preview the output before accepting to publish it).
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So counterintuitively, noise reduction improves compression ratios. In fact many video codecs are about determining which portion of the video IS noise that can be discarded, and which bits are visually important...
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Or to put it another way, to me it would be similarly disingenuous to describe e.g. dead code elimination or vector path simplification as "just a compression algorithm" because the resultant output is smaller than it would be without. I think part of what has my hackles raised is that it claims to improve video clarity, not to optimise for size. IMO compression algorithms do not and should not make such claims; if an algorithm has the aim (even if secondary) to affect subjective quality, then it has a transformative aspect that requires both disclosure and consent IMO.
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I think the first comment is why they would position noise reduction as being both part of their compression and a way to improve video clarity.
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It's in the loop of the compression and decompression algorithm.Video compression has used tricks like this for years. For example, reducing noise before decode and then adding it back in after the decode cycle. Visual noise doesn't need to be precise, so it removing it before compression and then approximating it on the other end saves a lot of bits.
Video compression has used tricks like this for years. For example, reducing noise before decode and then adding it back in after the decode cycle. Visual noise doesn't need to be precise, so it removing it before compression and then approximating it on the other end saves a lot of bits.
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No, gen AI is a subset of machine learning.
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Other subfields of AI include things like search, speech and language understanding, knowledge representation, and so on. There's a lot more to AI than machine learning and a lot more to machine learning than LLMs (“gen AI”).
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That being said, I don't believe they should be doing anything like this without the creator's explicit consent. I do personally think there's probably a good use case for machine learning / neural network tech applied to the clean up of low-quality sources (for better transcoding that doesn't accumulate errors & therefore wastes bitrate), in the same way that RTX Video Super Resolution can do some impressive deblocking & upscaling magic[2] on Windows. But clearly they are completely missing the mark with whatever experiment they were running there.[1] https://www.ynetnews.com/tech-and-digital/article/bj1qbwcklg[2] compare https://i.imgur.com/U6vzssS.png & https://i.imgur.com/x63o8WQ.jpeg (upscaled 360p)
[1] https://www.ynetnews.com/tech-and-digital/article/bj1qbwcklg[2] compare https://i.imgur.com/U6vzssS.png & https://i.imgur.com/x63o8WQ.jpeg (upscaled 360p)
[2] compare https://i.imgur.com/U6vzssS.png & https://i.imgur.com/x63o8WQ.jpeg (upscaled 360p)
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> "Making AI edits to videos" strikes me as something particularly egregious; it leads a viewer to see a reality that never existed, and that the creator never intended.
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YouTube is not applying any "face filters" or anything of the sort. They did however experiment with AI upscaling the entire image which is giving the classic "bad upscale" smeary look.Like I said, I think that's still bad and they should have never done it without the clear explicit consent of the creator. But that is, IMO, very different and considerably less bad than changing someone's face specifically.
Like I said, I think that's still bad and they should have never done it without the clear explicit consent of the creator. But that is, IMO, very different and considerably less bad than changing someone's face specifically.
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Here's some other creators also talking about it happening in youtube shorts: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/1notyzo/...another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnQ-s7LW-ghttps://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1mw0tuz/youtube_is...https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250822-youtube-is-using...
another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnQ-s7LW-ghttps://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1mw0tuz/youtube_is...https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250822-youtube-is-using...
https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1mw0tuz/youtube_is...https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250822-youtube-is-using...
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250822-youtube-is-using...
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If you open the context of the comment, they are specifically talking about the bad, entire-image upscaling that gives the entire picture the oily smeary look. NOT face filters.EDIT : same thing with the two other links you edited into your comment while I was typing my reply.Again, I'm not defending YouTube for this. But I also don't think they should be accused of doing something they're not doing. Face filters without consent are a far, far worse offense than bad upscaling.I would like to urge you to be more cautious, and to actually read what you brandish as proof.
EDIT : same thing with the two other links you edited into your comment while I was typing my reply.Again, I'm not defending YouTube for this. But I also don't think they should be accused of doing something they're not doing. Face filters without consent are a far, far worse offense than bad upscaling.I would like to urge you to be more cautious, and to actually read what you brandish as proof.
Again, I'm not defending YouTube for this. But I also don't think they should be accused of doing something they're not doing. Face filters without consent are a far, far worse offense than bad upscaling.I would like to urge you to be more cautious, and to actually read what you brandish as proof.
I would like to urge you to be more cautious, and to actually read what you brandish as proof.
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This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
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Apple rarely matches Black Friday generosity like we saw this year and in a surprising move Amazon extended the MacBook Air M4 discount well beyond Cyber Monday. The 256GB model (which happens to be Amazon's best-selling laptop) currently sits at $749 instead of $999 even though it launched just this past March. Over 4,000 reviews averaging 4.8 stars confirm this configuration delivers the performance most people actually need for daily computing.
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The Apple M4 processor lets you use multiple apps at the same time without any lag, so you forget you're doing it.The chip architecture combines the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine and memory controller on one die: This lets data move between parts faster than in traditional laptop designs and it means that applications start up right away, big files open up right away, and the system never stutters when you switch between apps.
Apple Intelligence runs on the device instead of sending your data to cloud servers and it uses the M4's Neural Engine to do AI tasks locally, keeping your data completely private. The system can help you write emails, summarize long documents, make custom emojis based on what you say, and sort notifications by importance without sending your personal information outside of the laptop. This method makes sure that AI features work even when there is no internet connection and that privacy standards are met that cloud-based AI can't guarantee.
The 16GB unified memory is twice as much as Apple used to offer as the base configuration: This extra memory makes a big difference in how the laptop handles professional tasks. Instead of having separate memory spaces, the CPU and GPU share the same pool of memory and it cuts down on the time it takes to copy data between dedicated RAM and VRAM, which speeds up performance.
The battery can last up to 18 hours with normal mixed use like web browsing, editing documents, streaming videos, and doing light creative work. Many laptops slow down their CPUs when they are not plugged in to save power, but this one works the same whether it is plugged in or running on battery. Because it works all the time, you can work through long flights, full days of classes, or long sessions at the cafe without having to look for outlets or carry charging bricks. The MagSafe charging port connects magnetically and safely disconnects if someone trips over the cable and keeps both your laptop and your mind safe.
The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display can show one billion colors and has a brightness of 500 nits and makes it great for professional photo editing and comfortable for long reading or writing sessions. Text rendering uses subpixel antialiasing to make fonts look sharp at any size which makes it easier on the eyes when working on long documents. The P3 wide color gamut on the display shows colors that standard sRGB displays can't, which is important for creative professionals. It also makes photos and videos look much more vibrant when you're just using it for fun.
Two Thunderbolt 4 ports support 40Gbps data transfer, dual 4K display output, and charging through a single cable, making it easy to connect to work. You can connect two external monitors at once, turning this ultraportable into a full-fledged workstation when you dock it at your desk. Wi-Fi 6E speeds up wireless connections and lowers latency on networks that support it. Bluetooth 5.3 improves the range and stability of wireless peripherals. The headphone jack can handle high-impedance headphones, which gives you better sound quality than most laptop outputs.
This $250 discount on current-generation hardware with double the previous base RAM configuration is an amazing deal that makes the MacBook Air M4 affordable for students and professionals who couldn't afford to buy a laptop for more than $1,000. This is the best value for a Mac laptop in years because you get Apple's newest chip, more memory, and better AI capabilities for less than older models.
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Posted:
Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, has placed himself at the center of the pack — literally — with his latest viral installation at Art Basel Miami Beach, and there's still time to see it through Sunday.
His “Regular Animals” project features $100,000 robotic dogs outfitted with hyper-realistic heads resembling Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, alongside art legends Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. The robot dogs roam a plexiglass pen, capturing images through chest-mounted cameras that are processed by AI and then essentially pooped out, according to the WSJ. Of the prints produced, 256 include QR codes that offer collectors a free NFT, dispensed in bags labeled “Excrement Sample.”
Beeple also included himself in this exclusive group, a move the Charleston-based artist himself called “ballsy.” His self-portrait dog sold first, surprising even Beeple, he told the Journal.
The project marks at least the second time Winkelmann has become the art world's main character. Four years ago, his digital collage sold at Christie's for $69 million, helping to fuel an NFT boom that would peak a year later before largely imploding.
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Jake Mozarsky
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For the first time since 1982, the FIFA World Cup has a Group L. As part of the tournament's expanded format — now featuring 48 teams — there are 12 groups of four, with matches taking place across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Though L might be the final letter for the round-robin groups, it features some high-profile matchups involving some of the world's best teams. This includes a loaded England squad, who headline the group looking to capture its first World Cup since 1966.
Following the Three Lions is Croatia — a nation that has consistently punched above its weight, reaching the World Cup semi-finals twice in the last two tournaments (2018 and 2022). They beat England in the 2018 World Cup semifinals, and the rematch is one to watch in Group L. They are joined by Panama and Ghana, completing a group that promises intrigue and tough competition for all four sides.
The Sporting News is providing everything you need to know about Group L, from the teams and schedule to the venues and odds.
2026 WORLD CUP HQ: Latest World Cup news | Full World Cup schedule | Buy World Cup tickets
BUY NOW: Get tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup on StubHub
England amassed a perfect record of eight wins from eight games in qualification to reach an eighth consecutive World Cup. The last time the Three Lions failed to reach the finals was the previous time it took place on U.S. soil in 1994.
Thomas Tuchel will lead England in a major tournament for the first time. The former Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain coach took the reins after Gareth Southgate bowed out with a final defeat to Spain at Euro 2024. Southgate was England's most successful manager since Alf Ramsey masterminded their solitary World Cup success in 1966: under him, England reached consecutive European Championship finals and were beaten in the semifinals and quarterfinals of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
The hope from the Football Association is that Tuchel's elite club-level experience will help to get an extra few per cent out of a gifted squad spearheaded by captain and record goal-scorer Harry Kane. Jude Bellingham is one of several enviable attacking options, although England look a touch light in defence.
Just missing out on a Pot 1 spot, Croatia will be pushing as far as they can at the 2026 World Cup as they look to give a famous send-off to Luka Modric. Their legendary captain, now 40 years old, is surely at his last major international competition, hoping to reach 200 career caps in the process.
While Croatia lack star power behind Modric's titanic presence, they continue to prove greater than the sum of their parts. That is largely thanks to the brilliance of head coach Zlatko Dalic, known as the chief architect of Croatia's modern rise to elite football status and by far the longest-tenured coach of any World Cup side in the 2026 field. In place since 2017, the 59-year-old has led his home country to two World Cup semifinals and one final, a UEFA Nations League final, and a Round of 16 at the Euros. While they still have not won a major title in their country's short history, their group-stage exit at Euro 2024 remains the only blemish on Dalic's otherwise glittering resume.
Croatia also benefit from a number of exceptional youth systems at the country's most prominent clubs, as the likes of Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split continue to pump out talented Croatian players who depart for major European clubs before returning to help the national team secure big results. Modric, Josko Gvardiol, and Ivan Perisic are amongst many others who all spent the majority of their youth careers at one of those two clubs.
Croatia has some history with its fellow group member, England. In 2018, Croatia defeated the Three Lions in the World Cup semifinals, winning in extra-time thanks to a Mario Mandžukić goal.
In just their second World Cup ever, Panama qualified thanks to the open spots left by the automatic qualification of CONCACAF powers USA, Canada, and Mexico. They were looking set for a place in the intercontinental playoff until Cinderella story Suriname choked on the final day of qualification.
This is the last hurrah for a veteran Panama squad that dealt the deathblow to the United States in the 2024 Copa America, as Anibal Godoy is 35, Alberto Quintero is 37, Eric Davis is 34, and Luis Mejia is 34.
Panama's first-ever World Cup was in 2018 (when they were also in a group with England), finishing dead last in the competition, so anything better than that is improvement. Coach Thomas Christiansen has brought stability to the national team, and has made them a very difficult out.
Ghana made the most of a relatively favourable draw by plotting an assured path through a CAF qualification section that has seen the likes of Nigeria and Cameroon fall by the wayside. The Black Stars are into their fifth World Cup out of the past six since making their debut in Germany in 2006.
Their past two campaigns have ended in group-stage exits and one win across those two tournaments. Ghana's most famous World Cup run ended in controversy and recriminations after Uruguay's Luis Suarez was sent off for a handball on the line in the quarterfinal at South Africa 2010. Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty with the score at 1-1, and his side went on to lose the eventual shootout.
This generation is not as gifted as the one that boasted the talents of Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng but will not be overawed by the task ahead. Head coach Otto Addo will look to dazzling Premier League wingers Antoine Semenyo and Mohammed Kudus to hopefully spark a memorable summer.
WORLD CUP DRAW BREAKDOWNS:
Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group FGroup G | Group H | Group I | Group J | Group K |
According to DraftKings in the United States, these are the odds for each team to win Group L. England and Croatia are favored to win the group, while England are among the predicted front runners to win the tournament overall.
The Group L winner will face a best third-place side from either Group E, H, I, J or K in the Round of 32.
The Group L runner-up will enter the bottom half of the bracket. They are scheduled to meet the runner-up of Group K in the Round of 32.
If the Group L third-place finisher is one of the eight teams that qualify for the Round of 32 (from the 12 groups), their opponent would be the winner of Group K.
MORE WORLD CUP NEWS:
Jake Mozarsky joined The Sporting News as an Editorial Intern in August 2025 after earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern University. He has previously written for Marquee Sports Network, Chicago This Week, Inside NU and The Daily Northwestern.
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The stage is now set. After the FIFA 2026 World Cup draw which took place on Friday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington , D.C., on Saturday the official schedule was released. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, joined by former soccer stars such as Ronaldo Nazario, Francesco Totti and Hristo Stoichkov announced the match schedule for the 104 matches that will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico next summer. Venues and kickoff times were confirmed for the 48 teams involved in the tournament but the final version of the match schedule will be only available in March, once the FIFA and European playoff tournaments have taken place and the final six slots have been filled. Here's all you need to know:
Eastern time
3 p.m. Mexico vs. South Africa, Group A -- Mexico City10 p.m. South Korea vs. UEFA Playoff D, Group A -- Guadalajara
3 p.m. Canada vs. UEFA Playoff A, Group B -- Toronto 9 p.m. USMNT vs. Paraguay, Group D -- Los Angeles
3 p.m. Qatar vs. Switzerland, Group B - San Francisco 6 p.m. Brazil vs. Morocco, Group C - New York City9 p.m. Haiti vs. Scotland, Group C - Boston12 a.m. Australia vs. UEFA Playoff C, Group D - Vancouver
1 p.m. Germany vs. Curacao, Group E - Houston4 p.m. Netherlands vs. Japan, Group F - Dallas7 p.m. Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador, Group E - Philadelphia10 p.m. UEFA Playoff B vs. Tunisia, Group F - Monterrey
12 p.m. Spain vs. Cabo Verde, Group H - Atlanta3 p.m. Belgium vs. Egypt, Group G - Seattle6 p.m. Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay – Group H - Miami9 p.m. Iran vs. New Zeland – Group G - Los Angeles
3 p.m. France vs. Senegal, Group I - New York New Jersey6 p.m. Intercontinental Playoff 2 vs. Norway, Group I - Boston9 p.m. Argentina vs. Algeria, Group J - Kansas City12 a.m. Austria vs. Jordan – Group J - San Francisco Bay Area
1 p.m. Portugal vs. Intercontinental Playoff 1, Group K - Houston4 p.m. England vs. Croatia, Group L - Dallas7 p.m. Ghana vs. Panama, Group L - Toronto10 p.m. Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, Group K - Mexico City
12 p.m. UEFA Playoff D vs. South Africa, Group A - Atlanta3 p.m. Switzerland vs. UEFA Playoff A, Group B - Los Angeles6 p.m. Canada vs. Qatar, Group B - Vancouver 9 p.m. Mexico vs. South Korea, Group A - Guadalajara
3 p.m. USMNT vs. Australia, Group D - Seattle6 p.m. Scotland vs. Morocco, Group C - Boston9 p.m. Brazil vs. Haiti, Group C - Philadelphia12 a.m. UEFA Playoff C vs. Paraguay, Group D - San Francisco
1 p.m. Netherlands vs. UEFA Playoff B, Group F - Houston4 p.m. Germany vs. Ivory Coast, Group E - Toronto8 p.m. Ecuador vs. Curacao, Group E - Kansas City12 a.m. Tunisia vs. Japan, Group F - Monterrey
12 p.m. Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, Group H - Atlanta3 p.m. Belgium vs. Iran, Group G - Los Angeles6 p.m. Uruguay vs. Cabo Verde, Group H - Miami9 p.m. New Zeland vs. Egypt, Group G - Vancouver
1 p.m. Argentina vs. Austria, Group J - Dallas5 p.m. France vs. Intercontinental Playoff 2, Group I - Philadelphia8 p.m. Norway vs. Senegal, Group I - New York City11 p.m. Jordan vs. Algeria, Group J - San Francisco
1 p.m. Portugal vs. Uzbekistan, Group K - Houston4 p.m. England vs Ghana, Group L - Boston7 p.m. Panama vs. Croatia, Group L - Toronto10 p.m. Colombia vs. Intercontinental Playoff 1, Group K - Guadalajara
3 p.m. Switzerland vs. Canada, Group B - Vancouver3 p.m. UEFA Playoff A vs. Qatar, Group B - Seattle6 p.m. Scotland vs. Brazil, Group C - Miami6 p.m. Morocco vs. Haiti, Group C - Atlanta9 p.m. UEFA Playoff D vs. Mexico, Group A - Mexico City9 p.m. South Africa vs. South Korea, Group A - Monterrey
4 p.m. Ecuador vs. Germany, Group E - New York City4 p.m. Curacao vs. Ivory Coast, Group E - Philadelphia7 p.m. Tunisia vs. Netherlands, Group F - Dallas7 p.m. Japan vs. UEFA Playoff B, Group F - Kansas City10 p.m. UEFA Playoff C vs. USMNT, Group D - Los Angeles10 p.m. Paraguay vs. Australia, Group D - San Francisco
3 p.m. Norway vs. France, Group I - Boston3 p.m. Senegal vs. Intercontinental Playoff 2, Group I - Toronto8 p.m. Uruguay vs. Spain, Group H - Guadalajara8 p.m. Cabo Verde vs. Saudi Arabia, Group H - Houston11 p.m. New Zeland vs. Belgium, Group G - Vancouver 11 p.m. Egypt vs. Iran, Group G - Seattle
5 p.m. Panama vs. England, Group L - New York City5 p.m. Croatia vs. Ghana, Group L - Philadelphia Stadium 7:30 p.m. Colombia vs. Portugal – Group K - Miami Stadium7:30 p.m. Intercontinental Playoff 1 vs. Uzbekistan – Group K - Atlanta Stadium10 p.m. Jordan vs. Argentina – Group J - Dallas Stadium 10 p.m. Algeria vs. Austria – Group J - Kansas City Stadium
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MetLife Stadium will play host to powerhouses France, Germany, and England during its five group-stage matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as revealed during the competition's schedule reveal on Saturday afternoon.
The newly expanded field of 48 nations was divided into 12 four-team groups on Friday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It was already known that MetLife Stadium, located just a stone's throw away from New York City, would host matches from Groups C, E, I, and L in the opening two weeks of the tournament.
Here is the local, full schedule of the festivities descending upon the Meadowlands:
MetLife Stadium 2026 World Cup group stage schedule
Saturday, June 13: Brazil vs. Morocco, 6 p.m. ET (Group C)
Tuesday, June 16: France vs. Senegal, 3 p.m. (Group I)
Monday, June 22: Norway vs. Senegal, 8 p.m. (Group I)
Thursday, June 25: Ecuador vs. Germany, 4 p.m. (Group E)
Saturday, June 27: Panama vs. England, 5 p.m. (Group L)
MetLife Stadium could not have asked for a bigger opening match. Brazil is the most successful nation at the World Cup, with five titles, while Morocco is the most successful African country, having been the first from the continent to reach the semifinals three years ago in Qatar.
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Germany, the three-time winners, face a tricky test in Ecuador, who lost just twice in South American qualifying and finished second only behind the defending champions Argentina.
Soccer Football – World Cup – UEFA Qualifiers – Group D – France v Ukraine – Parc des Princes, Paris, France – November 13, 2025 France's Kylian Mbappe applauds fans after the match REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Kylian Mbappe and France will face Sadio Mane and Senegal in a rematch of the 2002 World Cup opener in South Korea, which featured one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history when Papa Bouba Diop's goal lifted the African nation over, at the time, the defending world champions.
“It certainly was a long night,” Manolo Zubiria, 2026 FIFA World Cup chief tournament officer, said. “The minute the last team was drawn, it was already from earlier on, a large group of FIFA colleagues present who tried to put together this puzzle. As you can imagine, so many different factors played a part. We tried to strike the right balance when looking at the preparation and recovery these teams have to do… We tried to minimize travel for the teams and their fans and try to best expose this competition to the world, try to find the right kick-off times… ultimately, that's what we achieved through the night.”
The group stage is, of course, just an appetizer of MetLife Stadium's role as one of the host sites. Following a Round of 32 and Round of 16 match, the home of the Giants and Jets will play host to the World Cup Final — the largest singular sporting event on the planet.
For more on the 2026 FIFA World Cup at MetLife Stadium, visit AMNY.com
MetLife Stadium could not have asked for a bigger opening match. Brazil is the most successful nation at the World Cup, with five titles, while Morocco is the most successful African country, having been the first from the continent to reach the semifinals three years ago in Qatar.
Germany, the three-time winners, face a tricky test in Ecuador, who lost just twice in South American qualifying and finished second only behind the defending champions Argentina.
Soccer Football – World Cup – UEFA Qualifiers – Group D – France v Ukraine – Parc des Princes, Paris, France – November 13, 2025 France's Kylian Mbappe applauds fans after the match REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Kylian Mbappe and France will face Sadio Mane and Senegal in a rematch of the 2002 World Cup opener in South Korea, which featured one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history when Papa Bouba Diop's goal lifted the African nation over, at the time, the defending world champions.
“It certainly was a long night,” Manolo Zubiria, 2026 FIFA World Cup chief tournament officer, said. “The minute the last team was drawn, it was already from earlier on, a large group of FIFA colleagues present who tried to put together this puzzle. As you can imagine, so many different factors played a part. We tried to strike the right balance when looking at the preparation and recovery these teams have to do… We tried to minimize travel for the teams and their fans and try to best expose this competition to the world, try to find the right kick-off times… ultimately, that's what we achieved through the night.”
The group stage is, of course, just an appetizer of MetLife Stadium's role as one of the host sites. Following a Round of 32 and Round of 16 match, the home of the Giants and Jets will play host to the World Cup Final — the largest singular sporting event on the planet.
For more on the 2026 FIFA World Cup at MetLife Stadium, visit AMNY.com
Kylian Mbappe and France will face Sadio Mane and Senegal in a rematch of the 2002 World Cup opener in South Korea, which featured one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history when Papa Bouba Diop's goal lifted the African nation over, at the time, the defending world champions.
“It certainly was a long night,” Manolo Zubiria, 2026 FIFA World Cup chief tournament officer, said. “The minute the last team was drawn, it was already from earlier on, a large group of FIFA colleagues present who tried to put together this puzzle. As you can imagine, so many different factors played a part. We tried to strike the right balance when looking at the preparation and recovery these teams have to do… We tried to minimize travel for the teams and their fans and try to best expose this competition to the world, try to find the right kick-off times… ultimately, that's what we achieved through the night.”
The group stage is, of course, just an appetizer of MetLife Stadium's role as one of the host sites. Following a Round of 32 and Round of 16 match, the home of the Giants and Jets will play host to the World Cup Final — the largest singular sporting event on the planet.
Joe Pantorno has been the executive sports editor of amNewYork since 2020. He covers the New York Mets and is a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). He is also a member of the Pro Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) and has covered the New York Islanders for nearly a decade.
His previous stops include Bleacher Report and Metro New York, while his work has been featured in the New York Post, Newsday, and Yahoo! Sports.
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Last updated: Dec. 6, 2025, 47 minutes ago
The 2026 World Cup draw has concluded at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The United States will face Paraguay in its World Cup opener; here you can find a guide to all the teams, group by group. For more commentary and analysis, visit our live blog.
The draw will begin soon.
To see the easiest and hardest possible draws for your team, try our interactive draw simulator. It lets you explore all your team's possibilities, ranked by difficulty.
There are 48 teams in next year's World Cup — an expansion from the 32 teams of previous tournaments.
To ensure both geographic and competitive balance, the qualified teams are split up into four “pots” of 12 teams each. The three host countries — the United States, Canada and Mexico — are all in the first pot, and each has already been assigned a group. Mexico is in Group A, Canada in Group B and the United States in Group D.
During the draw, the rest of the teams will be taken out of each pot and put into the remaining groups, ending with 12 groups of four teams each, with one team from each pot.
It's not quite that simple; there are additional rules to make sure no group has more than one team from the same continent (or two, in Europe's case), and to make sure the highest-ranked teams end up on opposite sides of the knockout round bracket if they win their respective groups. If, during the draw, you expect a team to go into one group and it goes into another, one of these rules may be the reason.
Finally, there will still be six open spots remaining even after the draw is complete. These will eventually be filled by teams who win a play-in tournament in March — four from Europe and two from the rest of the world.
From Europe:
European playoff path A: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Wales or Northern Ireland
European playoff path B: Ukraine, Poland, Albania or Sweden
European playoff path C: Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey or Romania
European playoff path D: Denmark, Ireland, the Czech Republic or North Macedonia
From the rest of the world:
FIFA playoff path 1: Jamaica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or New Caledonia
FIFA playoff path 2: Bolivia, Iraq or Suriname
Quantifying team strength for international soccer teams is challenging for lots of reasons. There are relatively few international tournaments to choose from. Teams don't always field their best lineups depending on injuries, the match calendar or a host of other factors. And, of course, we don't even know which players will be named to the rosters for next year's tournament.
But some groups really can be much stronger or weaker than others. Our labels here are based on the average FIFA rating of the four teams in a given group, compared to what we'd expect from the average strength of a random group draw.
Groups labeled as “very weak” are in the bottom 5 percent of strength among all possible draws; groups labeled as “weak” are in the bottom 25 percent.
Groups labeled “strong” are in the top 25 percent of strength among all possible draws; groups labeled “very strong” are in the top 5 percent.
FIFA's “World Ranking” measure is something akin to their version of an Elo rating — and the measure they used to arrange the teams into the four pots for the draw. There are other ways of measuring, including World Football Elo ratings, FIFA's ordinal world ranks or even betting odds or prediction markets. These measures differ from country to country, even significantly. But they're all instructive for an exercise like this.
FIFA has said it will release specific game schedule information on Saturday, about 24 hours after the draw is complete. Pick a team below to see the most current information about when and where they will play:
The United States is in Group D with Australia, Paraguay and European playoff path C (one of Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey or Romania).
By Ryan Best, Henry Bushnell, Junghye Kim, Thomas Oide and Yuriko Schumacher
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#TheMoment Haiti qualified for first World Cup in over 50 years
And so ends another World Cup draw. The matchups are settled, but fans will have to wait until tomorrow to see the full schedule – including kickoff times.
We do know Canada will face Qatar on June 18 and Switzerland on June 24, with both of those games in Vancouver.
Canada's opener in Toronto on June 12 will be against the winner of UEFA playoff A, which could be Wales, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland or Italy.
A game against Italy, the 12th-ranked team in the world and four-time World Cup winner, would make for “a marquee event and just a really tough opponent,” says soccer journalist John Molinaro.
If you're looking for more coverage around the politics of today's event, you can find a story on the private meeting between Carney, Sheinbaum and Trump here.
If you're looking for our colleague Chris Jones's insight on the jitters of the day, you can read his analysis here.
As the day comes to a close, Carney's office has issued a relatively vague statement saying the prime minister “had many occasions for constructive discussions” with both Trump and Sheinbaum.
"Today was about the FIFA World Cup 26 and Canada's leadership and opportunities as we welcome the world as a co-host,” said Audrey Champoux with the prime minister's office.
“In their principal discussion, the three leaders met for approximately 45 minutes and they've agreed to keep working together on CUSMA.
Canada's third opponent in the round robin, as we've mentioned, will be another European team: either Wales, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland or Italy, depending on who wins a two-round playoff. Canada won't find out until the playoff is decided in March.
“I just didn't want to wait to know. Too bad, I've got to be a little bit patient,” Marsch said.
“It's a little awkward, but whatever. It's the World Cup, man. Let's get ready. Let's get ready to go.”
Meanwhile, soccer players and coaches moved into what's called the mixed zone, a space where media can interview athletes and administrators. It's usually after a match, but today a zone was set up after the draw.
Jesse Marsch, Canada's coach, told reporters he's generally pleased with today's draw but knows the team will have to rise to the challenge next summer.
“It's not the toughest, it's not the easiest,” Marsch said of the matchup with Qatar and Switzerland. “I said this going in [today]: we're confident in our team and whoever we were going to draw, we were going to be ready for those games and know that we can beat anyone. That still remains.
“I said at the beginning, I didn't want Norway. The fact we didn't get Norway, that made me happy. The second pot, all those opponents would be a big challenge.”
Carney's office says the meeting with the prime minister, Trump and Sheinbaum is over.
It lasted about 45 minutes behind closed doors.
It's unclear what was said — and what the tone was like between the three leaders.
Carney is now headed to the Canadian Embassy for a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, where he will make some brief remarks.
Trump announces travel ban on 12 countries
U.S. President Donald Trump has resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the U.S. and those from seven others would face restrictions. The new ban includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
As mentioned, Haiti is going to the World Cup for the first time since 1974 — and for only the second time ever — after defeating Nicaragua 2-0 in a qualifying match last month.
But Haitian soccer fans will be barred from watching their team compete in person in the U.S., with their country being one of 12 subject to a travel ban Trump enacted in June.
The ban includes exemptions for World Cup athletes, coaches, "persons performing a necessary support role" and their immediate relatives, but it still applies to fans from those countries.
Fans from Iran, another country subject to the ban, find themselves in the same situation. The spokesperson for Iran's soccer federation also said visas were denied to key members of its delegation, and it was boycotting the draw at the Kennedy Center as a result.
#TheMoment Haiti qualified for first World Cup in over 50 years
Paul Toussaint, a Haitian chef in Montreal, tells The National about the moment he watched his home country make it to the World Cup for the first time since 1974.
A combination of the newly expanded format and the host countries means that World Cup 2026 could be an underdog's dream.
Just last month, the tiny island nation of Curaçao, with a population of about 156,000, became the smallest country ever to qualify for this marquee event. The former Dutch colony takes that record from Iceland, which had a population of just over 350,000 when it qualified in 2018.
Curaçao qualified after a 0-0 draw against Jamaica, using a team heavily built with players born and raised in the Netherlands. It has actively recruited from its diaspora after getting permission from FIFA within world soccer's rules to change the national-team eligibility of five players since August.
Cape Verde, with a population of roughly 525,000, also qualified for the first time this year — the second-least populous country to do so. The former Portuguese colony also turned to its diaspora for recruitment.
Haiti is another notable underdog, qualifying for the first time since 1974 despite significant domestic turmoil and the lack of a usable home stadium.
Coach Sébastien Migné has managed some of his players from abroad, as Haiti's main airport has regularly been shut down in a country where armed gangs control up to 90 per cent of its capital, Port-au-Prince. The team also played all its home games in Curaçao, as it was too dangerous to do so in Haiti.
Other first-time entrants include Jordan and Uzbekistan, while New Caledonia and Suriname are still in the hunt for a qualifying spot.
One of the most exciting parts of watching the FIFA World Cup draw is trying to figure out the “group of death” — the most competitive group, stacked with high-ranking teams and legitimate tournament contenders.
This year there isn't a clear group of death — though many reports are declaring Group L the most likely candidate.
Group L has England (ranked No. 4) and Croatia (10) slated to play early on. Ghana (72) and Panama (30) are unlikely to challenge the powerhouses. But Ghana, a powerhouse in its own right, could be a wildcard, while Panama could pull a surprise.
Group F also looks fairly competitive, with the Netherlands (7), Japan (18), Tunisia (40) and the winner of UEFA playoff B — either Ukraine, Poland, Albania or Sweden.
But overall the 48 competitors seem pretty well shuffled. It's likely that the tournament expansion from 32 teams diluted the pot somewhat.
Still, there's lots of drama ahead, with some intense matches coming up. Croatia vs. England, a rematch of the 2018 semifinal, will be one to watch.
And if Italy qualifies, Canada will have to prepare for a hard battle on home turf.
After sitting through the draw and the Village People, Carney, Sheinbaum and Trump are now meeting privately — where the state of trade negotiations will likely be raised.
Despite breaking off talks with Canada at the end of October, Trump sounded in good spirits earlier today when talking about his North American trade partners.
"We're getting along very well," he said on the red carpet before the show began. "We'll discuss trade."
The FIFA World Cup tournament, which runs every four years, is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, with viewership eclipsing most other sporting spectacles.
FIFA estimated nearly 1.42 billion people watched the 2022 final in Qatar between France and Argentina on either television or digital platforms, the highest viewership ever for a World Cup final.
To put that number into perspective, it's almost 20 per cent of the global population and more than 10 times the 127.7 million estimated to have tuned in to this year's Super Bowl.
Over the entirety of the 2022 tournament, FIFA has estimated close to five billion fans watched in some form or another.
Only the Olympics come close to that kind of global viewership. Research conducted for the International Olympic Committee suggests around five billion people watched the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris at some point.
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DALLAS — The 48 teams were drawn into groups on Friday afternoon, showing which nations will compete against each other.
North Texas will host the most matches in the tournament – nine.
Five of those nine are group stage matches. AT&T Stadium, which will be rebranded as "Dallas Stadium" for the World Cup, will will host two matches from Group F (out of six total), two matches from Group J and one match from Group L.
Now, we know the exact details of who will play in what venues and when.
Watch the broadcast on FIFA here:
Here's the full match schedule for "Dallas Stadium":
WFAA will have live reaction once that match schedule is revealed.
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President Donald Trump praises the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., on Friday while speaking to Republican lawmakers and members of his Cabinet at a White House event.
President Donald Trump praised the success of the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., on Friday, where he was honored with the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize at the event meant to set the stage for the global sporting event coming to the United States next year.
Speaking ahead of a private concert by Andrea Bocelli at the White House, the president thanked the Italian tenor for his opening performance at the Kennedy Center. Trump also remarked on the success of the draw and claimed that more than "a billion people" tuned in to watch the participating nations learn their fate for the tournament beginning in June.
U.S. President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Emilee Chinn/FIFA via Getty Images)
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"He was so good today at the FIFA Award," Trump began, speaking about Bocelli. "It was an award for me, I can tell you. But it was a draw. And they say over a billion people were watching and there was no way you could beat tonight what you did today because that was one of the greatest openings to an event that I've ever seen. And he was in rare form."
"What you did this morning was incredible, so thank you very much."
Singer Andrea Bocelli performs at the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, District of Columbia, on Dec. 5, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)
The private concert at the White House was attended by Republican lawmakers and members of Trump's Cabinet.
US PREPARES FOR INFLUX OF INTERNATIONAL VISITORS AHEAD OF WORLD CUP WITH SECURITY AT THE FOREFRONT
The evening followed a day filled with high-profile stars, sports legends, and world leaders in D.C. for the World Cup draw.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joined Trump on stage to draw their respective nations' names as the three countries prepare to host the international tournament next year.
President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino speak to members of the media during their arrival at the Kennedy Center for the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw. The event took place in Washington, District of Columbia, on Dec. 5, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
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FIFA president Gianni Infantino also presented Trump with the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize, which recognized the president for his actions to "promote peace and unity around the world."
"This is truly one of the great honors of my life," Trump said, adding that "most important, I just want to thank everybody. The world is a safer place now."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Paulina Dedaj is a Sports Reporter for Fox News Digital.
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Folarin Balogun scored for the USA vs. Paraguay – the Americans' first opponent at the World Cup – in a November 2025 friendly John Dorton / ISI Photos / USSF / Getty Images
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WASHINGTON — Out of the many potential groups the U.S. men's national team could have faced coming out of Friday's 2026 World Cup draw, the outcome is undoubtedly one of the best-case scenarios.
Forget about avoiding or hiding from the hype that has followed this group of players since they began to pull the program clear of the disaster of missing out on the 2018 World Cup. Following the lavish event at the Kennedy Center, head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his squad find themselves with an opportunity to tackle what may turn into one of the weakest groups of the entire tournament and must embrace the expectations that come with it.
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Here is the situation facing the Americans today: They should be eyeing the quarterfinal run that has been seen as a minimum for this “golden generation” to actually live up to their big billing. Group D opponents Australia and Paraguay are not just two teams the U.S. should be expected to beat, they're two teams the U.S. just beat over the last six weeks — and looked the better team in doing so.
The third opponent could present more of a problem. Turkey is ranked 15th in the Elo world soccer ratings and beat the U.S. in June in a friendly in East Hartford. It has a bonafide star in Real Madrid's Arda Güler. But if the Turkish should get upset in the European playoff in March, the U.S. might very well end up in one of the lowest-rated groups by Elo world soccer rankings, in the tournament.
Even looking further down the road, the U.S. should be pleased that of all the possible Group G opponents to match up with in the round of 16 — should it get there after winning the group — Belgium, Egypt, Iran and New Zealand also do not present an insurmountable hurdle.
Pochettino, understandably, won't look that far ahead right now and tried to temper talk of whether the group was easy.
“To the people who say ‘you have to win' before you even play — no, they shouldn't say ‘you have to win' before you play, because in soccer you don't win on the bus,” he said after the draw. “You win when you deserve it on the field. And for that, we have to show a lot of respect — full respect — toward our opponents. Because if you respect yourself, you respect your opponent; and if you respect your opponent, you respect yourself. And I think that here, every time the United States national team plays and gives its best, then it doesn't matter who is in front of them.”
His answer is not surprising. It would be any manager's message. Pochettino has spent much of his time with the U.S. team battling the sort of complacency that any discussion around an “easy group” would encourage. And the U.S. is not exactly a world-beater. It's not good enough to overlook any opponent. It doesn't want to be on the other side of the talk from 2010, when the English press called it a “Dream Draw” to face the Americans (and Slovenia and Algeria) in South Africa.
The U.S. rode that slight to a tie against England in South Africa and topped the group. The World Cup is no place to overlook any team. But even Pochettino must acknowledge this: The belief he has been trying to build up in this team just had a bonfire built underneath it.
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The Argentine put a quote up on the wall for the U.S. players last month that he repeated again in the locker room after a convincing win against Uruguay: “Let's be realistic,” he said, “and do the impossible.”
The impossible is now very possible. And to be realistic is to say, actually: Yes, this U.S. team can push deep into the knockout phase of a home World Cup tournament.
Winning this group isn't just a possibility, it borders on expected, depending on Turkey's performance. A win over a third-place team in the round of 32 would be demanded, as well. And a potential match-up with Belgium – a March friendly opponent – or Egypt in the round of 16 with what, by then, would surely be a wave of patriotic support? It's most certainly winnable.
U.S. fans now have permission to be excited. To dream about what this team might be able to do, and what the crowds and stadiums would look like if the U.S. started winning games and building momentum.
Pochettino couldn't even hide his own emotion. He was already buzzing as he addressed reporters. He can smell how close it is.
“We start to live the World Cup,” Pochettino said. “Now it's the vibes and everything. Now it's like we are starting today. Now we are excited because you can see now what is going on in this amazing sport, that is soccer and football. It's massive. It's massive. For us it's about to start to feel. … (It's) very exciting. I'm looking forward to try to contact and to send all the best energy to the players, but also our fans. We need to start to create that very important energy and synergy in between the team and the fans.”
Pochettino can sense the possibility, too.
For years, the home World Cup in 2026 has been held up as a possible moment for change. A moment to push the sport forward. For an American team to do something more. That dream dimmed in the last three years.
On Friday, it lit up again.
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Paul Tenorio is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers soccer. He has previously written for the Washington Post, the Orlando Sentinel, FourFourTwo, ESPN and MLSsoccer.com. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulTenorio
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“More games, more excitement, more teams,” began a FIFA press release, issued in March 2023 to explain how soccer's world governing body would embark on an expanded men's World Cup in 2026.
For the first time, the men's World Cup will have 48 nations, up from a 32-team competition between 1998 and 2022. In the planet inhabited by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, where biggest equals best, expansion has always been the order of the day.
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Sometimes, this leaves the divisive Infantino humiliated, as was the case during last summer's Club World Cup, when he insisted on using more NFL-sized venues than smaller, soccer-specific Major League Soccer stadiums across the competition, resulting in tens of thousands of empty seats across group-stage games.
When it comes to the World Cup, however, Infantino may well be onto something.
From a revenue perspective, the merits are obvious: FIFA has projected $13billion (£9.75bn) over its four-year 2023-2026 cycle. This not only includes the 2026 men's competition, shared across the United States, Canada and Mexico, but also money from the 2023 Women's World Cup, last summer's Club World Cup and its annual licensing and sponsorship income. This is more than double the amount FIFA earned in the four-year cycle that ended in Russia in 2018 and dwarfs the $7.5bn the organisation brought in over the Qatar 2022 cycle.
Sepp Blatter, Infantino's predecessor as FIFA president, has compared the expanded tournament to a “monster being unleashed”, citing the increased burden on players to play more games and fans to fork out more money. Plenty of people wondered, too, whether the quality, intrigue and jeopardy of a World Cup may also be at risk under this expanded format.
Yet as the draw played out in Washington, D.C. on Friday, many of the groups threw up sufficiently competitive contests to whet the appetite. The fact that so many nations appear, on paper at least, to be capable of competing at a World Cup group stage indicates the rate of development beyond nations we so often considered historically to be favorites to win the competition. And the stars collided when it came to the established names who could light up this tournament.
Pitting together Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe's France and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland's Norway, in a group that will also include Senegal, the second-highest FIFA-ranked African nation, stirred immediate intrigue.
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Other standout match-ups included Spain against Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay in Group H and Portugal against Colombia in Group K, while evidence of Ecuador's progress should be visible when they take on Germany in Group E. Brazil will vie against Morocco, who reached the semi-finals in Qatar in 2022, and a resurgent Scotland.
The host nations, too, have all received draws that will have their fans dreaming of progress. Mexico, ranked 15th, are up against 22nd-placed South Korea, while South Africa saw off Nigeria in their qualifying group to earn a place in this group. They will yet be joined by one of Denmark, the Republic of Ireland, the Czech Republic or North Macedonia in a group that should see close encounters.
The United States, similarly, beat Australia and Paraguay by one-goal margins in autumn international games, and the final place in their group will be decided by European play-offs between Turkey, Slovakia, Kosovo or Romania.
Canada will be bullish, too, having secured a group that includes Qatar and Switzerland, and completed by one of Wales, Northern Ireland, Italy or Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Across North America, host cities will be licking their lips as they secured access to a slew of star names. The expanded competition means most global superstars will play at this World Cup. The final schedule will be finalized Saturday but it appears that Kansas City, Santa Clara and Dallas will host Lionel Messi's Argentina in the group phase. Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo's group games will be played first in Houston or Mexico City, then in Guadalajara or Houston, and finally in Miami or Atlanta. Expect the dynamic ticket market to explode this weekend once the schedule is confirmed.
Should Argentina and Portugal top their groups and progress to the quarterfinal, Ronaldo and Messi would be set to meet in Kansas City on Jul. 11. Despite each appearing at five World Cups, they have never played against one another in the competition and a final battle at Arrowhead Stadium would resemble two iconic but diminishing boxers raging against the dying of the light.
If England and Brazil top their respective groups, they would face one another in Miami's Hard Rock Stadium in the quarterfinal but earlier on, Brazil's group games will be played first in Boston or New Jersey, then in Philadelphia or Boston, and finally in Miami or Atlanta.
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Egypt and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah will spend his group stage on the west coast, playing in venues including Seattle, Los Angeles and Vancouver. Haaland's group stage will be in the north-eastern corridor, with Norway's three games first in Boston or New Jersey, then New Jersey or Philadelphia, and finally the clash against France in either Boston or Toronto.
Then there is the curiosity and excitement presented for those debuting or returning to the competition. Could Cape Verde scramble their way through a group that includes Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia? Might Uzbekistan provide the ultimate humbling for Ronaldo's Portugal? Can Haiti, a nation so politically fraught its team are unable to play in their home country, do the unthinkable against the might of Carlo Ancelotti's Brazil?
Haitian nationals remain under a travel ban in the United States, but many of the Haitians who reside already in the U.S. are in Miami, which is one of two options to host their match against Morocco on June 24.
If there is a disappointment, it is that the 48-team format allows many of the third-placed teams in the groups to advance to a round of 32, therefore diminishing the jeopardy. It may make for some dead rubber games as the 72-game group phase trundles along.
FIFA executives will hope that some risk is inserted because only the best eight third-placed finishers will reach the knockouts, applying more danger in those final round of group games. This should also incentivize teams to push for winners to maximize their points return rather than settling for draws. The theory is, though, this format should avoid any truly high-profile exits at the group stage, while encouraging entertainment, revenue eyeballs and drama in the knockout stages.
For Infantino, this will be deemed a big success. And it may yet turn out to for viewers watching from home as well.
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Adam Crafton is a British journalist based in New York City, having relocated from London in 2024. He primarily covers soccer for The Athletic. In 2024, he was named the Sports Writer of the Year by the Sports' Journalist Association, after winning the Young Sports Writer of the Year award in 2018. Follow Adam on Twitter @AdamCrafton_
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We're taking you behind the scenes of Beyond the 90, the 2025 U.S. Soccer Summit in New York City, with this week's episode which features an exclusive panel interview with USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino and assistant coach Jesús Pérez hosted by FOX broadcaster Jenny Taft.
Hosts: David Gass, Meghan Klingenberg, Jenny Taft
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Gabriel Jesus has taken another significant stride toward ending his lengthy spell on the sidelines, with the striker set to feature in a friendly against Manchester United with the Arsenal Under-21s on Saturday as part of his carefully managed rehabilitation programme. It marks the latest stage of a gradual return from a devastating anterior cruciate ligament injury that has kept him out since January.
Jesus' injury occurred during Arsenal's FA Cup defeat to United at the start of the year, when he ruptured the ACL in his left knee and was forced into immediate surgery. The blow came at one of the most congested points in the season, at a time when Mikel Arteta's attacking options were already depleted, as both Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz were in the treatment room.
Speaking in May, Arteta recalled the moment with a mixture of frustration and helplessness. He said: "It's very difficult now to understand that, if I could pause the game and say, Gabriel Jesus, we brought you back to life. You know, you are doing incredibly well. You're going to now get injured, so stop. I would stop him, bring another player in and continue to play the game. Unfortunately, we cannot do this in football."
Jesus has spent the past 11 months rebuilding his fitness, working through an exhaustive conditioning programme designed to ensure he returns fully prepared rather than rushed back prematurely. After rejoining full training in recent weeks, he was named on the bench for Arsenal's matches against Chelsea and Brentford but did not make it onto the pitch. Instead, the club opted to give him controlled exposure by organising a private friendly as he played behind-closed-doors against Watford in late November. Arteta said the session offered valuable insight into how the Brazilian's body would respond to the intensity of real competition.
"It did happen. Gabi participated, and Ethan as well, because he wanted some minutes," he said. "We took the opportunity; they wanted a bit of exposure to competition, and providing that was very positive."
Now, it has been revealed that Jesus is involved in a friendly against United, held at St George's Park. A statement on the Arsenal website read: "Gabriel Jesus and Max Dowman have travelled with the under-21s for a behind-closed-doors friendly against Manchester United at St George's Park as they look to build up their match fitness."
For an Arsenal side that has battled through injuries to key attacking figures, Jesus's return will be timely. Havertz is still sidelined, while Leandro Trossard made a return against Aston Villa on Saturday but was forced off again. Whereas, the Gunners are also struggling in defence as their first-choice centre-back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel are also sidelined. But games keep coming thick and fast with a busy festive schedule set to test Arsenal's squad depth.
However, Arteta was not eager to pay much heed to the fixture congestion and said: "The only thing I can say is that whenever it's possible to help and give the players an extra day or hours to fulfil their maximum potential, let's do it. That's it. We are ready for tomorrow's game, that's for sure. Consistency, again, to perform at the highest level and win another game and then we'll go back to the same question, to the Champions League and then next weekend, because that's the nature of the game, and that's exactly how we have to take it every game."
When asked if he was happy with the summer business and the squad that he has at his disposal, Arteta provided a measured response.
"We've built a squad that I believe was the best one to give us the possibility to do it," he said. "Is it what I want it to be? No, because of the injuries that we have, to have a squad means that the players have to be fit and available because that has a lot of consequences not only during matches but also in the way that we prepare for the week and the options that we have to change and keep the presence in the team. But certainly very happy with how we deal with certain situations."
If his performances in training are any indication, Arsenal supporters may not have long to wait before seeing Jesus back in competitive action. Saturday's quiet run-out against United will be another vital step, and perhaps one of the final hurdles, before the Brazilian returns to the spotlight. Arsenal play against Wolves in the Premier League next weekend, and the striker might get to feature at the Emirates after a lengthy break.
The latest information on the World Cup 2026 draw, including the date, what to expect in terms of teams and pots, and how to watch.
The World Cup 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most significant tournaments in football history. With an expanded 48-team format and matches spread across multiple host countries, the world will be watching to see who will lift the trophy.
The qualification race is well underway, and even though the tournament is over a year away, some teams have already secured their spot as the USA, Mexico, and Canada ready themselves to jointly host the games.
As teams continue to focus on the tournament, attention is also shifting to the World Cup draw and who they might face.
Here, GOAL takes a look at comprehensive information regarding the World Cup 2026 draw, including details on its timing, location, and how to watch it.
As the anticipation builds for the World Cup 2026 draw, many fans are looking to engage beyond just watching the events unfold. For those excited to place bets, a Hollywoodbets promo code offers the perfect opportunity to start your betting journey with enhanced odds and unique promotions tailored for this iconic event, setting the stage for a rewarding experience.
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The World Cup group stage draw will take place at the iconic John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
READ MORE: World Cup 2026 Power Rankings
The World Cup 2026 draw will kick off at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET (5 pm GMT) on Friday, December 5, 2025.
World Cup 2026 coverage on fuboBrowse deals
The World Cup 2026 draw will be available to watch and stream live online worldwide on FIFA's official website, FIFA's YouTube channel, and through select international broadcasters.
In the United States, FOX and Telemundo hold the rights to the World Cup, so we can expect to see the draw broadcast live on their respective TV channels, as well as online streaming platforms. Both networks are available through the streaming service fubo. The BBC and ITV hold World Cup rights in the United Kingdom.
You can also join the GOAL Front Three team live from 11:30am ET / 4:30pm below.
LIVE: World Cup 2026 draw blog
The draw for the first-ever 48-team World Cup will utilise four pots, each containing 12 teams.
Pot 1 will consist of the three host nations—the USA, Canada and Mexico—who will be pre-assigned to Groups D1, B1 and A1, respectively, as per the match schedule released last year. Additionally, Pot 1 will include the top nine FIFA-ranked teams.
Pots 2 through 4 will comprise the next 36 qualified teams based on their FIFA rankings. These pots will also include placeholders for the six teams whose qualification is yet to be confirmed.
At the time of the draw, 42 of the 48 participating teams are known. The remaining six berths will be determined through play-off matches scheduled for March 2026.
Watch our handy quick explainer!
HEARTACHE: Biggest stars to miss out on World Cup 2026
The World Cup 2026 will take place from June 11 to July 19, 2026. You can see the full match schedule below.
The opening match is scheduled for June 11, 2026, at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca.
The final will be held on July 19, 2026, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (Greater New York area).
Brazil have won the World Cup five times, more than any other country. They first lifted the trophy in 1958, before successfully defending their title four years later. They then made it three in 1970, while also emerging victorious in 1994 and 2002 to show what they're made of.
The most recent edition of the World Cup, which took place in Qatar in 2022, featured 32 teams. However, from the upcoming edition in 2026, as many as 48 teams will be contesting for the ultimate prize in international football. The number of teams that will be featuring has almost quadrupled since the inaugural edition in 1930, which hosted 13 teams.
Lionel Messi holds the record of making the most appearances in World Cups, having represented Argentina 26 times across five editions.
Germany's Miroslav Klose tops the all-time goalscoring charts in World Cups, having scored an incredible 16 goals in 24 games across four consecutive editions from 2002 to 2014.
Egyptian legend Essam El Hadary is the oldest player to have ever featured in a World Cup game. The goalkeeper was 45 years and 161 days old when he participated in Egypt's 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia at the 2018 World Cup.
Former Manchester United man Norman Whiteside is the youngest player ever to play a World Cup game. The midfielder was just 17 years and 41 days old when he featured for Northern Ireland in a game against Yugoslavia at the 1982 World Cup.
Pele, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Gerd Muller, Roberto Baggio, Ronaldo, Romario, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, David Villa, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo among others are some of the biggest legends in footballing history who have graced the pitch during World Cups.
The likes of Didier Deschamps, Franz Beckenbauer, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Vicente del Bosque, Vittorio Pozzo, Louis van Gaal, Sven-Goran Eriksson, and Ivica Osim are some of the most accomplished individuals to have managed at the World Cup finals.
Chris Richards, a defender born and raised in Birmingham, has become a key player on the U.S. men's national soccer team.
>>VIDEO BELOW: 2026 FIFA World Cup draw unveils matchups in 11 U.S. host cities
Richards grew up playing for Hoover Soccer Club and Birmingham United, and his career has taken him to the Premier League, where he now plays for Crystal Palace.
For Team USA, he has logged 35 appearances, scored three goals, and stands out as a 6-foot-3 force on the back line.
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ATLANTA – The stage is set for the U.S. Men's National Team's journey at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The USMNT learned its group stage opponents during the World Cup Official Draw held in the nation's capital on Friday, Dec. 5, and at least two, potentially a third, are countries that the U.S. has played in the last six months.
The U.S. was drawn into Group D with 26th-ranked Australia and 39th-ranked Paraguay. The fourth team to comprise Group D will be either Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia or Türkiye, which will be determined in March as one of four UEFA Playoff matches.
Australia and Paraguay are teams the U.S. played in the two most recent international windows in the USMNT's competitive buildup to next summer's tournament. The U.S. won both matchups 2-1, a pair of strong results to extend overall winning records over both and help the USMNT put together a current unbeaten run of five consecutive matches.
“It does set up nicely, but we have to focus on ourselves,” USMNT center back Tim Ream said. “We know the minimum of what it will take to beat these teams. You can't play a tournament by doing the minimum. You can't. You have to go above and beyond.”
“There's no easy game in the World Cup,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “In fact, some of our hardest games in the previous World Cup were two against lesser opponents. Moving forward, we need to continue to prepare in the right way, but it's fun knowing that we've played some of these opponents before.”
The USMNT faced Australia less than two months prior to the draw. On a cool night at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado, striker Haji Wright bagged a brace off two assists from midfielder Cristian Roldan to lead the U.S. to a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Socceroos, which ended Australia's 12-match unbeaten streak coming into the match.
Like Australia, the match against Paraguay on Nov. 15 was a battle between two teams ranked in the top 40. The U.S. scored two goals on the night, one on either side of halftime from midfielder Gio Reyna and striker Folarin Balogun, to power past the Paraguayans at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.
When asked how playing against recent opponents affects his team's World Cup hopes, head coach Mauricio Pochettino said it was a good starting point for the group's preparation.
“It's good because we felt how competitive Paraguay and Australia are,” he said. “They are two teams that are doing really, really well. We need to build our pattern, and we need to build our journey to arrive there and be sure that we are much better than we were in the past.”
Not only did today's draw paint a picture of the USMNT's group; the schedule also came into clearer focus. USA-Paraguay is the first match for the Americans and occurs June 12 at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood, California. It will be first World Cup match on American soil after Mexico-South Africa in Group A kicks off the tournament the day before in Mexico City.
“Getting three points right off the bat like that would be an amazing start for us and put us in a great position in the group,” forward Christian Pulisic said of the group stage opener. “We're definitely looking forward to that one.”
USA's Group D Schedule at 2026 FIFA World Cup (all times TBD)
One of the playoff contenders who could very well be the fourth in Group D is Türkiye, another team the U.S. played in 2025. The two sides met on June 7 in the final two international friendlies before the USMNT's run to the Concacaf Gold Cup Final. Against Türkiye, Pochettino started a relatively inexperienced lineup. Four players made their debuts, and a young U.S. side fell to Türkiye 2-1 in East Hartford, Connecticut.
“You saw a lot of fresh faces, a lot of inexperience, but also a lot of hunger,” center back Chris Richards said. “We still went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in Europe...it gave us a lot of confidence going into the Gold Cup."
Click here for more on all 12 World Cup groups
All three matches the U.S. played against Türkiye, Australia and Paraguay in the past six months will now serve as what Pochettino called “reference points” for the next as he and his staff prepare for the group stage.
When it comes to the third opponent yet to be determined, Pochettino's focus will not only be on Türkiye. The head coach confirmed that he and his team won't wait until March to do their homework – they plan to scout Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia as well – increasing the workload of preparing for three teams to six.
“We can go into it with a good feeling,” Pulisic said. “We've played against these teams recently, which is not always the case. We know more or less what they're going to look like.We know they're tough opponents as well. We're not taking anyone lightly. They're all going to be tough games, but it's great we have that experience.”
No matter who the third opponent ends up being, the U.S. has maintained its target of making it out of the group stage and beyond. The team is currently feeling a surge of confidence coming off the team's most recent outing, a 5-1 thrashing over World Cup-bound Uruguay, and strives to keep the focus on themselves.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese said just that on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard soon after the World Cup Draw concluded:
“The goal, the dream, the ambition is to win the World Cup. If you win the World Cup, you have to beat all the teams no matter what.You're going to be playing hard teams and the best teams at some point in the tournament if you accomplish what you want to accomplish.”
“There's no easy route to get to a final,” Richards echoed. “You always have to play some tough teams. One thing that Poch has instilled in us is if we play to the best of our abilities, no team can beat us. We all firmly believe that.”
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The U.S. got a favorable draw in the group stage for the 2026 World Cup. Their first match is against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium on June 12 -- one of eight matches being played in Inglewood.
They'll go on to then face Australia on June 19 in Seattle. Defending champion Argentina will open the World Cup against Algeria.
With the World Cup almost six months away, the countdown is officially on for many soccer fans in Los Angeles.
"I think the environment is going to be so much fun for the fans, both outside the stadium and inside the stadium. There's really not a bad seat. I'm excited to be one of those fans cheering the U.S. on," said FIFA Women's World Cup champion Mia Hamm.
The L.A. Host Committee has been planning for the World Cup for eight years, and there will be eight matches held in Los Angeles over the course of the 39-day tournament.
Tourism is one of the many drivers of L.A.'s economy, with over 540,000 residents who earn a living in tourism.
"Because this is the largest World Cup in history, you have to first look at the economic impacts. We're expecting to see over half a billion dollars of new revenues for our local business community because of the World Cup, and thousands of new jobs. That's an amazing opportunity," said Adam Burke, the president and CEO of the L.A. Tourism and Convention Board.
Host nations for the 2026 World Cup are the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The U.S. has positive recent experience against Paraguay and australia, having beaten both teams 2-1 in recent games.
"Only 65,000 people will get tickets to a match at SoFi Stadium. We have a much bigger population here, plus a much bigger population of people that are going to visit our city," said Kathryn Schloessman, the CEO of the L.A. 2026 World Cup Host Committee. "Many people will come to our city and not even go to a match. We want to make sure they have a great experience."
"We're actually putting together a 39-day programming calendar that highlights all parts of L.A. so that fans from around the world can take advantage of all that L.A. has to offer. That includes the official fan fest, the watch parties, and so many activations, including our arts and cultural community," Burke said.
At the Soccer+ sports shop in Pasadena, the owner and some of his customers said they watched the World Cup Draw live.
Josef Momjian has had his shop in Pasadena for nearly 40 years.
"The advantage is that they're playing at home," Momjian said of the U.S.' chances in the first round. "The crowd, the fans, they're going to be behind them to win something. I believe, at least, they pass the group, and we'll see how it goes from there.
The U.S.' group includes Paraguay, Australia and a team from a playoff match.
Mexico will host the first match of next summer's World Cup against South Africa. Canada's first match will be against a playoff team to be determined.
The conversation is buzzing on who will do well, and can the U.S. do well in this field?
"I think they're going to have a tougher time than Mexico making it to the next round, because they have, I think, tougher opponents," said Felipe Velasco from Pasadena.
World Cup merchandise, from jerseys to balls, is already on sale at Southland sports shops.
Andrew Velasco says he hopes the world's best footballers coming to North America will make the world's most popular sport even more popular here in the U.S.
"It kind of represents a lot of what America is. It's just a blend of people from different parts of the world celebrating where they're from, and being able to celebrate it here means a lot to a lot of people," Andrew Velasco said.
The last time the World Cup football was played in the United States was 1994. The last World Cup at 32 teams, but this time around, 48 countries will be represented. Every single country that will compete in the tournament next summer has representation in Southern California.
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ATLANTA — The countdown to the World Cup is on and the U.S Men's National Team learned who they will be facing in the group stage.
Someone who knows the World Cup well? Former Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan made the USMNT roster for the 2010 World Cup and played in the 2014 World Cup.
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Guzan visited our WSB-TV studios and spoke to Channel 2's Linda Stouffer on his experience and what to expect in Atlanta.
“What is it really like to be at the World Cup?” Stouffer asked Guzan.
“It's something that you're proud to represent your team. You're proud to put that jersey on. But when you have backing of the entire country during that one moment ... that gives you goosebumps. That gives you chills, that's what you strive for as a kid, the ultimate dream.”
That ultimate dream will be playing out over eight matches in Atlanta next summer. Atlanta will host five group stage matches, a Round of 32, a Round of 16 and a semifinal match. We'll find out the schedule on Saturday.
But there's all the additional events in and outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium too. It's a place that Guzan called home for nine seasons with Atlanta United.
“We know the stadium itself is brilliant from a fans' perspective,” Guzan said. “But from a players perspective, it's unbelievable to go in there, to walk out of the tunnel to feel the emotional as you go out on the field. Something that they'll cherish forever.”
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They didn't land in our Top 5, but these matches still thrilled.BySteve TignorPublished Dec 06, 2025 copy_link
Published Dec 06, 2025
© 2025 Eurasia Sport Images
This week, we counted down our Top 5 best ATP matches of the 2025 tennis season...No. 5: Tommy Paul and Nuno Borges go deep into the night at the US OpenNo. 4: *Carlos Alcaraz, Arthur Fils trade heavy haymakers and sliding gets in Monte Carlo*No. 3: *Flavio Cobolli, Zizou Bergs give everything in a 32-point Davis Cup tiebreaker*No. 2: Arthur Fils sets a new bar for himself in delirious win over Jaume MunarNo. 1: *Carlos Alcaraz reaches God mode to win Roland Garros, but it took Jannik Sinner to push him there*...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
No. 5: Tommy Paul and Nuno Borges go deep into the night at the US OpenNo. 4: *Carlos Alcaraz, Arthur Fils trade heavy haymakers and sliding gets in Monte Carlo*No. 3: *Flavio Cobolli, Zizou Bergs give everything in a 32-point Davis Cup tiebreaker*No. 2: Arthur Fils sets a new bar for himself in delirious win over Jaume MunarNo. 1: *Carlos Alcaraz reaches God mode to win Roland Garros, but it took Jannik Sinner to push him there*...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
No. 4: *Carlos Alcaraz, Arthur Fils trade heavy haymakers and sliding gets in Monte Carlo*No. 3: *Flavio Cobolli, Zizou Bergs give everything in a 32-point Davis Cup tiebreaker*No. 2: Arthur Fils sets a new bar for himself in delirious win over Jaume MunarNo. 1: *Carlos Alcaraz reaches God mode to win Roland Garros, but it took Jannik Sinner to push him there*...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
No. 3: *Flavio Cobolli, Zizou Bergs give everything in a 32-point Davis Cup tiebreaker*No. 2: Arthur Fils sets a new bar for himself in delirious win over Jaume MunarNo. 1: *Carlos Alcaraz reaches God mode to win Roland Garros, but it took Jannik Sinner to push him there*...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
No. 2: Arthur Fils sets a new bar for himself in delirious win over Jaume MunarNo. 1: *Carlos Alcaraz reaches God mode to win Roland Garros, but it took Jannik Sinner to push him there*...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
No. 1: *Carlos Alcaraz reaches God mode to win Roland Garros, but it took Jannik Sinner to push him there*...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
...but those weren't the only men's matches that thrilled us this year. Read on for some honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
The final, official changing of the men's guard: The 38-year-old legend threw everything he had at the 23-year-old heir apparent, and for once it didn't work.
The American teen announced his presence with this marathon shocker, and showed off the methodical grit that would take him into the Top 30 by year's end.
Shelton's breakthrough season peaked with his first Masters 1000 title, in an intensely fought final. He was a player, not just an athlete, now.
The Australian was twice a winner: First he saved three match points by the skin of his teeth, then he walked across the court to console the man he'd just beaten.Read more: Washington final 'not the end' for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, says Alex de Minaur
Read more: Washington final 'not the end' for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, says Alex de Minaur
Fourteen years after their first meeting, these two veteran crowd favorites gave Indian Wells fans three hours of stylish, athletic, back-and-forth fun. You don't need to teach olds dogs new tricks when they already know as many as these two.
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
Oscar Piastri will start just behind title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Abu Dhabi on Sunday evening.
Oscar Piastri was satisfied with his efforts during the final Qualifying session of the season in Abu Dhabi, feeling that third on the grid represented “more or less what we had” after a low-key start to the weekend.
Piastri is one of three title contenders heading into the 2025 finale at the Yas Marina Circuit, sitting four points behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and 16 points behind McLaren team mate Lando Norris.
All of them are set to start at the front of the grid on Sunday evening, with Verstappen coming out on top in Q3 over Norris and Piastri, who will be drawing inspiration from outsiders winning the championship in the last races of 2007 and 2010.
“I think honestly pretty good,” was the Australian's post-Qualifying assessment. “I think Q1 I got a nice lap on the board, the first good lap I've done all weekend, so it was nice to kind of set myself a baseline for the rest of quali.
“I think in Q3 things felt good, my lap was pretty good, and I think Lando's lap was pretty good. I think that was more or less what we had, so ultimately pretty pleased.”
He added: “[We were] just not quite quick enough today, but it sets up a pretty exciting day tomorrow.”
Asked if he now has the confidence to attack the race, knowing that a significant points swing is required, Piastri said: “Yeah, definitely. I think we made some good improvements from practice yesterday and practice this afternoon.
“I felt much happier with the car and I felt like I was driving a lot better as well, which helps. I think we're in a reasonable place with that.
“Obviously it was not quite quick enough to beat Max today, but I think we did everything we could.”
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
Live coverage of Saturday's qualifying session for the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
George Russell topped the timesheets for Mercedes during an eventful third and final practice hour at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
George Russell set the pace during the third and final practice hour of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a session that was briefly interrupted following a crash for Lewis Hamilton.
The Mercedes man lead the way on a 1m 23.334s, a mere 0.004s ahead of championship leader Lando Norris in second. Norris' title rival Max Verstappen put his Red Bull in third place, ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso in fourth and the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri completing the top five.
In an eventful final practice of the weekend – and the season – the red flags were thrown when Hamilton spun off into the barriers at just over halfway through the hour, bringing the Ferrari man's outing to an early end.
Meanwhile there was a collision between Kimi Antonelli and Yuki Tsunoda in the pit lane during the latter stages of the session when the former was released into the path of the Red Bull, a clash that will be investigated after the session for an unsafe release.
To watch all the highlights from final practice in Abu Dhabi, click on the player above.
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
Championship leader Lando Norris will line up in second place for Sunday's decisive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the Briton conceding that he was "not fast enough" to outpace title rival Max Verstappen for pole position.
Lando Norris admitted that he was “disappointed” to not take pole position for the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but the Briton vowed to try to win as he looks to claim a maiden World Championship.
After setting the pace in both of Friday's practice sessions, Norris did not top the timesheets during any of Saturday's Qualifying segments, with McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri and Mercedes' George Russell going quickest in Q1 and Q2 respectively.
Max Verstappen then beat the rest of the pack in Q3, the Red Bull driver clinching pole thanks to his effort of 1m 22.207s. Norris proved to be his closest challenger, but at 0.201s adrift could not beat the Dutchman, meaning that the championship leader will line up in second on the grid.
Reflecting on the session straight after jumping out of the car, Norris explained: “It's tough. It's tough. Max did a good job, so congrats to him. We did everything we could. I think my lap was pretty good, I was pretty happy.
“Of course I'm disappointed not to be on pole for the final weekend, but we just weren't fast enough today, so we'll have to try and do it tomorrow.”
Sharing further thoughts later on, the 26-year-old suggested that the outcome of Qualifying “could have been a lot worse”, adding: “I expected it to be a lot closer into Q3, and the Quali battle then was between me and Oscar.
“Max was too far ahead – they were too fast. We didn't quite have the speed in the car today. A tough one to take, but otherwise I think we got everything out of it. I think Oscar said he did a pretty good lap and I thought I did a pretty good lap. Just not fast enough come Qualifying, but tomorrow's a new day.”
When asked how he is feeling about Sunday's race – one in which he could potentially win his first title – Norris said: “Remarkably normal. I guess I feel the same, a little bit disappointed we couldn't get first, even though it was just out of reach today.
“It's just always nice to end the season on top like we did last year. We didn't win the [Drivers'] Championship last year, but it was just nice to end with a win. That's what I would like to do tomorrow, in either our cases. I feel good, and we'll go in and do everything the same as normal.”
A podium would be enough for Norris to be confirmed as World Champion, regardless of where Verstappen and Piastri finish. However, when quizzed on whether he would simply aim for the rostrum or target victory instead, the British driver remained unsure.
“I don't know. The time will come that I think of that,” he explained. “For now, I'm disappointed to not be on pole, and I still want to try and win tomorrow, so that's going to be the goal.”
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
George Russell demoted Lando Norris to P2 late in the final practice hour for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
George Russell stormed to the top of the timesheets in the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, marginally leading Lando Norris and Max Verstappen ahead of an all-important Qualifying hour.
The Mercedes driver found a small advantage of 0.004s over Norris in the closing minutes of FP3, ending with a time of 1m 23.334s on a set of soft tyres, leading the way in another remarkably competitive session.
It was a quiet start as many drivers took their time in the garage before heading out on track – the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were the first to make a short appearance, repeating their usual practice routine of scrubbing the tyres.
After a lacklustre opening day for Alpine, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto elected to put in some laps early doors with the aim of troubleshooting some of their issues, which saw them end Friday at the back of the field in Renault's final round as an engine supplier.
Norris' initial effort saw him shoot to the top of the times with a 1m 24.728s, but it was far off his best lap in the previous practice sessions, with times expected to tumble as the track evolved across the hour.
Practice 3 results
FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2025
His team mate Oscar Piastri, who missed out on FP1 for Pato O'Ward, found himself 0.4s adrift before Norris improved his time, fighting oversteer in the final sector. Norris then had a near-miss with Yuki Tsunoda, who failed to pull aside and let the McLaren past, forcing him into evasive action – the outgoing Red Bull driver raised his hand in apology and was later noted for impeding.
As the circuit gradually got busier, Ollie Bearman quickly proved that his pace in FP2 wasn't a fluke as his first lap was just 0.008s slower than Norris' effort, before Verstappen stormed to P1 just before the halfway point. The Haas wasn't the only surprise at the front, with Stroll demoting him to second following a rapid lap on the red-walled soft tyres.
The laps were coming in thick and fast with everyone making the most of the final opportunity to prepare for Qualifying, but Lewis Hamilton found the limit at Turn 9 as he suffered a high speed spin and went careering into the barrier. He was fortunately uninjured, reporting: “Something buckled at the front and snapped the rear.”
The remaining drivers lost valuable time as they returned to the pits while his damaged Ferrari was recovered, leaving them keen to make the most of the final quarter of the session once the pit exit reopened.
Piastri was the first to do so, jumping from P18 to P1 to go half a second clear of Verstappen on a fresh set of tyres. He didn't stay on top for long as Norris, also on new tyres, set a 1m 23.338s to reclaim first position – his final sector alone was three tenths faster than his team mate.
The drama wasn't just confined to the track as Mercedes youngster Kimi Antonelli was released straight into Tsunoda's path in the pitlane, crashing into the side of the Red Bull and damaging his own front wing in the process.
His team mate Russell then charged to P1 in the last few minutes of FP3, with Alonso taking a high-flying fourth place behind Norris and Verstappen, with the lead Red Bull just over a tenth away from Russell's pace-setting lap.
Piastri ended down in fifth ahead of the impressive Haas duo of Esteban Ocon and Bearman. Charles Leclerc, Antonelli and Alex Albon rounded out the top 10 in an eventful session where just 0.388s covered the front half of the field.
The drivers and teams now have just over a couple of hours to regroup before Qualifying gets underway at 1800 local time.
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
George Russell ended Friday's running eager to help Mercedes find improvements overnight, despite finishing in the top three in FP2.
George Russell has admitted that Mercedes have work to do if they want to fight towards the front in Abu Dhabi after a highly competitive day of practice left him anticipating “surprises” in the field.
As the sun set and temperatures dropped at the Yas Marina Circuit, Russell improved from sixth to third between FP1 and FP2, albeit ending up 0.379s away from Lando Norris' pace-setting lap in the later session.
Although the McLaren driver ended the day with a commanding lead, the rest of the pack was separated by extremely small margins, enabling midfield teams to fight alongside the frontrunners and shake up the order.
Ollie Bearman was an impressive fourth for Haas, just 0.039s slower than Russell's best lap, and the Kick Sauber pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were within hundredths of the 20-year-old's time in P5 and P6.
The results have left Russell keen to extract more pace as he explained: “It was definitely feeling better this evening. It always tends to feel a bit nicer when you're driving in the dark and the track is a bit cooler.
“I think it's going to be tight in Qualifying, probably between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari. There are some other teams who were a bit unexpected as well – Bearman was right up there, and Hulkenberg as well, so we may have some surprises.
"The race pace wasn't great in all honesty. We need to review tonight how we can improve that and see on Sunday.
“It's not easy when you've got that C5 tyre – there's a lot of grip. When it's cool conditions, it's easy for mistakes to happen. My lap was strong and I don't think there was much left in the tank. We were only just P3 so we need to try and find a bit more pace overnight.”
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, his team mate Kimi Antonelli looked much happier in FP1, which was the least representative session of the weekend – taking place earlier in the day, the temperatures were higher than they would be in the all-important Qualifying hour or the race.
The Italian teenager finished the first session in P4, a little over a tenth away from Norris' benchmark. In FP2, he dropped to P10 as the McLaren driver's advantage opened up, leaving Antonelli 0.667s adrift, but less than three tenths behind Russell.
“We started the day pretty well,” he summarised. “I think FP2 didn't really show the pace. The last lap on softs was looking pretty strong, but then I made a mistake in the last corner and lost a lot of time.
“We're there in the mix. Of course, McLaren look a step ahead of everyone but the gaps are very, very close and every little mistake can really punish you. I think the long run was much better in FP2 than FP1 so that was a positive. We've got to keep working in order to improve for tomorrow.
“I felt pretty comfortable with the car. We've been trying quite a lot of stuff in terms of set-up and we're going in the right direction, but there's a lot of work to do.”
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After 23 Grands Prix in 2025, the title fight goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi
GHOST CAR: How Verstappen made the difference to beat Norris to pole in Abu Dhabi
Lando Norris led the field in both of Friday's practice sessions for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lando Norris continued his strong form in a busy second practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, topping the times ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell.
After he beat his Red Bull rival to first place in FP1 by just 0.008s, Norris extended his advantage in FP2 to 0.363s. This session has the most similar conditions to the upcoming Qualifying hour, putting the Standings leader in a good position to chase down another podium position.
Elsewhere, Ollie Bearman took an impressive P4 for Haas and remarked over the radio: "I don't know how it's so good." Just behind him in fifth and sixth were the Kick Sauber pair, with Nico Hulkenberg leading the charge in the team's final weekend before they adopt the Audi name in 2026.
Oscar Piastri, after sitting out of FP1 for Pato O'Ward, struggled to put a lap together that was good enough for the top 10 – he locked up on his flying lap to end up in P11, just under seven tenths off his team mate's pace.
There was plenty of traffic throughout FP2 as many fought to get the most out of the soft tyres before switching focus to their long-run pace on harder compounds, leaving the order predominantly unchanged in the final quarter of the session.
To catch up on the highlights from FP2, click go on the video player above.
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Earlier this week, Quentin Tarantino went on the attack, striking, with his most powerful weapons—his very large mouth, and the powerfully nasal voice that lurks within it—at society's biggest active problem at the moment: Paul Dano's performance in 2007 Oscar-winner There Will Be Blood. As we reported previously, Tarantino went no-holds-barred on Dano in an appearance on Bret Easton Ellis' podcast, calling him “a big, giant flaw” in Paul Thomas Anderson's movie, “the weakest fucking actor in SAG,” and, of course, “the limpest dick in the world.”
Which was a pretty wild swing, not just because Dano is a perfectly fine, and often a very good, performer, but also because this level of weirdly personal attack falls pretty far outside regular Hollywood norms. To the point that a whole lot of people—almost none of whom have actually namechecked Tarantino's comments, which also took swipes at Matthew Lillard and Owen Wilson—have spoken up to assert that, no, Paul Dano is not the world's limpest dick. For instance: Matt Reeves, who directed Dano as the jittery Riddler in his 2022 comic book noir flick The Batman, who recently stated on Twitter that Dano is “An incredible actor, and an incredible person.” Or Ben Stiller, who directed Dano in 2018 Showtime crime drama Escape At Dannemora, who self-censored himself with “Paul Dano is f-ing brilliant.” (Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, who's never worked with Dano, but who has chimed in before when Tarantino runs his mouth, wrote that, “idk man i think paul dano is an incredible actor.”)
We do think it's kind of amusing that all of these observations are being offered seemingly out of the blue, with no one acknowledging that they're responding to Tarantino's unexpected tirade. (Alec Baldwin got the closest, writing, “If you don't love Paul Dano, shh.”) Per Entertainment Weekly, the most interesting, and specific, defense came from Dano's There Will Be Blood co-star Colleen Foy, who said on Threads that she actually sat behind Tarantino at the film's cast and crew screening, and that “He was legit vibing with Paul's performance. His recent comments are incongruent with his reaction that night.”
As we go to press, no high-profile Hollywood celebrities have similarly spoken up in defense of Matthew Lillard's dick.
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By
Chris Parton
An eclectic cast of country, roots, and Latin artists turned out to tribute Raul Malo at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium Friday night, Dec. 5, lifting up an ahead-of-his-time trailblazer as he battles cancer.
Diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer in September, the golden-voiced frontman of the Mavericks was honored with a joyful, yet deeply bittersweet three-hour sendup, as more than a dozen friends took the stage for the first of two sold-out nights. Dubbed Dance the Night Away: A 35-Year Musical Legacy Celebrating the Mavericks & Honoring Raul Malo, the show both highlighted the band's unique contribution to country — infusing it with Latin influence — and awarded the American Eagle Award from the National Music Council of the United States to Malo.
Presented by chairman Charlie Saunders halfway through the night, the honor went to Malo for his “lifelong commitment to the preservation of the multilingual American music repertoire,” and for his work as a steadfast champion of music education. Previous winners include icons like Stephen Sondheim, Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillispe, and Kris Kristofferson.
“The American Eagle Award is given to not only celebrate excellence, because a lot of people are excellent, especially in this business,” Saunders said onstage. “It goes to the people who were excellent and then went way beyond that in terms of making us proud to be Americans and representatives of the American culture.”
A Florida-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist with Cuban roots, Malo co-founded and led the Mavericks through their commercial heyday in the 1990s, evolving to fuse neo-traditional country, classic pop, and rock with Latin elements of Tex-Mex, afro-Cuban, and more — often with brassy horns and strutting, syncopated rhythms. The band's sound foreshadowed the growing popularity of Latin influence in the American mainstream. Meanwhile, Malo's vibrato vocal and magnetic stage presence won the band critical acclaim and fans across the world — plus the respect of their peers, many of whom were present at the Ryman Friday night.
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Unfortunately, Malo was not. Rushed to a Nashville emergency room on Thursday, Malo sent a letter to fans. Longtime champion and label head Scott Borchetta read it for the crowd after praising a band who refused to follow any creative north star but their own.
“Music has been the guiding force of my entire life,” Malo wrote in part. “In these past months, I've had to fight battles I've never imagined. But on the hardest of days, music remained my companion. Your letters, your stories of how a song helped you through loss, heartbreak, joy, those became our songs. You all carried me more than you know. To my family band, the National Music Council, my musical collaborators, and every fan around the world: Thank you for giving my voice a place to live, even when my body cannot be the one delivering it. I accept this award with profound gratitude and with the hope that the music we create continues to inspire, to heal and bring people together.”
The Mavericks accepted the award on Malo's behalf. During the show, veteran artists like Jeff Hanna (of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Jim Lauderdale, and Steve Earle took turns on stage, performing alongside the band in Malo's absence. Each held him up as a friend.
“Raul, I love to make you laugh,” Lauderdale said after a performance of “There Goes My Heart.” “I can't think of anything funny right now, but I am grateful to you. You've created one of the greatest bands ever. You've created one of the greatest batch of songs that's ever been sung.”
Younger artists and admirers like Maggie Rose and JD McPherson were also on hand, and each honored Malo as a creative powerhouse while praising “one of the greatest live bands in the world.” All through the night the Mavericks put everything they had into each song – 10 members matching deep, hard grooves and dusky border-town twang with crisp horns and smooth swagger. People danced in the wings of the stage while fans roared in the Ryman's pews, offering credence to the band's title.
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“In my humble opinion Raul Malo is the best singer Nashville has ever seen,” noted Rose. “So, if I'm shaking up here trying to cover his songs, you know why.”
Others like Asleep at the Wheel founder Ray Benson highlighted Malo's rebellious side, sharing a hazy memory of a joint shared in a Grammy Awards bathroom. The band won one Grammy in its time (in 1995, Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Here Comes the Rain”), along with CMA and ACM Awards.
Meanwhile, Rodney Crowell delivered a personal message in tribute to Malo and the band, comparing their spirit to that of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Malo was “willing to tell the powers that be … they could kiss his ass,” Crowell said.
Joyful musical highlights included Seth Walker kicking off the night with “Back in Your Arms Again,” while James Otto summoned Malo's baritone with a soulful run through “Come Unto Me.” It culminated in a fiery accordion duel between current band member Percy Cardona and longtime Mavericks associate Michael Guerra. Jaime Hanna found a hard-rocking pocket on “Every Little Thing About You,” the solo song he and Malo co-wrote for Malo's 2001 Today album, and Chuck Mead celebrated the Mavericks' “hillbilly” side with Hank Williams' “Hey Good Lookin'.”
Emily West, Jesse Dayton, Jimmie Vaughan, Joshua Ray Walker, and Javier Mendoza also appeared – all using Malo's personal microphone.
“It's everything I can do to keep this together,” guitarist Eddie Perez said of the emotional moment.
Founding bassist Robert Reynolds echoed that sentiment. He appeared during the award presentation to retell the story of meeting Malo in Miami, and starting the Mavericks. Reynolds said Malo's vibrant energy changed the course of his life.
“I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Raul. And I never thought I'd have to be here doing it this way. That's the hard part,” he said, nearly choking up. “We were kids thumbing through the history … of American music. And I meet this simpatico guy with a huge smile hair down to his [back], curly hair with a cowboy hat driving a Mercedes-Benz.”
In June of 2024, just after the release of the Mavericks's Moon & Stars album, Malo was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. He also underwent chemotherapy and surgery to remove a liver tumor, but insisted the Mavericks return to the road. They did so until September of 2025, when Malo shared news that his condition had worsened.
Known as LMD (or leptomeningeal disease, which he quipped on Instagram stands for “get this shit out of my head”), the cancer had spread to the membranes surrounding Malo's brain and spinal cord. It's a condition for which there is currently no cure, and the Mavericks canceled all concert dates — except these two at the Ryman.
After Reynolds learned of Malo's illness, he traveled to Nashville to meet his old friend.
“I came down, I was not ready for this,” Reynolds said onstage. “But I walked in and I was greeted by that smile I had met 35 years earlier. He was still on fire for it. And he said, ‘I may not sing again, but I can produce records and write songs.' That's what we talked about.”
For the first time in years, Reynolds rejoined the Mavericks to finish the show. Grooving at center stage, back in his element, Reynolds tapped out the thumping rhythm to “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down.
The two-night stand is dubbed “Dance the Night Away” for a track off the band's 1998 album, Trampoline, and Friday took on the song's message as its mantra. It never became a hit on the U.S. charts but is now the Mavericks' best streamer, and a prime example of their singular style. With a shuffling samba rhythm and brassy blasts of joy, its lyrics lay out a dive-bar oasis filled with “senoritas who can sway,” calling on listeners to let their worries go. Performed as an ensemble, it became the show's emotional climax, and a fitting send-off.
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Perez capped the night as the band gathered, arm in arm. “Thank you so much. We are and always will be the Mavericks,” he said.
A portion of the night's proceeds will benefit Stand Up to Cancer. Night two of the Mavericks' Dance the Night Away will continue at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on Saturday and, like Friday's show, will stream on Nugs.net.
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By Rosy Cordero
Associate Editor, TV
Alexandria Stapleton may be a new name to many who are discovering her following the release of Netflix‘s Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which she directed and executive produced. But she's hardly a newbie to the industry.
Stapleton is a director and producer whose career spans more than 15 years. Across that time, she's explored subjects across sports, music, pop culture, and social justice. Before she collaborated with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson on the smash hit documentary about the rapper and music mogul Combs, she directed an episode of the three-part HBO documentary God Save Texas, her home state, and the Paramount+ doc How Music Got Free, which she produced with SpringHill and Eminem. Some of her documentary subjects she's explored include Roger Corman, Reggie Jackson, and Chelsea Handler.
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We recently spoke to Jackson, who sings Stapleton's praises for her work on Sean Combs: The Reckoning, and their working relationship. For example, she would show footage she was working on, and he would share insight into what was going on in the world of hip hop at that time.
Watch on Deadline
Netflix released the documentary on Tuesday, December 2. Deadline caught up with Stapleton the following day, just shortly after the streamer confirmed that the project had hit No. 1, where it has remained and spread to the top of the charts globally.
All four parts of the docuseries are available to stream now.
DEADLINE: Congratulations on all your success. I opened up an email this morning that said the documentary hit No. 1, which is a feat in and of itself, especially as the first part of the final season of Stranger Things is also at the top of the charts. What is your reaction to this news?
ALEXANDRIA STAPLETON: It's very surreal. Very surreal. I needed to believe 50, whom I told that I'd feel very blessed to be in the Top 10. I woke up this morning to my phone going crazy, and I was like, “Wow!” It's a testament to our amazing team that put this together because we worked so hard, and to the voices we spotlighted, as well.
DEADLINE: Would you say this proves there's a hunger for programming like this and for your approach to keeping the story balanced?
STAPLETON: I'm just starting to reflect on it, because it's just been nuts. I think that this was the only [documentary] that was made by people from the culture. 50 and I, this is our culture, you know, the culture of hip hop. Being a Black woman making a film like this, I took the opportunity very seriously. We wanted to make something for people like us, but that could also speak to a broader audience. With the viewership being what it is, it's crossing barriers, which was our goal. I'm hearing reactions from people who say they didn't know about a lot of the stuff we covered, or who even really knew much about who [Combs] is.
Not to knock outsiders making things, because that can also be an incredible experience, but I think the nuances and some of these details were overlooked in past projects, because [those involved] weren't really considering the culture.
DEADLINE: Following the release of the documentary, Combs threatened legal action over the explosive footage your team acquired that showed him in the days leading up to his arrest. How would you say this speaks to the strength of what was released in the documentary?
STAPLETON: I don't know what's in his head or why he's reacting the way that he is. I couldn't answer that. But we all could see that when the project came out, it included things that were probably a surprise to him. I don't know how to really answer that, but I think that perhaps he, or someone in his camp, was able to see that this was going to be a different project.
DEADLINE: I was surprised to see the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie, Notorious BIG) covered in the doc, because I didn't think there was anything new left to report. How did you tackle finding new information about a topic that's been covered extensively?
STAPLETON: I agree with you. I have seen a million things done on this subject matter as well. I didn't know when I started this that it was going to be a part of it. I was conducting interviews, meeting people, and doing research on other things when it began to pull me in. I think it hits different for a few different reasons, like how the storytellers here are people you recognize, [while in other docs] you hear the same version of the story from the same people. The other is that people underestimate the power of telling a story in chronological order and researching the events that led up to it. It's been mostly about how the three hated each other, but nobody took the time to dig deeper beyond Vegas or the Source Awards, like going back to how Suge Knight worked with Andre Harrell and knew Sean [Combs]. Suge had been Al B. Sure's bodyguard. People don't understand how much Suge Knight was tied into that world.
DEADLINE: There's certainly still a need for new information. In 2023, just shy of three decades after Shakur's slaying, Duane “Keefe D” Davis was arrested and charged with the rapper's murder. His trial is set for February.
STAPLETON: I think when Keefe D was arrested, that made some noise, but people were still lost in it. His story still hasn't been entirely told on a big platform, as of yet.
DEADLINE: In the final episode, you spotlight producer Lil Rod and Bad Boy co-founder Kirk Burrowes, both of whom have alleged that Combs mentally, physically, and sexually abused them. Lil Rod was unable to share the extent of his claims, whether from fear or anxiety, or possibly something else. Burrowes shared a bit more but was visibly shaken. Why was it important to amplify their voices, especially in those moments when their voices were shaking?
STAPLETON: It was very important for every alleged victim here to share their truth. But I think when you're talking about the world of hip hop, and the kind of tropes of how hip hop handles sexuality, it's complicated. For both of them, and especially in my conversations with Kirk, I think that they understood that [what allegedly happened to them] has nothing to do with sexuality. Sexual violence against any gender shouldn't be tolerated. I hope this film will help the community become a more open place and that there is more acceptance of victims.
DEADLINE: Yes, because men can be victims too.
STAPLETON: Yeah, and men should feel okay to share their stories as part of their healing process if they choose to. Perhaps there will be people who are going to watch this who find peace from seeing Kirk and Lil Rod sharing their stories. With all the alleged victims here, we didn't push them for details.
DEADLINE: I was at a party the other night, and everyone was discussing The Reckoning. The word “fearless” kept coming up when talking about you, not only for your willingness to tackle this particular subject, but also for knowing how dangerous the exploration could be. How do you feel about the word “fearless” being used to describe you?
STAPLETON: I think sometimes it ebbs and flows. I do believe that by the nature of the content and what people were sharing with me and understanding their fear, definitely, I have had moments where it would be natural for me to have fear. But I have so much faith in audiences and the community and people. And I think the more that, as a documentarian, we choose to do films like this, what helps me to shed my fear, is understanding that when people are siloed and can't share stories, it feels like, “Oh, I'm alone, and I'm the only person that knows this.”
A lot of people who are in this series lived in fear because they were siloed, their voices were muted and silenced, and they were cut off from a community of people. In the aftermath of the indictment and the arrest, people are starting to find each other. My role is just to put this together and present it to an audience so that we can all pull back the layers and understand that there was more to this story. The best way to combat fear was for me to make the film.
DEADLINE: When we last spoke before the premiere, you said you'd consider tackling another Diddy project in the future if everything aligned. In discussing the possibility of further exploration for a new project, the general consensus was that you will probably call it a day after this. What say you?
STAPLETON: I think I would be willing to. There are a couple of parts of the story that I would love to know more about and to work on further. The story has all these different offshoots, places that you can go because it covers so much in so many decades. There are a couple of other worlds that I think would be interesting to get into, but right now I need a little rest and to finish up some other projects.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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By Damon Wise
Film Editor, Awards
The Best International Feature Film category is never short on surprises, and 2025 has no shortage of firsts. Of the 86 submissions deemed to be eligible by AMPAS, several were debut features — including Diego Céspedes' Chilean title The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingos — and two countries entering the fray for the first time ever: Madagascar and Papua New Guinea. Poised to make history is the Iraqi selection The President's Cake, which won two prestigious awards in Cannes (the Directors' Fortnight Audience Award and the Camera d'Or). If it makes the Oscar shortlist, it will be the first of 14 films that the Middle Eastern country has selected since 2005.
A total of 14 submissions will take part in today's Contenders Film: International, Deadline's annual virtual panel showcase, which begins at 9 a.m. PT.
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Many of the titles in display this year will be familiar to those tracking the major film festivals — Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto and San Sebastián all continue to dominate the space — but if you aren't au fait with the byzantine world of accreditation apartheid and lanyards, Deadline is here to help. Like many of the people in the movies we've chosen, you're about to go on a journey of discovery, as we speak to the films' stars, directors, producers and screenwriters to find out what makes their movies so special.
Representing Poland, Agnieszka Holland presents the playful Franz, a biography of the tragically short-lived Czech writer whose surreal bureaucratic nightmares gave rise to the descriptor “Kafka-esque.” From Switzerland comes Late Shift by Petra Volpe, the kinetic, almost real-time study of an overworked nurse dealing with more than she can handle. And Iraq's Hasan Hadi serves up President's Cake, a 1990s-set drama in which a young girl is forced into celebrating Saddam Hussein's birthday.
Father, by Tereza Nvotová, features the powerful story of a Slovakian parent who accidentally leaves his infant daughter in the back of his car on a boiling-hot day. Shai Carmeli-Pollak's The Sea represents Israel with its timely story of a young Palestinian boy making his way to the seaside through a largely hostile country. And from Argentina comes the moving political drama Belén, directed by and starring Dolores Fonzi, which highlights a scandal from 2014 that saw an innocent woman wrongly imprisoned for murder after suffering a miscarriage.
There's an unexpectedly poignant tone to Anselm Chan's The Last Dance, an intimate odd-couple story from Hong Kong in which a down-at-heel wedding arranger faces pushback when he decides to become a funeral director. Bigger in scope is All That's Left of You from Jordan, in which Cherien Dabis tells a very personal story spanning three generations of a Palestine family displaced from their homeland in 1948. After that, for a little light relief, South Korea's Park Chan-wook reteams with star Lee Byung-hun for No Other Choice, a murderously funny satire about the effects of downsizing.
In Cape Town, a father makes a terrible mistake in South African writer-director Imran Hamdulay's The Heart Is a Muscle, while Urška Djukić deals with a teenage girl's coming of age in the Slovenia drama Little Trouble Girls. True crime and far-right politics merge in Francesco Costabile's Familia from Italy, and a rare comedy comes from Finland in Teemu Nikki's 100 Liters of Gold, about two sisters who accidentally get high on their own supply of homebrew. Finally, we have Céspedes' Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo from Chile, a child's-eye tale of acceptance and loss set in the early 1980s.
Follow along with Contenders all day on Deadline.com and on our social channels via #DeadlineContenders. Check back Monday when we launch the event's streaming site featuring all the panel videos.
Below is a rundown of today's schedule and panelists:
(order subject to change)
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
The President's Cake (Iraq)
Hasan Hadi (Writer/Director)
MUSIC BOX FILMS
Late Shift (Switzerland)
Petra Volpe (Writer/Director)Leonie Benesch (Actor)
DANAE PRODUCTION
Father (Slovakia)
Tereza Nvotová (Writer/Director)Veronika Paštéková (Producer)
KINO LORBER
Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia)
Urška Djukić Lecamus (Writer/Director)Jara Sofija Ostan (Actor)Lev Predan Kowarski (Director of Photography)
EMPEROR MOTION PICTURES
The Last Dance (Hong Kong)
Anselm Chan (Director)
MENEMSHA FILMS
The Sea (Israel)
Shai Carmeli-Pollak (Writer/Director)Baher Agbariya (Producer)
IT'S ALIVE FILMS
100 Liters of Gold (Finland)
Teemu Nikki (Director/Screenwriter)Elina Knihtilä (Actor)Pirjo Lonka (Actor)
AMAZON MGM STUDIOS
Belén (Argentina)
Dolores Fonzi (Writer/Director/Actor)Leticia Cristi (Producer)
COHEN MEDIA GROUP
Franz (Poland)
Agnieszka Holland (Director/Producer)
NEON
No Other Choice (South Korea)
Park Chan-wook (Writer/Director/Producer)
ALTERED INNOCENCE
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Chile)
Diego Cespedes (Director)
THE STAR FILM COMPANY
The Heart is a Muscle (South Africa)
Imran Hamdulay (Writer/Director/Producer)Keenan Arrison (Actor)Melissa de Vries (Actor)
WATERMELON PICTURES and VISIBILITY FILMS
All That's Left of You (Jordan)
Cherien Dabis (Writer/Director/Producer/Actor)
TRAMP LTD, MEDUSA FILM, INDIGO FILM & O'GROOVE
Familia (Italy)
Francesco Costabile (Director)Francesco Gheghi (Actor)Barbara Ronchi (Actor)
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Lauren Sánchez turned heads in a luxurious leather coat minidress that retails for nearly $10,000 for her date night with her husband, Jeff Bezos.
The newlyweds were photographed stepping out at Bird Streets Club in Los Angeles on Friday night.
The popular Alaïa Edition structured coat ($9,970) — which features an asymmetrical zipper and an oversized shearling collar and cuffs — hugged the former journalist's curves, giving her ample figure as she braved the chilly December weather.
She paired the dress with sheer black tights and thigh-high black high-heeled boots.
For the accessories, Sánchez, 55, kept things light with a Chloé small Paddington leather shoulder bag ($2,290) and a pair of dark shades.
She also sported some dainty diamond earrings and a small silver necklace.
The Amazon billionaire, 61, stood by his wife's side in an all-black ensemble, featuring his signature black T-shirt and matching pants.
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Bezos was photographed holding Sánchez's hand as they exited the venue and made their way to their awaiting ride.
Sánchez isn't the only star who's been seen in the widely coveted coat. It seems one of her Kardashian-Jenner friends found the piece before her.
In 2022, Kylie Jenner made headlines when she also wore the vintage 1987 Alaïa piece as a minidress during her trip to Aspen.
At the time, the reality star styled the look with a beige turtleneck, sheer tights and knee-high black leather boots.
Jenner, 28, completed the outfit with black shades and gloves, a furry black bucket hat and a structural pyramid bag.
The Kylie Cosmetics founder attended Bezos and Sánchez's star-studded Italian wedding in June alongside the rest of her famous family, including sisters Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian, and their mom, Kris Jenner.
By
Miles Klee
On the evening before Thanksgiving, the president of the United States took to his social media platform to claim in a lengthy screed that immigration was destroying the country. In one spurious example Donald Trump offered in his Truth Social post, he warned, falsely, that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia” were “completely taking over the state” of Minnesota, with dangerous migrant gangs roving the streets as citizens cowered in fear at home.
Trump laid the blame squarely on Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic Party's 2024 nominee for vice president. “The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both,” Trump fumed.
In the not-too-recent past, it would have been unthinkable for a president to attack his political opponent using a derogatory term for people with intellectual disabilities. Even a Republican, Indiana State Sen. Mike Bohacek, rebuked Trump for his language in a Facebook post, saying it was reason enough to oppose a GOP-favored redistricting measure in his state. “I have been an unapologetic advocate for people with intellectual disabilities since the birth of my second daughter,” who has Down syndrome, he wrote, noting that Trump's “choices of words have consequences.” (Trump, naturally, doubled down on his statement days later.)
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The president's epithet didn't come out of thin air. Across the internet, during the 2024 election and in the first year of his second term, MAGA influencers have increasingly used the R-word to insult and scandalize conscientious “woke” liberals, normalizing a slur that had been largely purged from the national vocabulary. The trend reflects not only a coarsening of public discourse under Trump but new depths of callousness and cruelty in America, with disability advocates warning of the term's dehumanizing effect. Elon Musk alone has dropped the word more than 30 times on his X account since early 2024, while Joe Rogan has said that its return represents an important win for right-wingers. “The word ‘retarded' is back, and it's one of the great culture victories,” the podcaster crowed in an April episode of his show.
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Luvell Anderson, head of the philosophy department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has written extensively on the lexical category of slurs. He describes the Trumpworld's pushback against the elimination of the R-word as part of the larger project of asserting ideology. “The attempted reintroduction of ‘retarded' into the public language by people on the far right has less to do with changing meaning and more to do with an attempted shift in values,” he explains. “From the far right's perspective, reintroducing a word we are taught not to say is a rebellious act meant to take back power. Open defiance is a clear sign that the old gatekeepers are no longer in charge.”
So, how exactly did we get here? To understand that, we have to chart the history and evolution of this troublesome term over hundreds of years.
“Retard” is a verb derived from the Latin verb “retardere,” meaning “to make slow,” or “to delay.” To hinder something or someone's progress is to “retard” it. “Retarded” is a corresponding adjective referring to whomever or whatever has been slowed down, and “retardant” describes that which is capable of inhibiting in this way: a “flame retardant” substance, for example, helps to reduce or halt the spread of fire. English and other languages included versions of these words as far back as the 15th century.
By the 19th century, clinical psychologists were applying old words such as “idiot” and “imbecile” to categorize people with intellectual disabilities, and sometimes inventing new ones. (In 1910, the American eugenicist Henry H. Goddard coined the term “moron,” suggesting it as a replacement for the description “feeble-minded,” which he found too vague for his liking.) To receive one of these designations from a doctor in this era was to be marked as unfit for society and a candidate for potential institution and sterilization.
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As those words were adopted for epithets of abuse outside clinical settings, some in the medical community sought to move toward less loaded language. The first known use of “retarded” to characterize the intellectually disabled dates to 1895, with “mental retardation” slowly but surely replacing the previous terminology in medical literature over the course of the 20th century. This was reflected in the names of advocacy groups, including the National Association for Retarded Children and the American Association on Mental Retardation, which have since been renamed (as Arc of the United States and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, respectively) in recognition of the rise in the harmful use of “retard” as a slur. But “retarded” did remain accepted scientific language into the 1980s and 1990s.
John McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University who examined profanity and slurs in his 2021 book Nine Nasty Words, says that the R-word was partially meant to be a neutralizing solution to words like “imbecile” becoming offensive slang. “My sense is that ‘moron' and ‘idiot' were the ones shelved for the more euphemistic ‘retarded,' which originally would have felt like just ‘slowed down by factors beyond their control,'” he tells Rolling Stone. “But once ‘retarded' felt like ‘moron,' we started using terms like ‘special needs' — and note what that term is starting to feel like in public discourse.”
The issue with simply switching from something like “idiot” to the R-word, McWhorter explains, is that the replacement term enters a “euphemism treadmill” and will eventually acquire the stigma of the last word.
“A word takes on unpleasant associations,” he says. “Those who wish to use a word with fewer associations, such as to protect a group of people, suggest a new term. Problem is, that term after a while takes on the same associations. ‘Bum' is changed to ‘homeless,' but when ‘homeless' feels as mean as ‘bum,' we change it to ‘unhoused' — but that term will soon feel the same way.” There has been a similar progression, McWhorter notes, from “crippled” to “handicapped” to “disabled.”
As such, the R-word gained traction as a slang put-down through the middle of the 20th century, almost as soon as it was default medical terminology, and by the 1970s, disability activists were campaigning to retire the word. (It is probably no coincidence that Musk and Rogan, two outspoken fans of the epithet, are Gen Xers who were born right around a time when popular culture had fully embraced it for bullying purposes.)
Anderson says that what happened with the R-word is hardly unique. “The process of words moving from neutral to pejorative is called pejoration,” he explains. “This happens all the time. For example, it also happened with ‘idiot' and ‘feeble-minded,' both terms that were used in a neutral way but then shifted to something more negative. ‘Negro' is another term that comes to mind that has gone through this process.”
“The status and meaning of expressions has much to do with shifting language ideologies,” Anderson adds, reflecting the values, morals, and politics of a social world. “Often, we come to feel positively or negatively about an expression, or expect words to be used in specific contexts and ways because of language ideologies.” That the R-word came to serve as a common disparagement for people who are not intellectually disabled revealed a societal lack of empathy and care for those who are.
In 2009, the U.S. saw a renewed call to force the R-word out of circulation: youth activists working with the Special Olympics launched a campaign called Spread the Word to End the Word to mark that year's winter games. Students across the country were encouraged to sign a pledge to stop their derogatory use of the term. (Eventually, the campaign expanded into a general movement for inclusion and celebration of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.)
The following year, Rahm Emanuel, then White House chief of staff under President Obama, was embroiled in a scandal when it emerged that he had used the term in a private meeting the previous summer. He apologized to a number of disability rights activists, including Special Olympics Chief Executive Tim Shriver, and said he would not only take the Spread the Word to End the Word pledge but ensure that the Obama administration would work with the organization on efforts to remove the R-word from the text of federal laws.
In October 2010, Obama signed legislation to that effect. The measure, known as Rosa's Law, was named for Rosa Marcellino, a nine-year-old with Down syndrome who along with her parents successfully fought to remove the term “mental retardation” from health and education records in her home state of Maryland. The federal law likewise amended government documentation, removing “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” in favor of “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability.” Several states had already begun making this revision, as had bureaucratic agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All told, it seemed as if the world was moving on from a term that had fully transformed into a harmful slur. There were signs, however, that some would not be giving it up. After a 2012 presidential debate, right-wing commentator Ann Coulter called Obama a “retard” on Twitter, sparking outrage and demands for a public apology from disability activists. Coulter doubled down on her remarks in a CNN interview. “I was not referring to someone with Down syndrome. I was referring to the president of the United States,” she said, explaining that she viewed the word as a synonym for “loser.”
“Do you call people with mental disabilities retards?” she asked. “Because I don't. I think that's a nasty thing to do.”
Trump's 2016 presidential run brought moments of shocking incivility from the insurgent candidate. Almost a year after he took a moment at a South Carolina rally to perform a mocking impression of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has the congenital joint condition arthrogryposis, a poll found that voters still judged it his most offensive moment on the campaign trail. While in office, Trump regularly lobbed profanities, apparently regarding them as a natural element of his populist appeal.
It was not until 2024, however — during an election that saw Trump relentlessly attack Joe Biden as a president in steep cognitive decline — that MAGA culture warriors made a concerted effort to revive the term as a standard verbal jab. They were aided in this by Musk's 2022 acquisition of Twitter, which he rebranded as X and stripped of various moderation policies, reinstating extremists, conspiracy theorists, and peddlers of misinformation who had been banned under those guidelines. He began using the R-word himself on the platform and engaging with like-minded users, including an anonymous far-right “Retard Finder” profile based in Australia that appends the slur to pictures of U.S. liberals and Democrats. (The account was opened in December 2024 and now has more than 800,000 followers.)
In January, researchers at Montclair State University tracked the use of the R-word in the days after Musk responded “F u retard” to a Finnish researcher who posted on X that month that he was “rapidly becoming the largest spreader of disinformation in human history.” They demonstrated a more than 200 percent spike in posts containing the word over the following two days — 312,642 examples in all.
But it wasn't just Musk driving these trends, according to the study's authors. “While it might be tempting to view an event such as this as an isolated one-off, indications are that the widespread dissemination of hateful and marginalizing content may be an increasingly prominent feature on social media,” they wrote, observing that Facebook parent Meta had recently dismantled some of its safeguards against dehumanizing language, apparently in concession to the political climate about to be ushered in with a second Trump term.
This week, the paper's co-authors — Bond Benton, a communications professor, and justice studies professor Daniela Peterka-Benton — released new findings that showed a sharp rise in use of the R-word on X in the days after Trump applied it to Walz. The effect was quite similar to the trend they identified in the wake of Musk's January R-word post: a 225.7 percent increase in usage, or 1.12 million R-word posts in the week following Trump's Truth Social diatribe.
“A lot of people face similar stressors in society right now, from cultural challenges to economic challenges to perceptions that they're being marginalized in some way,” Benton tells Rolling Stone. “When you can say a word that you know is going to be hurtful to a lot of people, there could be a sort of power in that: you go from being vulnerable to being perceived as dangerous.” Benton believes right-wingers may be seeking “validation” by making others angry in this way. He also points out that this slur is surging in popularity at the same time that MAGA figures “are saying that the cost of compassion has hurt our country.” It may be no coincidence that they're specifically marginizaling a group that relies on the social safety nets they want to do away with.
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“Not using the R-word has sort of become synonymous with ‘wokeness,'” observes Peterka-Benton. Using it today, she says, is about “regaining the power to decide” what can be said publicly while “completely disregarding the harm that has been done to the disability community.” Peterka-Benton adds that heated discourse around such slurs can also act as “a diversion from bigger problems, from economic inequality to lingering questions about Trump's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And, she says, as with the demonization of undocumented migrants, to keep repeating the R-word means “being the bullies in the room against against populations that are inherently not as strong as the mainstream.”
Whatever its ideological value to the far right, though, the R-world may also simply be a way of compensating for the Trump administration's failure to deliver on key promises. Grocery prices are up, limited disclosures about Epstein haven't led to prosecutions of Democrats, the county is inching toward a mad war with Venezuela, and millions are set to lose Medicaid coverage — but you are free to throw the word “retarded” around online. As one X user summarized recent polling data that shows Trump's disapproval rating has topped 60 percent: “You wanted a return to 2019 America but all you got is the r-word pass.” And it's already looking as if that wasn't quite the deal of a lifetime.
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Wagner Moura, star of the new film “The Secret Agent,” was presented with IndieWire Honors‘ Performance Award during a December 4 ceremony at Nya West in Los Angeles. While accepting the award, the Brazilian actor was both playful — dancing a samba as he walked up to the stage — and serious, giving a speech about the legacy of fascism in his home country.
“The Secret Agent” is set in 1977, during the military dictatorship that controlled Brazil for 21 years, and stars Moura as a professor attempting to escape persecution from the authoritarian government. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho, also known for the films “Aquarius” and “Bacurau,” was present to support Moura, who gave the filmmaker a shout out during his speech.
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“He's extraordinary,” the actor said, thanking Filho. “This amazing artist, this very Brazilian artist, and also an extraordinary friend.”
Moura also thanked Neon, as well as Brazilian audiences, for their support of the film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival before releasing in the U.S. in November.
“It's really cool to be among so many artists you admire. Thank you, Neon. You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the effort and hard work you're putting in this film, in this Brazilian film,” Moura said. “I want to thank, of course, my friends, my family, all Brazilians around the world, and Brazilians that feel represented by this film. It means a lot to us.”
Referencing the film's storyline, Moura said that he was born in the middle of the Brazilian military dictatorship and related to his character's struggles to stick to his values in the face of oppression. He then offered a message of hope, comparing where his country is now to where it once was, while alluding to current political issues in the U.S.
“I'm very proud to say that, right now, Brazilian democracy is in very, very good shape,” Moura said. “There is hope. Let's all stick with our values.”
Following the premiere of “The Secret Agent” at Cannes, Moura received the festival's Best Actor award for his leading role in the film. He has since received a nomination at the Gotham Awards for Outstanding Lead Performance, and won the New York Film Critics Circle's Best Actor award.
The event took place on Thursday, December 4, in Los Angeles with an intimate cocktail reception and awards ceremony. Stay tuned for more exclusive editorial and social content from the night, including video interviews, outtakes, and more.
You can watch Moura's full acceptance speech in the video above.
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By
CT Jones
A puck floats through the air. Blades wait frozen on the ice. And the eyes of two lovers keeping their years-long relationship secret from family, friends, and the thousands of cheering fans around them meet in the middle of a National Hockey League game.
This is the world of Heated Rivalry, a queer hockey romance novel that has gone from an if-you-know-you-know treasure to one of the most popular shows on HBO Max. By some measures, it's been an unlikely journey. Created by the Canadian streaming service Crave and starring relative newcomers Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov, the adaption of this BookTok hit follows two professional hockey players as they navigate a secret relationship in the midst of a highly publicized athletic rivalry. Its defining draw appears to be the multiple steamy, NSFW scenes that occur every episode, and since the series' Nov. 28 premiere, Heated Rivalry has become a word-of-mouth sensation. It has remained in HBO Max's Top 10 shows, racked up millions of interactions and mentions on social media, and driven such high demand for the book that physical copies are out of stock on Amazon. Heated Rivalry is a hit. But even the people responsible for making it aren't entirely sure why.
Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney is best known for co-writing and directing the offbeat cult-favorite sitcom Letterkenny (and executive producing its popular spinoff Shoresy). A love story might not seem like his milieu, but Tierney tells Rolling Stone he became obsessed with Heated Rivalry after offhandedly checking out the audiobook. He thought it would be a quick read to help fix his pandemic-induced short attention span — and as a gay man, he's always down to read a queer story. Now, he calls it his “gateway drug” into the world of romance.
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“My first discovery was like, ‘Oh, my God, these books are so smutty.' I'd be walking my dog and [thinking], ‘If you knew what was happening in my ears right now,'” Tierney says. “But what stood out to me in retrospect is that [Heated Rivalry] accomplishes a different task than these books usually do. This is not about somebody coming out, it's about two people figuring out they are allowed to be in love. And that zig where the other books zag really stuck with me.”
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Unlike your typical binge watch, Heated Rivalry takes place over an almost nine-year span, often jumping months or years at a time during each episode. But the central story remains fixed on the relationship between hockey stars Hollander and Rozanov. Because the two are widely known as professional nemeses, they can't actually hang out or mimic anything even close to public friendship. Instead, most of the book's action develops in secret encounters the men have between games, sponsorship events, and award ceremonies. On the ice, they're enemies. But behind closed doors, Hollander and Rozanov can't keep their hands off of each other.
Tierney says that he always felt a sense of ownership over the book, a feeling he thinks many readers share by the time they turn the last page. After reading it and exploring other works in the genre, he still thought of it as “his” book. So when he read a Washington Post article about how popular romance was becoming — an audience of mainly female readers that Hollywood wasn't taking seriously — he knew he wasn't alone. And when the article mentioned Heated Rivalry by name, he immediately called up one of his producing partners. “I was like, ‘I think we have to option a bunch of gay hockey porn,'” Tierney says. “Because if somebody else does it, I think I will be very upset.” His next step: sliding into author Rachel Reid's Instagram DMs and begging to option her book.
“That was the beginning of it,” Reid tells Rolling Stone. “We had a Zoom call the next day to talk about his ideas, and that's when I really got a good sense of how much he loved these books, how much he understood them and the characters, and how important it was for him to get the story right. I felt really confident after that this was going to be told correctly.”
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Both Tierney and Reid say the show moved quickly once it was greenlit in 2024. But the road to that point was incredibly long and drawn out, mostly because Tierney refused to make any concessions to TV executives about dialing down the show's sex scenes. While there's no full-frontal nudity in the series, the material is what Tierney calls “defiantly sexual,” using careful camera angles, strategically arranged limbs, and moody lighting to hide genitalia while painting a pretty clear picture of exactly what's happening.
“I'm a gay man and this is a gay show. [The smut] and the story are not separate,” Tierney says. “It's about two people learning about who they are and what their relationship is through fucking. The only times they're being honest with each other is when they're having sex. Otherwise, it's loads of bluster. It's loads of pretending. It's loads of two people who don't, frankly, understand what they're feeling and who don't really get it takes a long time for their emotions to catch up to what their bodies are doing.”
While the show might seem to have come out of nowhere, the popularity of Heated Rivalry didn't emerge from a bubble. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, hockey romance has been one of the fastest-growing niches in the online book community — to the point where it's created some PR nightmares for actual NHL teams. Heated Rivalry is one of eight hockey romance books Reid has published since 2018. But she tells Rolling Stone the genre has exploded in a way she never expected when she started. She knows people love hockey romances — she just can't pinpoint exactly why.
“One of the main reasons I've heard from readers outside of Canada is that hockey is a sport they don't have a lot of knowledge about, so it's kind of relaxing. It's almost like science fiction — it's a sport that doesn't seem real,” Reid says. “It's a violent sport that's very emotional and passionate. And that makes it seem intriguing to people and a good setting for romance.”
It's unclear how much of the show's success is coming from book fanatics versus those discovering it organically on HBO. But Storrie, one half of the leading duo, says messages and online comments from old and new fans seem to point to the popularity coming from the palpable chemistry between himself and Williams. He says that the show wouldn't be possible without his new friendship with Williams, especially given the show's primary shooting location: one character or the other's bed.
“We have to be literally on top of each other for so long and take it seriously and trust each other and remember the choreography,” Storrie tells Rolling Stone. “It makes it so much easier when you really like and respect the person and also feel understood by them.”
In its Peak TV era, HBO has leaned into the risqué only in its more highbrow or prestige titles — think Euphoria, The Wire, Game of Thrones, or The Sopranos. But Heated Rivalry, with its seemingly scrappy budget and unknown cast, feels like a relative outlier, something you're likelier to find next to The Hunting Wives in Netflix's catalogue than on the cable giant that just gave us moody awards-bait like Task and The Pitt. (Perhaps the move presaged Netflix's just-announced purchase of HBO Max parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
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From a showrunner's perspective, Tierney doesn't feel any pressure to dissect exactly what has made Heated Rivalry take off. Nor does he feel the need to justify the sweaty and steamy situations in which his two main characters find themselves. He's just grateful that he got to make a show that feels true to the book that got him out of a reading slump — and excited to find out who else will join his league.
“The baked-in audience that loves these books, they don't love these books despite the sex. They love these books because of the sex,” Tierney says. “It's because of how [the sex] reflects real intimacy for these characters. Also there's no horny TV anymore. Why can't this be fun and sexy? Why not?”
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By
Daniel Kreps
Sydney Sweeney has finally addressed the denim drama over her controversial American Eagle ad after months of avoiding the subject, saying in a new interview that she's “against hate and divisiveness.”
This past summer, the actress starred in American Eagle's “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign. The pairing of Sweeney — who has blonde hair and blue eyes — with the tagline “has great jeans/genes” led some on the left to accuse the campaign of subtly dog-whistling eugenics and white supremacy, while the right — and even President Trump — applauded the ad.
“I was honestly surprised by the reaction,” Sweeney told People in a new interview. “I did it because I love the jeans and love the brand. I don't support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren't true.”
The ad campaign was widely mocked and scrutinized (by the left) or widely celebrated and defended (by the right), but Sweeney herself sat out much of the controversy, initially refusing to talk about it during press junkets for her movie and sidestepping questions in interviews. “I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn't affect me one way or the other,” Sweeney told GQ in November.
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However, speaking to People while promoting new film The Housemaid, Sweeney finally weighed on the controversy, recognizing “recently” that not speaking about the situation only made matters worse.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I'm always trying to bring people together. I'm against hate and divisiveness,” Sweeney said. “In the past my stance has been to never respond to negative or positive press but recently I have come to realize that my silence regarding this issue has only widened the divide, not closed it. So I hope this new year brings more focus on what connects us instead of what divides us.”
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By
Michael Embrich
My grandfather Frank Gustaferro got the word at his uncle Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey. His orders said that he was to report to the SS John Barry departing in a few days. The ship, secretly carrying millions of silver coins to support wartime operations in Saudi Arabia, was torpedoed by the German submarine U-859 on August 28, 1944. Two crewmen died in the blast. The rest, including my grandfather, ended up in the water — temporarily blinded from oil, injured, terrified, clinging to whatever wreckage they could find. They heard Japanese aircraft overhead as they floated in the Indian Ocean. My grandfather braced for the strafing run he assumed was coming. It never came.
Even in the brutal logic of total war, there were limits. A line existed — a line older than the Geneva Conventions, older than the United Nations, older even than the modern idea of “war crimes” itself. You did not kill shipwrecked men in the water. You did not kill survivors who were out of the fight. You did not shoot the wounded clinging to debris. My grandfather survived because even America's enemies in 1944 understood that basic rule of humanity.
If Donald Trump‘s administration had been in charge that day, I'm not sure my family would exist.
The Department of Defense is facing intense scrutiny this week following a Washington Post report that the military — allegedly under orders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — conducted a second strike on a wrecked vessel in the Caribbean on September 2, killing defenseless survivors who had already been hit once. According to the Post, Hegseth's initial directive was that all 11 people aboard the suspected drug-smuggling boat should be killed. Hegseth has denied he ordered everyone dead, and The New York Times has since reported Hegseth did not state what action to take if the first strike did not kill everyone on board. Admiral Mitch Bradley reportedly ordered the follow-up strike after the first strike left survivors clinging to the wreckage.
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The Pentagon at first denied the Post's story entirely, but the White House confirmed on Tuesday that a second strike did take place. Hegseth says he did not personally see any survivors after the first strike, or stick around to watch the second one. Trump and his administration have tried to justify the string of boat strikes that began on Sept. 2 by claiming that the United States is in a formal armed conflict with the drug cartels, and Hegseth has cited the “fog of war” to defend the second strike on Sept. 2, but the idea that America is currently at war with the drug runners is dubious, to say the least.
Lawmakers of both parties have raised alarm about the Post's report last week, and Admiral Bradley briefed Congress behind closed doors on Thursday about what happened on Sept. 2. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said after the briefing that Bradley was “very clear” that there was no order to “kill them all.” Democrats, however, still expressed alarm. “What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), referring to the full video of the strikes against the boat. “You have two individuals and clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States.”
“Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors,” Himes added.
If the military did deliberately kill the strike's survivors, it is not a close call, a new legal theory, or a murky extension of post-9/11 counterterrorism doctrine. It's a war crime, if not outright murder. This is bad for America, and bad for our troops.
It is a strange and shameful feeling to realize that the novice and low-ranking Japanese pilots my grandfather feared in 1944 may have shown more restraint, more discipline, and more humanity in those crucial minutes over the Indian Ocean than the man currently sitting at the top of the Pentagon.
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The Imperial Japanese military, for all its many and well-documented atrocities, still had pilots and sailors who chose not to fire on American sailors who posed no threat. There are cases of American Navy sailors being spared by Japanese pilots and ship crews, as documented in James D. Hornfischer's The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.
The international conflict law prohibiting such attacks, known as hors de combat, doesn't care whether the people in the water were alleged drug smugglers, enemy fighters, or simply unlucky. America is built on the premise that “all men are created equal” — even those we fight. Humanity is the line that prevents war from collapsing into a massacre.
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The Senate and House Armed Services Committees will need to determine whether Hegseth gave an unlawful order — and whether Admiral Bradley carried it out. But the moral dimension doesn't require a classified annex. If the United States military killed shipwrecked survivors because the secretary of Defense allegedly ordered “no survivors,” that is not a new frontier. It's a step backward into barbarism.
It is up to both parties to do the right thing, especially the party in power. Only by holding ourselves accountable can we restore the dignity and agency that men and women who lived and died at sea, defending America, earned through their sacrifice.
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"Big guy with your big f--kin' beach ball," Manson said from the stage.
By
Jessica Lynch
Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson had sharp words for disrespectful behaviour at Good Things Festival, calling out a festivalgoer who repeatedly threw beach balls during the band's Melbourne set on Dec. 5.
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“Big guy with your big f–kin' beach ball,” Manson said from the stage. “What a f–kin' douchebag… You're a f–kin' middle-aged man in a f–kin' ridiculous hat, and you're a f–kin' f–kface. I want, literally, to ask people to f–kin' punch you in the f–kin' face. But you know what? I'm a lady, so I won't.”
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While the comments sparked a wave of viral discussion online, Manson later doubled down on her stance in a statement posted to Threads, where she clarified her long-standing distaste for beach balls at shows and broader frustration with how some fans treat live music spaces.
“I make NO APOLOGIES whatsoever for getting annoyed at beach balls at shows,” she wrote. “I joined a band because I HATED THE F–KING BEACH. I joined a band because I wanted to listen to Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure and be dark and beautiful.”
She continued, “I love the musical community and I want to respect their artistry. I am so tired of folks taking music for free and treating us all like circus performers.”
The Scottish alt-rock icon and her bandmates — who last toured Australia in 2016 — are currently performing across the country as part of Good Things Festival, with additional sold-out sideshows in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.
Their setlist includes fan favourites like “Only Happy When It Rains,” “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!),” “Stupid Girl” and “When I Grow Up,” alongside material from their 2021 LP No Gods No Masters and 2023's Let All That We Imagine Be The Light.
The band is scheduled to perform next in Sydney (Dec. 6) and Brisbane (Dec. 7), before kicking off their headline run.
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"Now, I can finally say, 'There's nothing wrong with who I am inside,'" Cocona said.
By
Jessica Lynch
XG member Cocona has publicly come out as transmasculine non-binary, sharing a heartfelt letter with fans in honor of their 20th birthday.
The rapper, vocalist, and performer from the Japanese girl group posted an emotional statement on Instagram on Saturday (Dec. 6) reflecting on identity, growth, and self-acceptance.
“Today, I turned 20,” Cocona wrote. “As I reach this new chapter in my life, I want to share something that's been in my heart for a long time. I am AFAB transmasculine non-binary. Earlier this year, I had top surgery. I was born and perceived as female, but that label never represented who I truly am.”
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Cocona continued, “The hardest thing I've ever faced was accepting and embracing myself… Now, I can finally say, ‘There's nothing wrong with who I am inside.'” The performer also expressed gratitude toward their XG bandmates, XGALX founder and producer Simon (Jakops), and their parents, adding that their support helped make the journey possible.
The message quickly drew an outpouring of love and praise from fans, with XG supporters and members of the LGBTQIA+ community celebrating Cocona's honesty. The post, which included emoji symbols of unity and infinity, ended with the words: “May these words gently light a spark in someone's heart. And to everyone who needs it — may my love reach all of them.”
Shortly after, XGALX CEO and artistic director Simon (Jakops) shared his own statement on Instagram, expressing respect and support for Cocona. “I am deeply moved and filled with respect as Cocona courageously shared their passion with the world,” he wrote. “I will continue to provide sincere support so that each member can be truly respected not only as a ‘working artist' but also as a person.”
Simon reflected on the group's journey together — noting that all members have now reached adulthood — and reaffirmed that XG's mission goes beyond music and visuals, aiming to share “the pure and essential heart of each member” with fans around the world.
Since debuting under XGALX in 2022, XG has earned international recognition for their polished performance style, multilingual lyrics, and message of female empowerment. Cocona's coming-out marks a significant and visible moment for LGBTQ+ representation within the global pop landscape — particularly in the Japanese and Korean entertainment industries, where conversations around gender identity continue to evolve.
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By Dominic Patten
Executive Editor, Legal, Labor & Politics
Around 24 hours after Netflix came to a $83 billion deal to buy Warner Bros‘ TV and film studios, streamer HBO Max and HBO, the Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters-run streamer has sent a note to its over 82 million U.S. subscribers telling them “nothing is changing.”
In fact, in links from a four-paragraph email from the “Netflix team” about the NetBros merger, the phrase “nothing is changing” comes up again and again. What also comes up when it comes to Netflix and HBO Max is “both streaming services will continue to operate separately,” the correspondence assures subscribers.
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Rest assured: Despite all the money and the media landscape earthquake, the number #1 streamer in America and the number #3 streamer in America will continue to operate separately. At least for now.
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Read the full Netflix letter to US subscribers below
Answering the pre-designated question “what if I already have an HBO Max subscription, should I cancel?” Netflix says on its Help Page that “Netflix and Warner Bros. will remain separate until the transaction is closed.”
In the victory lap “Welcoming Warner Bros to Netflix” missive, the streamer also says: “We have more steps to complete before the deal is closed, including regulatory and shareholder approvals. You'll hear from us when we have more to share.”
Coming off a big day of understatements in optimistic CEO memos and meetings, a Warner Bros Discovery town hall, reactions (not a lot of Atta Boys, if you know what I mean?) and more, that low volume “regulatory and shareholder approvals” make take top prize. The reality is there is a minefield of such obstacles to come before this is truly a done deal and the quote, un quote “transaction is closed.”
On a rudimentary friends-in-high-places level, there's more than likely the Paramount and Ellisons-loving President of the United States and the federal Department of Justice standing in the way. Then there's the EU and more than a handful of 50 state Attorney Generals. Ellison very strongly implied in correspondence this week before the Netflix/WB deal was unveiled, that there's the possibility of a Paramount lawsuit. Around town, word is that perhaps there's also an overbid coming from Paramount and its Middle East fund pals to snuff out the $28 per share offer from Netflix.
All TBD.
As it is Netflix late Friday was gleeful about having “Harry Potter, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Casablanca, Game of Thrones and the DC Universe together with Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game, Bridgerton and KPop Demon.”
On the other side, the opposition to NetBros certainly has already resulted in some strange bedfellows.
What else can you think of that seems to unite Donald Trump (who frequently heaps praise on Paramount CEO David Ellison and his Oracle founding/second richest man on the planet father Larry Ellison), Sen. Bernie Sanders. Then add to that Jane Fonda and the Hollywood unions, to name a few. For now, it's a unity for very different reasons, it might be noted.
As would-be monopoly buster Sen. Sanders made obvious .
Accusing Netflix of “swallowing” the jewels in the WBD crown, the progressive kingpin and two-time unsuccessful Democratic nomination contender from Vermont rallied in a post today:
Read the full Netflix letter Friday night to subscribers here:
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Of course nothing is changing “today.” TOMORROW on the other hand…
How will it eventually work? Netflix premium is $25, HBO MAX is $23… when they combine are they going to charge $50? Isn't it better to just keep them seperate…
What happening, do they think everyone will run out and buy Netflix subs or HBO subs when the deal is done? no “Nothing Will Happen” just people ending subs because they're not worth the money
It's funny people think Netflix and Warner will completely merge after 1 day loll,. Nothing is happening until Discovery splits into its own thing again in quarter 3 next year,. That has to happen first, which was the plan before selling Warner Bros,. But to think you need to cancel HBO Max 1 day after the deal is done, is mind boggling, Netflix bought them yes, but it takes awhile for it to be completed,. It'll be at least a year before any changes happen,. Then you have all the other stuff that needs to be done,.
I'm amused that everyone warmly welcomed the grotesquely incompetent Zaslav as a conquering hero after assailing the exceptionally skilled Kilar. Now, many of the same people are dismissing Netflix's Warner Bros. at the jump. Maybe we just trust the best-run media company in the business to do its thing? Just a thought.
You are naive.
Everyone did not warmly welcome Zaslav
Kilar was horrible, he ran Warner Bros into the ground!!
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By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
Months after her American Eagle campaign sparked backlash, Sydney Sweeney is addressing the fallout around the ad's public perception.
The 2x Emmy nominee recently said she “was honestly surprised by the reaction” to her ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans‘ campaign, which drew controversy and accusations of veiled racism upon its release in July over the use of “jeans” as a double entendre for “genes.”
“I did it because I love the jeans and love the brand,” Sweeney told People. “I don't support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren't true.”
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Sweeney explained that she “leads with kindness” and felt the need to clarify her stance following a recent interview question on the topic that went viral for her response.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I'm always trying to bring people together. I'm against hate and divisiveness. In the past my stance has been to never respond to negative or positive press but recently I have come to realize that my silence regarding this issue has only widened the divide, not closed it,” added Sweeney. “So I hope this new year brings more focus on what connects us instead of what divides us.”
Following Sweeney's controversial blue jeans ad, which appeared to be a nod to Brooke Shields' infamous 1980 Calvin Klein campaign, American Eagle brushed off the backlash in a statement that the ad “is and always was about the jeans.” Meanwhile, Donald Trump endorsed the ad, saying, “If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.”
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crazy people abound here
This is the statement she should have made after the ad came out, not months later.
She shouldn't have acknowledged it at all.
how can you be against hate and support trump and his admin?
She's a non-political actress who's never said anything inflammatory and was just hired to be in an ad for jeans. This hate train is getting ridiculous.
Commenters are the reason this “controversy” even exists
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Longtime HGTV star Mike Holmes and his family are grieving the loss of their friend and co-star, electrical expert Frank Cozzolino, who appeared on their shows for over two decades. On December 5, 2025, Holmes posted photos on social media of himself with Cozzolino, writing that he was “devastated by the passing of my good friend.”
“Frank made us better,” Holmes wrote in a beautiful tribute. “His impact will live on in every home he helped. Frank could walk into the toughest electrical disaster, crack a joke in his style, and suddenly the whole room felt lighter. That's just who he was. Frank wasn't just good at what he did — he really cared. He cared about doing it right. He cared about the people he worked with. He cared about every homeowner he helped. Frank will forever be part of the Holmes family. Miss you buddy.”
Cozzolino, a Canadian contractor who ran his own business, Solutions Electrical & Maintenance, had appeared on Holmes' home renovation series since 2003, per IMDb, including dozens of episodes of “Holmes on Holmes” and “Holmes Family Rescue,” as recently as 2024.
On the morning of December 5, an administrator for his company's Facebook page wrote in a post, “Good morning, Some may have seen a post about some sad news. Unfortunately, it is true, Frank Cozzolino did pass away last night. This page will be converted to ‘In memory of Frank'”
A cause of death was not provided, but Cozzolino did undergo a liver transplant in August 2017. He shared on Instagram at the time, “In 2012 I was told I would not live past 5 years with my liver. On August 24th 2017 I was given a second chance at life. I am forever thankful and blessed that Organ Donation exists.”
Holmes and his kids — HGTV's Sherry Holmes and Mike Holmes Jr. — were close friends with Cozzolino, whose Instagram feed includes photos of them at birthday parties, boating, and even before Sherry's wedding in 2018.
Holmes Jr. expressed his sadness over Cozzolino's death in a post after his dad did, writing, “Rest in peace Frank. You were a fighter. It's hard to believe you're gone. You were one of a kind.”
Fans have flooded social media with comments on Holmes and Holmes Jr.'s posts including one who wrote. “Sad to hear this. Frank was awesome to watch. Condolences to his family and yours.”
Another wrote, “Very sad to hear. Hell of an electrician and teacher to many. Enjoyed watching him on TV explain the correct way to do things. Rest easy Frank! Prayers for his family and friends!”
One fan wrote on Holmes' post, “Aww, so sorry for your loss. 😞 I only know him from watching your show and he seemed like a very stand up wonderful man.”
On Facebook, a post from Trimbow Window Manufacturing said that Cozzolino is survived by two daughters. The post said, “It's sad to hear about the passing of our friend Frank Cozzolino. It was a privilege and pleasure to work alongside him on all Holmes projects, making it right for so many deserving people. He was a gentle, kind, passionate and caring person. Our condolences to his daughters Alexandria and Filomena. Rest In Peace, Frank.”
In November, Holmes let HGTV fans know that a new season of “Holmes Family Rescue” will air in 2026. It's not known if Cozzolino filmed any of those episodes.
So sorry to hear of his passing. He only mentions his daughters, did his wife died? They were both there when Mike renovated their home
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In a joint Instagram post with the Committee for the First Amendment, the two-time Oscar winner called the sale "destructive."
By
Lexi Carson
Associate Editor
Jane Fonda is weighing in on Netflix‘s $82.7 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros.
On Friday evening, Fonda took to Instagram in a joint post with the Committee for the First Amendment. The statement called the news of the deal “an alarming escalation of the consolidation that threatens the entire entertainment industry, the democratic public it serves and the first amendment.”
The statement continued, “Make no mistake, this is not just a catastrophic business deal that could destroy our creative industry. It is a constitutional crisis exacerbated by the administration's demonstrated disregard for the law.”
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The two-time Oscar winner then addressed the Department of Justice. “We demand that you categorically refrain from using that power to extract political concessions that influence content decisions or chill free speech,” the post reads in part.
Fonda's statement also called out Netflix and other companies that may become involved in the “destructive” deal. “As stewards of an industry built on free expression, you have a responsibility to defend our rights, not trade them away to pad your pockets. We know there will be enormous pressure to acquiesce, it is critical you stay strong,” she added.”
With Netflix purchasing Warner Bros., the deal would give the streamer control of Warner Bros.' film and TV studios, as well as HBO and HBO Max, and is subject to regulatory conditions. “By combining Warner Bros.' incredible library of shows and movies — from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favorites like Harry Potter and Friends — with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we'll be able to do that even better,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix's co-CEO and former chief content officer, said in a Friday morning press release. “Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling.”
According to the same statement, the company “expects” to continue releasing Warner Bros. films theatrically.
See the full statement below.
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Miley Cyrus may not be afraid to perform her music on a stage in front of countless people, but she does have one fear that happens to be pretty rare. The star has a phobia related to paper. To be exact, she has papyrophobia.
Revealing the fact during an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday, December 4, the singer revealed that her repulsion to paper is so bad that even seeing it makes her feel ill.
“I hate paper. Looking at it makes me want to vomit,” she said while noting the difficulty this presents when wrapping holiday gifts. She also revealed that she can't read a newspaper and has her fiancé, Maxx Morando, open Amazon packages for her so she doesn't have to touch the cardboard, which is “the worst of it all.”
She added, “The real problem for me is when people have dry hands, and then they touch paper.”
Beyond that, she explained, “When someone sends me a lovely letter, I just don't even open it. I love text messages. No paper. Email. No paper. Phone call. No paper.”
Noting that she's had the issue since she was a child, she said, “It's a phobia, and I need help. It's getting worse, so there does need to be some sort of intervention. I am going to look into some sort of EMDR [psychotherapy], being hypnotized about it because it is impacting my everyday life.”
When Cyrus's interview was shared on YouTube, plenty of people commented to say that they were surprised by the singer's unusual phobia. At the same time, there were others who related to her paper-related issue.
One person wrote, “My son had the same aversion to paper. He had a terrible time doing homework, especially after taking a shower in the evening. I've never heard of anyone else feeling like this.”
“The way she feels about paper, is how i feel about plastic tupperware,” another person added.
Someone else left a comment, saying, “I love how she's gags through half of this interview! Lmfao!! My best friend and I have misophonia which is the same thing with noises like eating chewing or even typing or clicking any noise that drives you NUTS!! I didn't know people had a PAPER-PHOBIA!!!”
If you know someone who suffers from papyrophobia, then you can let them know that what they have is quite unusual and can be addressed.
“It's hard knowing exactly how many people have a specific phobia, like papyrophobia, but it's rare,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. They also note that “[f]emales are more likely than males to experience a phobia disorder.”
The Cleveland Clinic also brought up hypnotherapy, which Cyrus mentioned her interest in, noting, “This therapy induces a hypnotic, trance-like state to help you uncover the root cause of the phobia. Most healthcare providers combine hypnotherapy with psychotherapy to help you address and overcome the fear.”
I have that with pancakes. I can't be with ear shot or nose shot of them. I gag and can't stop. If someone wants to go to restaurant for breakfast I have to tell can't have pancakes. Can't got to IHOP or Dennys I get ill!
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Fan-favourite Robert Irwin is trading “Dancing With The Stars” ballroom for the jungle. Irwin's television journey is nowhere near slowing down. Fresh off his DWTS win, the 22-year-old conservationist is already stepping into his next chapter on screen, and it's a role that carries both excitement and familiarity.
Irwin is returning to I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here (Australia), but not as a contestant braving the jungle. Instead, he will once again guide viewers through the series as co-host alongside Julia Morris, bringing the same warmth and enthusiasm fans have come to expect from him.
Irwin first took on hosting duties in Season 10, filling the spot previously held by Dr. Chris Brown. He returned for Season 11 in 2025, and now he's officially back for Season 12, premiering January 18, 2026, on Channel 10 AU.
The show teased his return with a playful Instagram announcement, writing, “A brand new bunch of celebs are trading the luxury life for the jungle life on Jan 18! 🤩🦁🐊.”
The long-running reality competition is known for dropping celebrities into a rugged jungle camp, where they must face survival challenges and earn viewer votes to stay in the game. One contestant is eliminated at a time until the last remaining celebrity is crowned the season's King or Queen of the Jungle.
Irwin, of course, grew up in wild spaces and learned from his late father, Steve Irwin. His comfort outdoors made him a natural fit for the co-host role, where he guides viewers through each episode with humor, heart, and wildlife expertise.
The show remains unavailable to stream in the United States, so American fans will have to wait or get creative to get their Robert Irwin fix.
Irwin's Dancing with the Stars win introduced him to millions of new fans. Since then, he has continued to grow his presence both on-screen and at home in Australia.
He recently opened up about his work at the Crocodile Hunter Lodge at Australia Zoo, a project inspired by his father's “legacy and love for wild places.”
“It has been quite the passion project that we've been working on back home in Australia Zoo,” he said.
The lodge, which opened in 2022, offers eco-luxury accommodations surrounded by nature and wildlife. It reflects the Irwin family's mission to connect people with conservation.
For fans who can't make the trip to Australia, Irwin still found a way to reach them. Supporters can now purchase the Robert Irwin 2026 calendar, which benefits Australia Zoo.
The collection features photographs that highlight everything viewers admire about him: his kindness, his enthusiasm and his unwavering dedication to wildlife conservation.
With “I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here” returning, a Dancing with the Stars championship behind him and new conservation projects taking shape, Irwin is stepping into one of the busiest and most meaningful chapters of his career.
And if his past is any indication, he's only just getting started and fans for sure are in for a wild ride!
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In a move that no one could have anticipated without, at bare minimum, the possession of an extremely rudimentary brainstem, Vanity Fair has announced today that it's “parting ways” with reporter Olivia Nuzzi. In a mutually released statement with the high-profile journalist/cause of journalism in others, the Condé Nast publication said that it was “in the best interest of the magazine to let her contract expire at the end of the year.”
What the statement did not say was all the very obvious stuff about Nuzzi's recent work as the magazine's West Coast Editor—a job she's currently held for all of three months—i.e., that it's been completely, massively overshadowed by drama in her personal life, and specifically her widely reported “personal relationship” with current Secretary Of Health And Human Services Robert F. Kennedy. That “emotional and digital in nature” affair, with a subject she'd been covering as a reporter, already lead Nuzzi's previous employer, New York magazine, to “part ways” with her back in 2024. (There is a lot of parting ways in this story; the ways, they are a-partin'.) But Vanity Fair‘s editors presumably thought that the Kennedy thing was very literally old news; that the story had been aired out enough to transform it from a huge question of journalistic ethics and judgment into an amusing anecdote about a harmless moral whoopsie of the past.
But that was before Nuzzi's ex, former New Yorker and Politico correspondent Ryan Lizza, began publishing Substack articles a few weeks ago claiming that Nuzzi's relationship with Kennedy went a lot deeper than whatever the hell “emotional and digital in nature” covers, and that she'd also been operating essentially as an operative for the Kennedy political campaign—most damningly with an accusation that she'd been running “catch and kill” operations to stop negative stories about Kennedy from being published. (It's worth noting, if only in passing, that Lizza is a complicated figure here in his own right, having been dismissed from The New Yorker back in 2017 after a #MeToo allegation; for what it's worth, Nuzzi has denounced his series of recent writings about her as “obsessive and violating fan fiction-slash-revenge porn.”) The point is that Lizza's allegations have been sticking in people's brains—including, apparently, the sort of people who have sway at Vanity Fair.
The upshot is that the whole preceding two paragraphs, obviously, constitute way more drama than the magazine was clearly hoping for when it hired Nuzzi as part of a big, flashy rebranding effort back in September. (Even if the whole thing carries an air of a frog being righteously indignant that it now has to “part ways” with the scorpion that jammed a venomous stinger through its neck two minutes into their trip across the river.) Nuzzi, presumably, will be fine: News of the parting of the ways comes just three days after the publication of her new memoir, American Canto, in which she apparently writes quite a bit about her relationship with a figure identified only as… The Politician. At least one highly negative review has already drubbed the book as a “tell-nothing memoir” that also serves as a handy “portrait of losing your soul”—but we're guessing that isn't actually going to hurt book sales too badly.
[via The New York Times]
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Dakota Johnson dazzled in a sheer white lace gown as she attended the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The “Materialists” star flaunted her Chloé dress as she posed for photos on the red carpet for the festival's Women in Cinema event Friday night.
Johnson, 36, kept her look somewhat conservative as the dress featured a large lace ruffle skirt around her pelvic area.
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Though, she still managed to show plenty of legs and skin on the upper half of her body.
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She completed her look with a pair of white heels from Paris Texas and Chopard jewelry.
Johnson and her longtime stylist, Kate Young, have been known to have a certain affinity for sheer looks.
In September, the “Splitsville” star sizzled in a custom blue sheer gown that left little to the imagination as she attended the Zurich Film Festival.
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The dress featured a high neck, long sleeves, a low Basque-style waistline and a dramatic full-length skirt of layered tulle.
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She accessorized with several pieces of Roberto Coin jewelry, including diamond and sapphire earrings, a diamond, emerald and tanzanite ring and a sapphire and diamond ring.
Weeks prior, she turned heads at the Kering Foundation's Caring for Women Dinner in a completely sheer Gucci dress.
The intricate black lace dress featured a high neckline. long sleeves, and delicate floral embroidery. She covered her intimate parts underneath with a black balconette bra ($128) and cheeky underwear ($52) by Fleur du Mal.
She finished her look with a pair of strappy black high-heeled sandals and several diamond and emerald jewelry pieces designed by Jessica McCormack.
In February 2024, she stunned at Marvel's “Madame Web” premiere in a custom Gucci see-through chainmail dress.
She let the dress take center stage as she paired the ensemble with skin-colored underwear and a simple glittering necklace.
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
As Hollywood reels from the historical, industry-shaking $82.7B Netflix-Warner Bros. deal, Jane Fonda is urging the Department of Justice not to bow to pressure.
On Friday, the 2x Oscar winner, who starred in Netflix‘s Grace & Frankie, condemned the “catastrophic” acquisition as a “constitutional crisis” in a statement on behalf of her newly-revived Committee for the First Amendment, noting that they are “ready to mobilize” against the deal.
“To the Justice Department and state attorneys general: We know this deal — or any deal of this magnitude — will trigger your antitrust review obligation, and we demand that you categorically refrain from using that power to extract political concessions that influence content decisions or chill free speech,” she said in part.
Watch on Deadline
Netflix is purchasing Warner Bros. Discovery for $27.75 a share, acquiring WB's film and TV studios HBO and HBO Max. The deal is subject to regulatory conditions.
Amid Jimmy Kimmel Live‘s recent row with the FCC, Jane Fonda relaunched her father Henry Fonda's McCarthy-era committee in October with the support of 550 industry figures.
Read Jane Fonda and the Committee for the First Amendment's full statement below:
Today's news that Warner Bros. Discovery has accepted a purchase bid is an alarming escalation of the consolidation that threatens the entire entertainment industry, the democratic public it serves, and the First Amendment itself.Make no mistake, this is not just a catastrophic business deal that could destroy our creative industry. It is a constitutional crisis exacerbated by the administration's demonstrated disregard for the law. To the Justice Department and state attorneys general: We know this deal — or any deal of this magnitude — will trigger your antitrust review obligation, and we demand that you categorically refrain from using that power to extract political concessions that influence content decisions or chill free speech.To Netflix and any company that becomes involved in this destructive deal: We have watched industry leaders acquiesce to the administration's demands at the expense of our livelihoods, our storytelling, and our constitutional rights. As stewards of an industry built on free expression, you have a responsibility to defend our rights, not trade them away to pad your pockets. We know there will be enormous pressure to acquiesce, it is critical you stay strong. We are watching closely, organizing, and ready to mobilize.
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It was very brave of her to say shes giving all of her netflix millions back in protest. /S
So… she'd rather the sale go to Paramount, who ALREADY “acquiesced to the adminstrations's demands”? Classic.
No. She doesn't want the buyout at all. I agree, that would be better. Warner was fine, and they had a plan forward to spinoff the majority of their debt with the linear networks. Paramount created this issue. By talking about buying WBD, they caused the stock price to increase more than 100%. If Warner didn't sell, the stock would drop and investors would be unhappy. It would also likely have brought about a hostile takeover effort from Paramount. If Warner sold for less than Paramount's offer, that would cause lawsuits against Warner from investors for failure in their fiduciary responsibilities to take the best offer (which is still being threatened now, though easily arguably without merit). If Netflix is willing to let Warner operate for the most part unchanged, they can actually be the hero here. I know that's wishful thinking. If the deal falls apart in a couple of years through regulators and courts intervening, Warner streaming and studios component can come out of this a stronger company without the linear networks and debt and would then be less vulnerable to advances from Paramount or anyone else.
She did? I must have missed that part of the article.
Understandable she'd put a bad face on this.
Boy do we need the return of The Committee for the First Amendment NOW more than ever! Great to hear about. I know history and the timing for this is critical for everyone being targeted and/or silenced!
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Follow Taylor Swift live updates from Page Six for peeks into her relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce, the latest on her upcoming docuseries, “The End of an Era,” and new album, “The Life of a Showgirl” — plus news, fan theories and more.
The Diplomats lost a Verzuz battle to the LOX back in 2021.
By
Angel Diaz
Cam'ron is having second thoughts about taking part in the Verzuz battle between the Diplomats and the LOX.
During a recent episode of It Is What It Is, Cam, Ma$e, Maurice Clarett and host Treasure “Stat Baby” Wilson were discussing Lane Kiffin's controversial decision to leave No. 6 Ole Miss as they get ready for the College Football Playoffs for SEC rival LSU and Stat Baby asked the panel if they ever had a tough decision to make. When it was Cam's turn to answer the question, he brought up the Verzuz from 2021 where Dipset lost to the group out of Yonkers.
“I can name a lot of decisions that wasn't good 'cause I was trying to be a team player,” Cam'ron answered. “I should've never did the Verzuz, I told n—as, ‘Don't do the Verzuz.' I told n—as, ‘I don't wanna do the Verzuz.' But I'm a team player and it was the wrong decision that I made. No more of that, no more of that, no more of that.”
He later added: “I tried to be team player a lot of times and that's the first thing that came to my brain when you said, ‘Wrong decisions.” It was the wrong decision.”
Led by Jadakiss, the LOX famously beat the Harlem group consisting of Cam, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, with Kiss' “Who Shot Ya?” freestyle being the knockout blow.
You can watch the full episode below.
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A group of researchers say it's time for academia to get serious about studying UFOs.
The movement, championed by the Society for UAP Studies, is wrapping up an international conference aimed at establishing a new discipline dedicated to studying unidentified anomalous phenomena (or UAPs, the more formal term for UFOs).
Michael Cifone, the society's co-founder and president, said he's interested in what he calls "the empirical weird."
His catch-all phrase encompasses things that blur the lines between the real and the possible, phenomena that defy easy explanation: the spiritual, the paranormal, the parapsychological and UAPs.
Cifone, who holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Maryland, College Park, is hoping the study of UAPs can become the subject of serious, rigorous academic study, with the same scientific objectivity of any discipline.
The Society for UAP Studies knows it's a tall order that requires an open mind and an unusual amount of collaboration. Studying UAPs should be scientific, but can't be done in a lab — so researchers would have to collaborate in a study of the physical and theoretical.
Cifone spoke with USA TODAY one day before the Dec. 4 start of the international conference of the Society for UAP Studies. He's the nonprofit's executive director and co-founder along with Michael Silberstein, a philosophy professor at Elizabethtown College. Cifone is currently a research fellow at the Center for Alternative Rationalities in Global Perspectives at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany.
The Society for UAP Studies' board of advisors, advisory council and leaders include dozens of academics from all over the world, representing a variety of disciplines including philosophy, law, the sciences and humanities.
"We're not necessarily taking a position" on whether UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial life, or what their existence could mean for humanity's understanding of its place in the universe, he said. "But we are interested in taking on these topics that don't fit neatly anywhere. As academics, our skill is in establishing a framework so we're not simply speculating, but situating it within historical, cultural and scientific frameworks."
Cifone wasn't initially interested much in the celestial or the supernatural, he said, beyond watching "The X Files" and having a passing curiosity. But when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, he found himself watching a YouTube video featuring Kevin Knuth, a professor and former NASA research scientist and physicist who's studied quantum information, robotics, planets and UAPs.
Intrigued and realizing that their academic circles often overlapped, Cifone set out to learn more about Knuth's work, reading his writings in scientific and academic journals.
At some point, he realized that "while (the study of UAPs) was a topic of ridicule, there was still something strange and odd for which there seemed to be some good anecdotal evidence and witness evidence, evidence that was not easily dismissible by conventional analysis."
It wasn't just Knuth, and it wasn't just ordinary people reporting strange, unexplained sights. In 2004, U.S. Navy pilots and radar operators aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz and the U.S.S. Princeton reported seeing "anomalous aerial vehicles,” or AAVs high above where commercial and military craft can fly, performing maneuvers that seemed impossible to their trained eyes. In 2024, Congress conducted hearings on the issue, and the Pentagon, while saying it found no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial beings, also said there were "definitely anomalies."
Congress held additional hearings earlier in 2025 based on hundreds of reports of UAPs. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office determined the data instead show a "continued geographic collection bias based on locations near U.S. military assets and sensors operating globally."
During the Society for UAP Studies' conference (its second), keynote speaker Steve Fuller, an author and professor at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, said that he is "completely agnostic about whether (extraterrestrial) creatures are already here or if these blips on the screen" are evidence of intelligent life. But, he said, we (the global "we") should prepare for and be open to the possibility. Fuller discussed the nature of humanity, and how we might fit into a galactic or universal collective.
Cifone, in his interview with USA TODAY, said the society's goals are to bring scientific and academic rigor to phenomena that to many is still a fringe idea. They're not trying to convince anyone, including themselves.
"We like to emphasize positional neutrality," he said, "the methodology and standards of evidence" that would be a part of any other academic pursuit.
He acknowledged the challenges — starting an entirely new higher education discipline requires not just the professionals willing to do it, but also resources and institutional backing. The society is funded now through private and philanthropic donations and receives no government backing (he declined to name any funders, explaining he didn't ask permission to name them publicly).
He's taking a long-term view, and said thus far, he's encountered little resistance.
"It's a self-selecting group," he said. "People who interact with me are already interested and they like that it's science, scholarship and research first. The subject is the thing we do. We're the people doing the work. We're focused on the research for an enduring and rigorous understanding of the phenomena in all its aspects."
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, George Petras, Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
A group of researchers say it's time for academia to get serious about studying UFOs.
The movement, championed by the Society for UAP Studies, is wrapping up an international conference aimed at establishing a new discipline dedicated to studying unidentified anomalous phenomena (or UAPs, the more formal term for UFOs).
Michael Cifone, the society's co-founder and president, said he's interested in what he calls "the empirical weird."
His catch-all phrase encompasses things that blur the lines between the real and the possible, phenomena that defy easy explanation: the spiritual, the paranormal, the parapsychological and UAPs.
Cifone, who holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Maryland, College Park, is hoping the study of UAPs can become the subject of serious, rigorous academic study, with the same scientific objectivity of any discipline.
The Society for UAP Studies knows it's a tall order that requires an open mind and an unusual amount of collaboration. Studying UAPs should be scientific, but can't be done in a lab — so researchers would have to collaborate in a study of the physical and theoretical.
Cifone spoke with USA TODAY one day before the Dec. 4 start of the international conference of the Society for UAP Studies. He's the nonprofit's executive director and co-founder along with Michael Silberstein, a philosophy professor at Elizabethtown College. Cifone is currently a research fellow at the Center for Alternative Rationalities in Global Perspectives at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany.
The Society for UAP Studies' board of advisors, advisory council and leaders include dozens of academics from all over the world, representing a variety of disciplines including philosophy, law, the sciences and humanities.
"We're not necessarily taking a position" on whether UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial life, or what their existence could mean for humanity's understanding of its place in the universe, he said. "But we are interested in taking on these topics that don't fit neatly anywhere. As academics, our skill is in establishing a framework so we're not simply speculating, but situating it within historical, cultural and scientific frameworks."
Cifone wasn't initially interested much in the celestial or the supernatural, he said, beyond watching "The X Files" and having a passing curiosity. But when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, he found himself watching a YouTube video featuring Kevin Knuth, a professor and former NASA research scientist and physicist who's studied quantum information, robotics, planets and UAPs.
Intrigued and realizing that their academic circles often overlapped, Cifone set out to learn more about Knuth's work, reading his writings in scientific and academic journals.
At some point, he realized that "while (the study of UAPs) was a topic of ridicule, there was still something strange and odd for which there seemed to be some good anecdotal evidence and witness evidence, evidence that was not easily dismissible by conventional analysis."
It wasn't just Knuth, and it wasn't just ordinary people reporting strange, unexplained sights. In 2004, U.S. Navy pilots and radar operators aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz and the U.S.S. Princeton reported seeing "anomalous aerial vehicles,” or AAVs high above where commercial and military craft can fly, performing maneuvers that seemed impossible to their trained eyes. In 2024, Congress conducted hearings on the issue, and the Pentagon, while saying it found no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial beings, also said there were "definitely anomalies."
Congress held additional hearings earlier in 2025 based on hundreds of reports of UAPs. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office determined the data instead show a "continued geographic collection bias based on locations near U.S. military assets and sensors operating globally."
During the Society for UAP Studies' conference (its second), keynote speaker Steve Fuller, an author and professor at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, said that he is "completely agnostic about whether (extraterrestrial) creatures are already here or if these blips on the screen" are evidence of intelligent life. But, he said, we (the global "we") should prepare for and be open to the possibility. Fuller discussed the nature of humanity, and how we might fit into a galactic or universal collective.
Cifone, in his interview with USA TODAY, said the society's goals are to bring scientific and academic rigor to phenomena that to many is still a fringe idea. They're not trying to convince anyone, including themselves.
"We like to emphasize positional neutrality," he said, "the methodology and standards of evidence" that would be a part of any other academic pursuit.
He acknowledged the challenges — starting an entirely new higher education discipline requires not just the professionals willing to do it, but also resources and institutional backing. The society is funded now through private and philanthropic donations and receives no government backing (he declined to name any funders, explaining he didn't ask permission to name them publicly).
He's taking a long-term view, and said thus far, he's encountered little resistance.
"It's a self-selecting group," he said. "People who interact with me are already interested and they like that it's science, scholarship and research first. The subject is the thing we do. We're the people doing the work. We're focused on the research for an enduring and rigorous understanding of the phenomena in all its aspects."
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, George Petras, Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
A group of researchers say it's time for academia to get serious about studying UFOs.
The movement, championed by the Society for UAP Studies, is wrapping up an international conference aimed at establishing a new discipline dedicated to studying unidentified anomalous phenomena (or UAPs, the more formal term for UFOs).
Michael Cifone, the society's co-founder and president, said he's interested in what he calls "the empirical weird."
His catch-all phrase encompasses things that blur the lines between the real and the possible, phenomena that defy easy explanation: the spiritual, the paranormal, the parapsychological and UAPs.
Cifone, who holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Maryland, College Park, is hoping the study of UAPs can become the subject of serious, rigorous academic study, with the same scientific objectivity of any discipline.
The Society for UAP Studies knows it's a tall order that requires an open mind and an unusual amount of collaboration. Studying UAPs should be scientific, but can't be done in a lab — so researchers would have to collaborate in a study of the physical and theoretical.
Cifone spoke with USA TODAY one day before the Dec. 4 start of the international conference of the Society for UAP Studies. He's the nonprofit's executive director and co-founder along with Michael Silberstein, a philosophy professor at Elizabethtown College. Cifone is currently a research fellow at the Center for Alternative Rationalities in Global Perspectives at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany.
The Society for UAP Studies' board of advisors, advisory council and leaders include dozens of academics from all over the world, representing a variety of disciplines including philosophy, law, the sciences and humanities.
"We're not necessarily taking a position" on whether UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial life, or what their existence could mean for humanity's understanding of its place in the universe, he said. "But we are interested in taking on these topics that don't fit neatly anywhere. As academics, our skill is in establishing a framework so we're not simply speculating, but situating it within historical, cultural and scientific frameworks."
Cifone wasn't initially interested much in the celestial or the supernatural, he said, beyond watching "The X Files" and having a passing curiosity. But when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, he found himself watching a YouTube video featuring Kevin Knuth, a professor and former NASA research scientist and physicist who's studied quantum information, robotics, planets and UAPs.
Intrigued and realizing that their academic circles often overlapped, Cifone set out to learn more about Knuth's work, reading his writings in scientific and academic journals.
At some point, he realized that "while (the study of UAPs) was a topic of ridicule, there was still something strange and odd for which there seemed to be some good anecdotal evidence and witness evidence, evidence that was not easily dismissible by conventional analysis."
It wasn't just Knuth, and it wasn't just ordinary people reporting strange, unexplained sights. In 2004, U.S. Navy pilots and radar operators aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz and the U.S.S. Princeton reported seeing "anomalous aerial vehicles,” or AAVs high above where commercial and military craft can fly, performing maneuvers that seemed impossible to their trained eyes. In 2024, Congress conducted hearings on the issue, and the Pentagon, while saying it found no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial beings, also said there were "definitely anomalies."
Congress held additional hearings earlier in 2025 based on hundreds of reports of UAPs. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office determined the data instead show a "continued geographic collection bias based on locations near U.S. military assets and sensors operating globally."
During the Society for UAP Studies' conference (its second), keynote speaker Steve Fuller, an author and professor at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, said that he is "completely agnostic about whether (extraterrestrial) creatures are already here or if these blips on the screen" are evidence of intelligent life. But, he said, we (the global "we") should prepare for and be open to the possibility. Fuller discussed the nature of humanity, and how we might fit into a galactic or universal collective.
Cifone, in his interview with USA TODAY, said the society's goals are to bring scientific and academic rigor to phenomena that to many is still a fringe idea. They're not trying to convince anyone, including themselves.
"We like to emphasize positional neutrality," he said, "the methodology and standards of evidence" that would be a part of any other academic pursuit.
He acknowledged the challenges — starting an entirely new higher education discipline requires not just the professionals willing to do it, but also resources and institutional backing. The society is funded now through private and philanthropic donations and receives no government backing (he declined to name any funders, explaining he didn't ask permission to name them publicly).
He's taking a long-term view, and said thus far, he's encountered little resistance.
"It's a self-selecting group," he said. "People who interact with me are already interested and they like that it's science, scholarship and research first. The subject is the thing we do. We're the people doing the work. We're focused on the research for an enduring and rigorous understanding of the phenomena in all its aspects."
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, George Petras, Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
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Whether it's wildly speculating about Charlie Kirk's murder or forcing Brigitte Macron to prove that she is a woman, the far-right podcaster and conspiracy theorist has millions of listeners hooked on her unique brand of dangerous misinformation. So, how has Candace Owens been allowed to become so powerful, asks Katie Rosseinsky
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For right-wing firebrand Candace Owens, conspiracy theories are a form of “mind yoga”, a way of bending the mind “like a pretzel”. They're also extremely compelling, for her millions of social media followers and podcast listeners at least, and extremely lucrative, helping the 36-year-old American build a staggering media empire in under a decade.
Coronavirus and the vaccines. The moon landings. Climate change. The #MeToo case against Harvey Weinstein. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's legal battle. All these disparate subjects have received Owens' signature treatment. On her eponymous podcast, she is the queen of the “just asking questions” approach: positioning herself as an investigating crusader who is bold enough to probe the topics that she believes the mainstream media don't want you to know about.
She is part one-woman outrage machine, part millennial version of a medieval mystic; she has certainly worked out how to cleverly monetise the human impulse to “uncover” so-called “truths” and to feel like we are somehow in possession of a secret knowledge that explains how the world works. But her latest forays into so-called “mind yoga” are tying her in ever more complex knots that set her apart from even the most fact-averse of her fellow microphone-toting far-right truthers.
In the summer, French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte filed a defamation lawsuit against Owens, who has regularly and fervently spouted bizarre claims that the first lady was born male; the couple have accused her of mounting “a campaign of global humiliation” and “relentless bullying on a worldwide scale”. Last month, Owens made the even stranger allegations that the Macrons had attempted to orchestrate her assassination (the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, the organisation that Owens claimed was involved in the “plot”, told French media that these allegations were fake news).
And in recent weeks, Owens has dragged herself and her followers even further down the rabbit hole by stirring up conspiracies around the death of her one-time boss, Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and founder of conservative student group Turning Point, who was shot dead in September. Among her inflammatory claims? The suggestion that his death was somehow an “inside job” involving Turning Point employees.
On Wednesday (3 December), Kirk's longtime producer Blake Neff finally called Owens out for spending months “attacking Charlie's closest friends”, who, he said, “have had to endure harassment from people who have gotten whipped up by what Candace is saying”. Owens is now playing an even higher stakes game, running the risk of finally alienating one-time allies on her end of the political spectrum, while also surely aware that her most devoted core of fans will expect wilder theories to come.
So how did Owens become one of the most influential – and arguably, one of the most dangerous – woman on the internet? Her early days didn't exactly lay obvious foundations for a hard-right pivot. The third of four children, she spent her childhood in Stamford, Connecticut and, following her parents' divorce, was brought up by her grandparents. At school, she experienced racist bullying; when she was in her senior year, she received death threats from some white classmates, including the son of Stamford's then-mayor. Her family sued the Stamford Board of Education, eventually gaining a $37,500 settlement.
Around this time, she developed “an abiding interest in current affairs”, as a Tatler profile would later put it, with her political sympathies initially skewing towards the Democrats. After dropping out of a journalism degree at the University of Rhode Island, Owens interned in the fashion cupboard at America Vogue (“There was not some kind of formal hierarchy, but it was very clear that she was running the show,” a fellow intern recalled in Vanity Fair).
She then worked her way up the ranks in administration in a New York private equity firm, before co-founding a marketing agency. Dig back into the agency's blog archives and you will find Owens mouthing off about “the bat-s**t-crazy antics of the Republican Tea Party”. But her politics would soon change drastically. In 2016, she launched a Kickstarter campaign for a platform called Social Autopsy, a searchable database of internet trolls (there is, of course, a certain irony to Owens initially touting herself as some kind of anti-cyber bullying champion).
She is part one-woman outrage machine, part millennial version of a medieval mystic
Inevitably, it stoked criticism: wouldn't this just amount to doxxing, the typically malicious act of posting another person's private details on the internet? Owens ended up on the receiving end of online hate herself, and blamed left-wing activists. “I became a conservative overnight,” she later reflected. “I realised that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals were actually the trolls.”
Not long after, she started posting on YouTube: her first video was a sketch in which she “came out” to her parents as a conservative. Owens positioned herself as a supporter of Trump, who was then in the early stages of his first presidency, and decried ideas around identity politics, structural racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. She particularly vehemently opposed any suggestion that African-Americans should perceive themselves as victims – and still does.
Owens crossed paths with Kirk at a conservative conference in Florida late in 2017. “Within 30 seconds of seeing her on stage, I said to myself, “Oh my goodness, I have not seen a talent like this in my six years of politics,” Kirk later told The Washington Post. He immediately hired her to work in communications for Turning Point, and they spent the next few years touring colleges, spreading the conservative gospel.
Around this time, Owens launched the BLEXIT Foundation, an organisation encouraging a “Black exit” from the Democrats, urging Black voters to throw their support behind the Republican party instead. Kanye West publicly supported her, writing “I love the way Candace Owens thinks” on Twitter. And she and Kirk also took their Turning Point mission overseas.
At an event in London in December 2018, Owens ended up appearing to suggest that if Hitler had simply stuck to Germany, his policies would have been “fine”. “Whenever we say ‘nationalism', the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler,” she said. “He was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine.” The “problem”, she added, was that he “had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalise.” Owens would later claim that her words had been taken out of context by “leftist journalists”, and stated that there is “no excuse or defence ever” for “everything that [Hitler] did”.
Owens left Turning Point in 2019, but her profile continued to grow and grow. 2021 saw the launch of Candace, an online show for the conservative platform Daily Wire, co-founded by another right-wing controversy magnet, Ben Shapiro; it featured sit-down interviews with the likes of Trump, but she also used her platform to weigh in on pop culture and lifestyle topics (such as her vehement belief that women should not wear leggings outside of the gym, because doing so is indicative of “the decline of our culture”).
But in 2024, Owens parted ways with Daily Wire, reportedly over her anti-Semitic comments (although she would later claim this was a “smear campaign” and a “ridiculous storyline”). Owens' great talent, though, is for turning controversy into content, and it wasn't long before she returned with her own venture, a self-titled podcast. Since launching in June of last year, its ascent has been dizzying: in October 2025, it ranked as the number one show across platforms in terms of downloads and views per episode, with an average of around 3.5 million downloads per show, according to analytics from Podscribe.
The right-wing podcast sphere is booming in a way that the left can't seem to match. Just a quick glance at the US charts demonstrates the dominance of controversial conservative-skewing figures such as Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Theo Von. According to a Media Matters report from 2024, right-leaning online shows had nearly five times as many followers and subscribers as their left-wing equivalents. Controversy and conspiracy pay off: the more outrageous the content, the more the listeners keep coming back (not for nothing was “ragebait” announced as the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year).
It's a model that Owens has honed to perfection. Outrage drives clicks, listens and views. It keeps fans coming back. And this in turn makes advertisers sit up and take note. Her husband George Farmer, the British son of a multi-millionaire Tory peer and hedge fund manager, oversees the business side of the operation, and told Bloomberg that her advertisers “have reported seeing returns of two-to-one on dollars spent with us, and up to five-to-one reported in some cases”.
Her huge listener base mean that the podcast can inevitably charge higher advertising rates; recent analysis from Fortune magazine suggested that her company generates up to $10m in revenues per year. And according to Farmer, only one advertiser has pulled out over the past year; the show now has almost 60 sponsors, Bloomberg reports. In 2023, her anti-trans YouTube videos were demonetised, and last year, she was temporarily suspended after violating hate speech policies, but she has since returned with a vengeance. And even if these bigger sites did ban her, she would probably follow in the footsteps of other “cancelled” right-wing figures and simply move to a new platform.
What's particularly shrewd, though, is the way Owens has a knack for throwing herself into topics that are guaranteed to creep onto your social feed. Take actor Blake Lively's legal battle against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni. Earlier this year, Owens covered the story in obsessive detail, responding to suggestions and “clues” from followers with all the zeal of a TikTok sleuth.
Elsewhere, she borrows the aesthetic of your classic lifestyle influencer. Her website, Club Candace, doesn't exactly look like the online home of a conservative firebrand; instead of Maga red and shouty graphics, it's all swirly, cursive fonts and glowing photos of Owens. But then you look closer at the merch she's selling: the “Candace Intelligence Agency” T-shirts ($35), the “we don't know-know, but we know” sweater ($60), a slogan that gets to the heart of Owens' fast-and-loose attitude to facts, and the “conspiracy theorist” mug ($16).
And yet with the Macron lawsuit looming, Owens may have met her match. For all the successes of her podcast, she is now facing a major legal battle. She has been asking fans to donate to her legal fund, and estimates she will need around $5m, but that feels like a conservative estimate. Should she lose, she could face millions in legal fees alone. The case of fellow right-wing podcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones feels particularly pertinent here: Jones was ordered to pay around $1.4bn in total damages after the families of Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims won two separate defamation suits against him. He has since been declared bankrupt (although he is still broadcasting).
In American defamation cases against public figures, though, the onus is on the plaintiff to prove “actual malice” , or essentially to show that the defendant knew the information they were sharing was untrue. This can be tricky to prove. In 2021, Owens was hit with a separate defamation suit by the former Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik. She claimed that Owens had smeared her with false allegations of drug use, fraud and working as a “madame” in a strip club, but the case was tossed out by a judge; Klacik ended up being required to pay her $115,000 to cover legal fees.
Using Kirk's death as another trending topic to boost her profile looks like an ill-advised move, too. Owens is far from the only podcaster to indulge in bizarre conspiracy theories, but her personal link to Kirk, coupled with her willingness to exploit that for clicks and listens, makes the whole spectacle feel extremely murky. In aiming for Turning Point, too, she risks splitting her support base. Here, she is not going after the “establishment” or the “elite”, those bogey people of conspiratorial thinking, but her own political allies. And the signs are that Turning Point are not going to let her get away with it.
But Candace is unlikely to let this knock her off course. For her, a backlash is likely to be seen as just another opportunity. In this respect, she is the Trump era pundit par excellence: scandals that would have ended other careers only seem to give her more fodder to feed back to her devoted followers. Until now, Owens, with all her despicable theories, has made notoriety her superpower. In today's topsy-turvy cultural climate, being the ragebait queen has served her well. It remains to be seen, however, if they make her undefeatable.
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NASA and ESA both shared new images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS this week, as the agencies gear up for the mysterious object's closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19.
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The celebrity comet 3I/ATLAS is showing itself out of our solar system for good — but not before the cosmic paparazzi at Earth's space agencies snap some of the clearest photos of it yet.
Discovered in late June and confirmed to be the third known interstellar object in July, 3I/ATLAS has spent the past several months zooming through the inner solar system at an estimated 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h). The massive, jet-spewing snowball made its closest approaches to Mars and the sun in October. It is due for its closest encounter with Earth on Dec. 19, when it will be about 170 million miles (270 million kilometers) away — nearly twice the distance between our planet and the sun.
As the comet careens toward this astronomical milestone, spacecraft managed by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are snagging as many close-up observations as possible. This week, both agencies shared new images of the comet — proving that its recent flyby of the sun has left it very bright and active as it spews large amounts of sublimated gas and dust into space.
On Thursday (Dec. 4), NASA shared the latest image of 3I/ATLAS taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The glowing white dot at the center of the image shows the comet's nucleus (its main body) and coma, the bright atmosphere of gas and dust that wraps around the comet before getting funneled into its tail. In the background, stars are stretched into long streaks as Hubble's camera stays fixed on the fast-moving comet.
Comets typically brighten as they approach the sun, when the ice within them heats up and sublimates. Solar radiation pushes this gas into a tail that stretches away from the sun. Meanwhile, the warmest, sun-facing side of the comet may erupt with jets of gas and dust angled toward our star. Both of these features are faintly visible in the new Hubble image.
NASA snapped this image on Nov. 30, when Hubble was about 178 million miles (286 million km) from the comet. This is considerably closer than when Hubble first imaged the comet in late July. Although that first view showed little more than a blue blur, it nevertheless allowed scientists to constrain 3I/ATLAS' size to somewhere between 1,400 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide — likely the largest interstellar object seen to date.
New data from this image, including details of the coma's composition, has yet to be released but is likely on the way.
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Also on Thursday, ESA shared its latest view of the comet, taken by the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) orbiter on its way to study Jupiter's moons for signs of life. Juice snapped the image Nov. 2, just days after 3I/ATLAS' close approach to the sun.
Located even closer to its target than Hubble (only 41 million miles, or 66 million km, away), Juice shows us a comet brimming with activity.
"Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, we also see a hint of two tails," an ESA spokesperson wrote in a statement. "The comet's 'plasma tail' — made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. We may also be able to see a fainter 'dust tail' — made up of tiny solid particles — stretching to the lower left of the frame."
Juice observed 3I/ATLAS with five scientific instruments on two days. But besides this teaser image, we don't yet know what those instruments saw; the full data set won't reach Earth until late February 2026, according to ESA. That's because Juice is currently using its main antenna as a heat shield to protect it during its close pass of the sun, and relying on its smaller, less efficient antenna to beam its observations back to us.
—'From another world': 3I/ATLAS photobombs a galaxy and shows off its multiple tails in stunning new image
—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
While there's little we can learn from NASA's and ESA's new images without the full complement of scientific data, it's a good reminder that human space exploration pays off in unexpected ways. Hubble and Juice number among a dozen spacecraft that have observed 3I/ATLAS from around the solar system, including Mars rovers, solar orbiters, asteroid trackers and space telescopes that were never intended to track comets.
And there's more to come: As 3I/ATLAS draws closer to Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will take another look at it, while countless scientific observatories and amateur astronomers will have their chance to watch it as well. When you're dealing with a mysterious intruder from parts unknown, every observation matters.
Brandon is the space / physics editor at Live Science. With more than 20 years of editorial experience, his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. His interests include black holes, asteroids and comets, and the search for extraterrestrial life.
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NASA and ESA both shared new images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS this week, as the agencies gear up for the mysterious object's closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
The celebrity comet 3I/ATLAS is showing itself out of our solar system for good — but not before the cosmic paparazzi at Earth's space agencies snap some of the clearest photos of it yet.
Discovered in late June and confirmed to be the third known interstellar object in July, 3I/ATLAS has spent the past several months zooming through the inner solar system at an estimated 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h). The massive, jet-spewing snowball made its closest approaches to Mars and the sun in October. It is due for its closest encounter with Earth on Dec. 19, when it will be about 170 million miles (270 million kilometers) away — nearly twice the distance between our planet and the sun.
As the comet careens toward this astronomical milestone, spacecraft managed by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are snagging as many close-up observations as possible. This week, both agencies shared new images of the comet — proving that its recent flyby of the sun has left it very bright and active as it spews large amounts of sublimated gas and dust into space.
On Thursday (Dec. 4), NASA shared the latest image of 3I/ATLAS taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The glowing white dot at the center of the image shows the comet's nucleus (its main body) and coma, the bright atmosphere of gas and dust that wraps around the comet before getting funneled into its tail. In the background, stars are stretched into long streaks as Hubble's camera stays fixed on the fast-moving comet.
Comets typically brighten as they approach the sun, when the ice within them heats up and sublimates. Solar radiation pushes this gas into a tail that stretches away from the sun. Meanwhile, the warmest, sun-facing side of the comet may erupt with jets of gas and dust angled toward our star. Both of these features are faintly visible in the new Hubble image.
NASA snapped this image on Nov. 30, when Hubble was about 178 million miles (286 million km) from the comet. This is considerably closer than when Hubble first imaged the comet in late July. Although that first view showed little more than a blue blur, it nevertheless allowed scientists to constrain 3I/ATLAS' size to somewhere between 1,400 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide — likely the largest interstellar object seen to date.
New data from this image, including details of the coma's composition, has yet to be released but is likely on the way.
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Also on Thursday, ESA shared its latest view of the comet, taken by the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) orbiter on its way to study Jupiter's moons for signs of life. Juice snapped the image Nov. 2, just days after 3I/ATLAS' close approach to the sun.
Located even closer to its target than Hubble (only 41 million miles, or 66 million km, away), Juice shows us a comet brimming with activity.
"Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, we also see a hint of two tails," an ESA spokesperson wrote in a statement. "The comet's 'plasma tail' — made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. We may also be able to see a fainter 'dust tail' — made up of tiny solid particles — stretching to the lower left of the frame."
Juice observed 3I/ATLAS with five scientific instruments on two days. But besides this teaser image, we don't yet know what those instruments saw; the full data set won't reach Earth until late February 2026, according to ESA. That's because Juice is currently using its main antenna as a heat shield to protect it during its close pass of the sun, and relying on its smaller, less efficient antenna to beam its observations back to us.
—'From another world': 3I/ATLAS photobombs a galaxy and shows off its multiple tails in stunning new image
—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
While there's little we can learn from NASA's and ESA's new images without the full complement of scientific data, it's a good reminder that human space exploration pays off in unexpected ways. Hubble and Juice number among a dozen spacecraft that have observed 3I/ATLAS from around the solar system, including Mars rovers, solar orbiters, asteroid trackers and space telescopes that were never intended to track comets.
And there's more to come: As 3I/ATLAS draws closer to Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will take another look at it, while countless scientific observatories and amateur astronomers will have their chance to watch it as well. When you're dealing with a mysterious intruder from parts unknown, every observation matters.
Brandon is the space / physics editor at Live Science. With more than 20 years of editorial experience, his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. His interests include black holes, asteroids and comets, and the search for extraterrestrial life.
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Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
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Flying saucers, strange lights in the sky and objects that look like alien spaceships… every year Brits report hundreds of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and have been doing so for more than eight decades.
Great Britain is considered to be one of the most active UFO hotspots in the world, despite the fact that government officials have long insisted they are not concerned about reports of strange activity in the sky.
Ufologists would disagree. They suggest the British government's own files tell a very different story - one that finally came to light in 2008 - when the Ministry of Defence finally released its UFO files.
British author, researcher and TV presenter Lynn Picknett who writes about the paranormal says: “The MOD released 60,000 files on the subject. Which basically backs up the assertion over the years that they've been researching all sorts of anomalous phenomena.”
In fact the British Ministry of Defence has files on military personnel encountering UFOs going back over 80 years, according to a new programme on UFOs coming to Sky History.
One of the most famous sightings occurred at a Royal Air Force base where American soldiers were stationed, Rendlesham Forest, on December 26, 1980. Shortly after midnight, military personnel at RAF Woodbridge, 80 miles northeast of London, detected a strange object on their radar.
Andrew Collins, a science and history writer says: “Airmen were sent out in a vehicle to investigate, and came across this clearing in which was this otherworldly object surrounded with light. It rose up slightly, then moved backwards and disappeared. Over the next few nights, more and more sightings occurred. The whole episode was written up and recorded by the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Halt which was very unusual.”
It's one of the most discussed UFO events on record, but just one of many that have been reported near British military bases. On August 13th, 1956, British Royal Air Force officers stationed at RAF Bentwaters claimed they saw fifteen unidentified flying objects on their radar screen racing along the coastline.
Nick Pope, a former British Ministry of Defence (MoD) employee who investigated UFOs for the government from 1991 to 1994 and is now a leading commentator on the subject says: “Military jets were scrambled to try and intercept these things. At one point, one of the objects was recorded at speeds of around 4,000 miles an hour.
“That was way faster than anything anyone had at the time. And reliable witnesses, the pilots saw them. They're simultaneously tracked on radar. At one point, these things are going in formation, and then they appear to converge and form a single object.”
If the British military has witnessed so many unexplainable events, why has the government always professed to have no interest in UFOs Ufologists say the answer can be found by examining the earliest British military encounters on record which were reported during World War II.
UFO investigator and podcaster Dan Zetterstrom says: “Files released show that Prime Minister Churchill was being briefed on these encounters during World War II. He was worried that any release of information would lead to mass hysteria, public panic.
“So, he covered up every UFO sighting that happened. He put a blanket secrecy ban on reporting on UFOs for 50 years. But while Winston Churchill wanted to hide UFO sightings from the public, he also felt it was important to study them, and initiated government funded projects to do just that.”
While many ufologists suspect the British government is still keeping their most explosive UFO files close to their chest, civilian research groups have investigated thousands of unexplained incidents. Some of the most intriguing occurred in a single town over the course of a decade: Warminster, England.
On Christmas Eve, 1964, local resident Mildred Head was startled awake by an unnerving noise coming from above her bedroom. Lynn Picknett explains: “It sounded like thousands upon thousands of tiles being ripped off and then thrown back on, which was utterly terrifying and also there was a vibration going through the house.”
The only explanation Mildred could come up with was that the noise may have been the result of military testing at a nearby Royal Air Force Base. That was until her neighbour, Marjorie Bay had a strange experience of her own.
Nick adds: “The very next day, Marjorie Bay was going to church when she was assaulted by a series of strange vibrations that she felt reverberating through her body, and shortly afterwards, dozens of other witnesses in and around Warminster reported the same thing. It was as if some unseen force was just taking a hold of people and shaking them.”
After residents reported hearing humming or droning noises and seeing strange lights in the sky, more than 300 assembled at their local town hall demanding answers. National papers took an interest and people started flocking to Warminster for nightly sky watches where others also witnessed these mysterious lights in the sky.
David Clarke recalls: “There was a classic photograph of a disc shaped object that was taken by Gordon Faulkner. And the Daily Mirror immediately put it on the front page, big splash. From that point onwards Warminster became the place to go and see flying saucers. It was the first sort of UFO hotspot in the British Isles.”
One area of Great Britain that has experienced UFO sightings on a near daily basis from ancient times right up until the present day, is Yorkshire. Private investigator Paul Sinclair and his team began researching and surveilling the area in 2009, setting up cameras around the clifftops along the North Sea. During one night in 2020, what they captured was particularly intriguing.
“We saw an object rise out of the water. I started filming. The entire sequence of events lasted about 90 seconds. We estimated the speed to cover six miles in 90 seconds was about 240 miles per hour before it seems to turn in and drop into the sea. So we've got an object that's gone below the surface, risen from the sea, traveled six miles and then gone below the surface.
"We have footage of objects beneath the surface of the water. Or luminous light beneath the surface. And we've no explanation for that. We've filmed that on three occasions.”
Ancient Aliens Britain's UFO Files is available to watch on Sky History platforms.
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Have you seen something from another world in the skies above the Central Coast?
It's entirely possible, according to a new documentary from director Dan Farah — who produced films such as “Ready Player One” and “Call Jane” — on the possibility of alien life that focuses on recent disclosures of U.S. government programs that have studied, tracked and even potentially recovered extraterrestrial craft and beings.
Released in March, “The Age of Disclosure” follows Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense employee and U.S. Army veteran who has become a prominent voice in the world of UFOs — or, as some enthusiasts call them, unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAPs — as the U.S. government declassifies some information on UAPs and holds hearings on the matter over the past five years.
The film also features commentary on UAP hearings from several high-ranking current and former members of the U.S. government, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York; and former CIA Director John Brennan.
Though many of Elizondo's claims are disputed by UFO skeptics, scientists and government authorities, the new documentary includes a pair of accounts of potential UAP sightings here on the Central Coast — specifically surrounding Vandenberg Air Force Base, now referred to as Vandenberg Space Force Base.
In the documentary, retired Air Force Lieutenant Bob Jacobs said he saw a UAP while he was working at Vandenberg Air Force Base, though the exact date was not included in the documentary.
Around 60 cameras were pointed at the ignition point of an Atlas D missile carrying a dummy warhead that was launched from Vandenberg, recording the ignition and launch process, Jacobs said.
But once the missile took flight, an unidentified object entered the frame of the recording, he said.
Jacobs said the UAP circled the missile, hitting it with beams of light at several angles, and then exited the camera's frame in the same direction it came — all while everything being filmed was moving at around 8,000 to 9,000 miles per hour.
“There's nothing of ours that could have done that,” Jacobs said in the film. “What could have done that?”
Jacobs isn't alone in his claims of UAP sightings around Vandenberg.
In another instance, two individuals — retired Air Force Security Forces members Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Chaz King — shared similar accounts of a pair of 2003 UAP sighting while working at Vandenberg.
“On Oct. 14, 2003, I showed up to work at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and immediately everybody just started to tell me about this UFO incident that had happened earlier that morning,” Nuccetelli said in the documentary.
The first sighting had been reported by a trio of Boeing contractors, who said they saw a “gigantic red square object” hovering over the launchpad the previous evening, Nuccetelli said.
“It was making no noise, it had no obvious signs of propulsion, and it was just hovering silently,” Nuccetelli said in the film. “It was a very serious security breach of the area.”
Neither witnessed the incident firsthand, but said they spent much of the following day driving around the base, searching for other objects like the square.
“Later that night, myself and five security forces members, we observed a bright light approaching the base,” King said in the documentary. “As it got closer, the light was no longer visible, and it was massive, the size of a football field, almost rectangular in shape.”
King said the mysterious matte black rectangle appeared to float in the sky without any propulsion systems, and lacked windows.
After the security forces members had observed it for around 45 seconds, it “shot off, thousands of miles an hour, up the coast,” King said in the film.
Nuccetelli said he spoke with a dozen other individuals at different vantage points, all of whom repeated King's story.
Because no photographic or video evidence of these claims are publicly available, at the end of the day, verifying their accuracy comes down to just one question: Do you believe?
Try 1 month for $1
Part of the McClatchy Media Network
Have you seen something from another world in the skies above the Central Coast?
It's entirely possible, according to a new documentary from director Dan Farah — who produced films such as “Ready Player One” and “Call Jane” — on the possibility of alien life that focuses on recent disclosures of U.S. government programs that have studied, tracked and even potentially recovered extraterrestrial craft and beings.
Released in March, “The Age of Disclosure” follows Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense employee and U.S. Army veteran who has become a prominent voice in the world of UFOs — or, as some enthusiasts call them, unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAPs — as the U.S. government declassifies some information on UAPs and holds hearings on the matter over the past five years.
The film also features commentary on UAP hearings from several high-ranking current and former members of the U.S. government, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York; and former CIA Director John Brennan.
Though many of Elizondo's claims are disputed by UFO skeptics, scientists and government authorities, the new documentary includes a pair of accounts of potential UAP sightings here on the Central Coast — specifically surrounding Vandenberg Air Force Base, now referred to as Vandenberg Space Force Base.
In the documentary, retired Air Force Lieutenant Bob Jacobs said he saw a UAP while he was working at Vandenberg Air Force Base, though the exact date was not included in the documentary.
Around 60 cameras were pointed at the ignition point of an Atlas D missile carrying a dummy warhead that was launched from Vandenberg, recording the ignition and launch process, Jacobs said.
But once the missile took flight, an unidentified object entered the frame of the recording, he said.
Jacobs said the UAP circled the missile, hitting it with beams of light at several angles, and then exited the camera's frame in the same direction it came — all while everything being filmed was moving at around 8,000 to 9,000 miles per hour.
“There's nothing of ours that could have done that,” Jacobs said in the film. “What could have done that?”
Jacobs isn't alone in his claims of UAP sightings around Vandenberg.
In another instance, two individuals — retired Air Force Security Forces members Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Chaz King — shared similar accounts of a pair of 2003 UAP sighting while working at Vandenberg.
“On Oct. 14, 2003, I showed up to work at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and immediately everybody just started to tell me about this UFO incident that had happened earlier that morning,” Nuccetelli said in the documentary.
The first sighting had been reported by a trio of Boeing contractors, who said they saw a “gigantic red square object” hovering over the launchpad the previous evening, Nuccetelli said.
“It was making no noise, it had no obvious signs of propulsion, and it was just hovering silently,” Nuccetelli said in the film. “It was a very serious security breach of the area.”
Neither witnessed the incident firsthand, but said they spent much of the following day driving around the base, searching for other objects like the square.
“Later that night, myself and five security forces members, we observed a bright light approaching the base,” King said in the documentary. “As it got closer, the light was no longer visible, and it was massive, the size of a football field, almost rectangular in shape.”
King said the mysterious matte black rectangle appeared to float in the sky without any propulsion systems, and lacked windows.
After the security forces members had observed it for around 45 seconds, it “shot off, thousands of miles an hour, up the coast,” King said in the film.
Nuccetelli said he spoke with a dozen other individuals at different vantage points, all of whom repeated King's story.
Because no photographic or video evidence of these claims are publicly available, at the end of the day, verifying their accuracy comes down to just one question: Do you believe?
Try 1 month for $1
Part of the McClatchy Media Network
Starz pulled the rug out from under Spartacus fans when they announced House of Ashur, a show that takes place in an alternate what-if timeline where Nick E. Tarabay's Ashur survives the events of the original show and kills Spartacus. The show's first episode even gets supernatural to set this premise up, taking the original Ashur, who had just died, straight from the Underworld itself and plucking him in another timeline that gives him a second chance.
The Direct sat down with Spartacus: House of Ashur showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, who also worked on Netflix's Daredevil, where he spoke about the chances of seeing more supernatural elements on the show, and revealed whether or not the titular Spartacus is actually dead in this new timeline.
When asked if Spartacus: House of Ashur's intro might open up the doors for some more supernatural elements, DeKnight confirmed that "you're not going to see that again in the body of the show." He further clarified how "that's no the show" and "that's purely the intro"
As for the fate of Spartacus himself, the show's concept declares he is dead. However, the first episode of House of Ashur offers hope that Liam McIntyre's hero might not actually be dead.
Sadly, despite that, DeKnight confirmed to THe Direct without a shadow of a doubt that "he's dead." The showrunner also added that "Everyone who died in the original series, except Ashur, they're dead."
More of The Direct's interview with Spartacus: House of Ashur showrunner Steven S. DeKnight can be read below. House of Ashur is now streaming on Starz.
Steven S. DeKnight: No, that's the one thing. You're not going to see that again in the body of the show. Because there was some talk, some questions from Starz and Lionsgate, as we were working on on the script, is, are we going to see other supernatural things happen? And no, that's not the show. That's purely the intro. I want it to be the same show as the original show, where you don't see any of that, except for the opening, where you know, this is what would have happened if the Fates had woven a different path for Ashur.
Steven S. DeKnight: Well, thank you. It's a big swing, and honestly, we didn't know how it would work. And that opening. My God, we rewrote and reworked that opening like 20 times to get it just right so it could appeal to the legacy fans and also give just enough information, but not too much information to overwhelm a new audience. So finding that sweet spot was really tricky.
Steven S. DeKnight: Back in the original show, there was a line in 'Spartacus: Vengeance' that the writers' room and I always were talking about and saying, wouldn't have been great if we had did that. It's when Ashur, I think it's in the last episode of 'Vengeance,' where Ashur tells Lucretia that he's going to help Glaber bring down Spartacus, and then he's going to inherit Batiatus' Ludus and her, and it's going to be the rise of the House of Ashur. And we always thought, man, that would have been a fun show to work on, that would have been really cool, but we killed him, so we can't do that now.
The showrunner went on to list some of the alternate ideas for a Spartacus spinoff series, which included a show about "Caesar, Crassus, Pompey, and the Triumvirate and the overthrowing of the Republic:"
DeKnight: So when it came around where Lionsgate and Starz approached me about resurrecting 'Spartacus'--originally, I think the question was, do you want to reboot Spartacus? It's like, No, I'm not going to tell that story again. I wouldn't touch that. But they said, Well, what about something kind of in that world, in that vein? So I started kicking around different ideas. Of course, first it was the obvious suspects. It was, well, a show about Caesar. Well, Caesar has been done, you know, everybody knows Caesar. And then it was, well, what about Caesar, Crassus, Pompey, and the Triumvirate and the overthrowing of the Republic? And I thought that sounds really great and really expensive. I want to make sure the show has legs. And then I was kicking around briefly, Anthony and Cleopatra, but it had the same issue of basically expense. An incredibly expensive series to do right.
Of course, all roads inevitably lead back to House of Ashur:
DeKnight: So I came back to this idea of, well, hell. What if we just did the House of Ashur? What if I had, you know, Lucretia went over the cliff with a baby and in the same episode Ashur got his head lopped off, what if he ends up in the underworld with her, and she has this whole thing about The Fates? And, you know, this was just one thing that could have happened. And then I got really excited, because I thought, I love this character of Ashur, and, you know, he's a horrible person, but in 'Gods of the Arena,' you kind of see why he's a horrible person. Really, the guy just needed a hug, you know, he just wanted love, and he was just kicked in the crotch by everybody, and it turned him bitter and mean, and he figured, all right, if that's what you want, that's what you're going to get.
With as unlikable of a guy that Ashur is, one of the key challenges for DeKnight was trying to figure out how you make audiences root for someone like that:
DeKnight: But I was really excited by the idea of being given a second chance. Could he be a better person? And he certainly tries. Whether or not he succeeds, we'll find out... And then the immediate problem was that he was such a bastard in the original show. How do you make the audience root for him? And of course, the answer was to introduce people who are worse. You introduce the Roman elites, who are way worse than he is. So that was basically the genesis. I'm still shocked that Lionsgate and Starz, because when I sent them my proposal, I thought there's no way they're gonna go for this. And they said, 'Yeah, that sounds great. Let's do it.' And here we are.
Steven S. DeKnight: Oh, no, he's dead. He's dead... Some characters hope he's alive, and other characters clearly say, if he were alive, we would have heard about it, man. So that's one thing the fans are always asking me. It's like Gannicus, we didn't technically see him die. And I have to tell everybody, no, he's dead. Everyone who died in the original series, except Ashur, they're dead, because I didn't want to be changing too many things, and I really didn't want to affect the ending of the original series, which I thought was just right. Like people ask me, 'Are we going to see Agron and Nasir in their goat farm?' And my answer is, always, I love the way their story ended. I don't want to upset them or their goats, so I'm leaving them to their peace.
DeKnight: That was the other thing that really excited me, because in the original show, Rob Tapert and I had always talked about bringing in the female Gladiators, the Gladiatrixes, but historically, they didn't arrive until about 80 years later, right about so. So instead, you know, once the war broke out, we could have women fighting, which we really loved, and that was the other thing that I loved about this concept, is that Ashur being alive, one of the first things in history that he changes is he brings in the gladiators early because he's desperate and he needs a gimmick.
So that starts the dominoes falling, and towards later in the series, and as the series progresses, you'll see the female gladiators really catch on. So we'll have more of them. And there are other things, you know, we want to take historical events that people know and start to change them and alter them all, because Ashur is alive. Him being alive just changes everything, while still pulling from actual historical things that are going on.
Steven S. DeKnight: Yeah, it's a little both. I mean, we come into it about six months after the defeat of Spartacus and his rebels, and Ashur has been given everything he ever dreamed of, which he discovers is a big burden, and he's struggling because he's in this weird place.
He helped the Romans defeat Spartacus and his rebels, but he's also an ex slave, ex Gladiator, so while they may be thankful, they don't trust him and he's not a Roman citizen, which they look down upon, so he's in this really precarious place where he's got to really scramble and use all of his wits and his devious nature to try to keep what he has and expand what he has so he's he's got his back up against it from the very beginning.
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