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Putin's top foreign policy aid says proposals could prolong conflict as talks with US negotiators are held in Miami
Russia has renewed its criticism of efforts by Europe and Ukraine to amend US proposals to end the war in Ukraine, saying they did not improve prospects for peace.
Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters on Sunday that the proposed tweaks to Washington's plan could prolong the conflict.
“I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” Ushakov said, adding that he had not seen the exact proposals and that his criticism was “not a forecast”.
Ukrainian forces have been battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the village of Grabovske in the north-eastern Sumy region, Ukraine's joint taskforce said. It disputed reports that Russian troops had occupied the nearby village of Ryasne. Ukraine's rights ombudsman said Russian forces forcibly moved about 50 people from Grabovske to Russia.
US intelligence believes Putin remains intent on capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet Union, Reuters reported, citing six sources familiar with US intelligence. Last week Putin called Europe's leaders “little pigs” and said Russia would achieve its goals through diplomacy or force.
However, Donald Trump's lead negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are holding talks with Russia's envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami in the belief that a peace deal may be close.
Dmitriev told reporters that talks on Saturday had proceeded “constructively” and would continue on Sunday. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said he may join the talks.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said diplomatic efforts were advancing “quite quickly” and that his negotiators in Florida had been working with the American side. The Ukrainian delegation has had separate meetings in the US with American and European diplomats.
Zelenskyy backed a US proposal for three-way talks with Washington and Moscow if it facilitated prisoner exchanges and other conditions. However, Ushakov said a proposal for three-way talks had not been seriously discussed.
France has welcomed reports that Putin was open to talks with Emmanuel Macron. “As soon as the prospect of a ceasefire and peace negotiations becomes clearer, it becomes useful again to speak with Putin,” the French president's office said in a statement. “It is welcome that the Kremlin publicly agrees to this approach.”
Putin extended the apparent olive branch after EU leaders on Friday agreed to supply €90bn (£79bn) to Ukraine to shore up its economy and military campaign against Russian forces in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian drones hit an oil rig and other facilities at Russia's Filanovsky oil field in the Caspian Sea, more than 700km (435 miles) from Ukraine's nearest border, Ukraine's military general staff said on Saturday.
Actor says comments from teachers and schoolmates about her size resulted in her barely eating at 19 years old
Kate Winslet has described being shamed over her appearance as a young actor by schoolmates and teachers.
The actor, whose directorial debut film Goodbye June was released this month, recalled being told by a drama teacher that she would have to settle for “fat girl parts”.
Winslet said she was set on acting from a young age, inspired by black-and-white photographs of her grandparents performing on stage, but she often played supporting roles.
“And I didn't care about that, I didn't aspire to play leading roles, really ever,” she said.
“But also because I was a little bit stocky, when I did start taking it much more seriously and got a child agent I really remember vividly a drama teacher … and she said to me, ‘Well, darling, you'll have a career if you're ready to settle for the fat girl parts.'
“Look at me now,” she added. “It's appalling the things people say to children.”
Winslet told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs she was teased at school for her size, called “blubber” and locked in the art cupboard.
“I learned to have a pretty thick skin pretty early on,” said Winslet, who left school at 16, around the time she got her first film role in Peter Jackson's 1994 film Heavenly Creatures.
She said the experience led to her later developing issues about her body, including on-and-off diets from the age of 15 to 19. At 19, she said she was barely eating, and described the period as unhealthy and one she regretted.
At the time of the bullying, she said she threw herself into her acting and creative world beyond school. “I wouldn't let them spoil a trajectory that I was determined I was on,” she said.
“And at least I had a lovely family to go home to.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin have expressed their readiness to “engage in dialogue.”
The first public signal came on Dec. 21 from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who stated that Vladimir Putin had “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue.”
“Therefore, if there is mutual political will, this can only be viewed positively,” Peskov told Russian state media.
The French presidency responded positively, with BFM TV citing the Elysee Palace: "It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly agreed to this approach. We will decide in the coming days on the best way to proceed."
The Elysee Palace also emphasized that any discussions with Moscow would be conducted "in full transparency" with President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders, with the ultimate goal of securing a "solid and lasting peace" for Ukraine.
Macron and Putin previously held a call on July 1 after nearly three years without contact, discussing Russia's war against Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Following this conversation, Macron also called Zelensky.
Macron had frequently called Putin during the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
On Dec. 17, Putin lashed out at Western leaders during an annual meeting with his defense ministry, calling European leaders "piglets" and declaring that the goals of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine would be met "unconditionally."
Junior Investigative Reporter
Linda is a Ukrainian junior reporter investigating Russia's global influence and disinformation. She has over two years of experience writing news and feature stories for Ukrainian media outlets. She holds an Erasmus Mundus M.A. in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from Aarhus University and the University of Amsterdam, where she trained in data journalism and communication studies.
The meeting is part of ongoing diplomatic negotiations in Washington's latest push to secure a peace deal. A Russian team is also expected to meet with U.S. delegates again on Dec. 21.
On Dec. 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Western leaders during an annual meeting with his defense ministry, calling European leaders "piglets" and declaring that the goals of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine would be met "unconditionally."
Ukrainian and Russian delegations have rushed to Miami to take part in yet another round of talks with the U.S. representatives in what some see as an American effort to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
According to preliminary information, on Dec. 18, Russian forces illegally detained about 50 civilians — residents of the village of Hrabovske — holding them without access to communication or adequate conditions. On Dec. 20, they were forcibly taken to Russia.
Russian forces launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from Russia's Rostov Oblast, along with 97 drones from Russia's Millerovo, Kursk, Orel, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
Atesh operatives set fire at a railway hub in Bataysk, in Russia's Rostov Oblast, which Russian troops use to supply their forces in occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
"No matter how difficult it is for us, we need to protect as many people as possible, protect Odesa and our other regions as much as possible," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the planned replacement.
"I believe such strength exists in the United States and in President Trump. And I believe we should not look for an alternative to the United States, because all alternatives are uncertain as to whether they can end the war)," President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters.
Liberated in 2022, Kherson is still under daily attack from Russian forces across the Dnipro River. The Kyiv Independent's Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko report from a city living under anti-drone nets and constant surveillance, showing how everyday life, from hospitals and schools to aid deliveries and cultural events, continues under threat, and why residents refuse to leave.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry is working on establishing a mechanism for providing Ukrainian citizen living abroad the ability to vote in the country's next election, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 20.
Sea drones have become a crucial component of Ukraine's defense toolkit, and co-production with a NATO ally could enhance long-term output and deepen European defense-industrial cooperation at sea.
According to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Russia had mobilized 18,092 foreigners from 128 countries as of October.
Top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov on Dec. 21 denied that trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. were even being considered.
Ukrainian and Russian delegations have rushed to Miami to take part in yet another round of talks with the U.S. representatives in what some see as an American effort to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
"At present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge, it is not in preparation," Ushakov told journalists.
Ushakov also stated that he doesn't even know whether Ukrainian representatives are in Miami, where the talks between U.S. and Russian officials are taking place.
Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, confirmed later on Dec. 21 that he and General Andrii Hnatov, chief of Ukraine's General Staff, are in the U.S. and holding another round of talks with the American delegates.
From the U.S. side the negotiations are led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, while Russia is represented by Kirill Dmitriev, head of the country's sovereign wealth fund.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting on Dec. 20, Dmitriev described the talks as constructive.
Previously, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Washington has proposed trilateral talks between delegations from the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, noting that he believes substantial progress toward ending Russia's war cannot be made in that format but that it could yield results, including prisoner exchanges or lay the groundwork for more important talks.
Earlier this week, Witkoff and Kushner held meetings in Berlin with Ukrainian and European officials, where discussions reportedly focused on "Article 5-like" security guarantees for Ukraine as well as postwar recovery and reconstruction funding.
The Miami talks are expected to build on those consultations as Washington continues to push for a negotiated settlement.
Junior Investigative Reporter
Linda is a Ukrainian junior reporter investigating Russia's global influence and disinformation. She has over two years of experience writing news and feature stories for Ukrainian media outlets. She holds an Erasmus Mundus M.A. in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from Aarhus University and the University of Amsterdam, where she trained in data journalism and communication studies.
The meeting is part of ongoing diplomatic negotiations in Washington's latest push to secure a peace deal. A Russian team is also expected to meet with U.S. delegates again on Dec. 21.
On Dec. 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Western leaders during an annual meeting with his defense ministry, calling European leaders "piglets" and declaring that the goals of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine would be met "unconditionally."
Ukrainian and Russian delegations have rushed to Miami to take part in yet another round of talks with the U.S. representatives in what some see as an American effort to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
According to preliminary information, on Dec. 18, Russian forces illegally detained about 50 civilians — residents of the village of Hrabovske — holding them without access to communication or adequate conditions. On Dec. 20, they were forcibly taken to Russia.
Russian forces launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from Russia's Rostov Oblast, along with 97 drones from Russia's Millerovo, Kursk, Orel, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
Atesh operatives set fire at a railway hub in Bataysk, in Russia's Rostov Oblast, which Russian troops use to supply their forces in occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
"No matter how difficult it is for us, we need to protect as many people as possible, protect Odesa and our other regions as much as possible," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the planned replacement.
"I believe such strength exists in the United States and in President Trump. And I believe we should not look for an alternative to the United States, because all alternatives are uncertain as to whether they can end the war)," President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters.
Liberated in 2022, Kherson is still under daily attack from Russian forces across the Dnipro River. The Kyiv Independent's Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko report from a city living under anti-drone nets and constant surveillance, showing how everyday life, from hospitals and schools to aid deliveries and cultural events, continues under threat, and why residents refuse to leave.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry is working on establishing a mechanism for providing Ukrainian citizen living abroad the ability to vote in the country's next election, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 20.
Sea drones have become a crucial component of Ukraine's defense toolkit, and co-production with a NATO ally could enhance long-term output and deepen European defense-industrial cooperation at sea.
According to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Russia had mobilized 18,092 foreigners from 128 countries as of October.
Silver steward is one of three people arrested in connection with alleged theft from presidential residence
A silver steward employed at the Élysée Palace in Paris has been arrested for stealing silverware and porcelain, amid a wave of thefts from high-profile French institutions.
Investigators arrested the man and two alleged accomplices last week. They are accused of taking the objects from the official Paris residence of the French president and trying to sell them on online auction websites such as Vinted.
The head steward at the palace alerted authorities to the missing objects, some of which are deemed items of national heritage. The items are estimated to have a combined value of up to €40,000 (£35,000).
Most of the pieces came from the Sèvres Manufactory in Paris, a famed porcelain factory that has been owned by the French state since 1759. Investigators began to question Élysée staff after factory personnel recognised some of the missing items on auction sites.
The alleged thefts are an unwelcome encore to a string of robberies from the Louvre and other French museums in recent months that have raised concern about lax safeguards at the country's cultural institutions.
The role of silver steward involves storing and looking after tableware and similar items used by presidents, visiting royalty and other dignitaries. Prosecutors said inventory records made by the arrested steward gave the impression he was planning future thefts.
According to investigators, the man's Vinted account included a plate stamped “French Air Force” and ashtrays marked “Sèvres Manufactory” – items not usually available to the general public.
They said they recovered about 100 objects in his home, vehicle and personal locker, including Sèvres porcelain, a René Lalique statuette, Baccarat champagne coupes and copper saucepans.
The steward and his alleged accomplices appeared in court on 18 December and will be tried on 26 February. The trio were placed under judicial supervision, banned from contacting one another, prohibited from appearing at auction venues and barred from their professional activities, the Associated Press reported.
The recovered items were returned to the Élysée – a happier outcome than at the Louvre, which is still missing crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£77m) after a daylight raid in October. Four suspects have been arrested in relation to that case.
Other French institutions targeted in recent months include Paris's Natural History Museum and a porcelain museum in Limoges. Both were raided in September, losing six gold nuggets worth about €1.5m (£1.3m) and Chinese porcelain with an estimated combined worth of €6.55m (£5.7m) respectively.
In October, around 2,000 gold and silver coins worth about €90,000 (£78,000) were stolen from the Maison des Lumières (House of Enlightenment), a museum in Langres dedicated to the philosopher Denis Diderot.
Thousands of mourners gathered under tight police security at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday evening to mark a week since two gunmen targeting a Jewish festival killed 15 people. Since then, Australian governments have been galvanized into action on countering antisemitism and tightening already strict national gun controls.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his predecessors John Howard and Scott Morrison, and Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who represents Australia's head of state King Charles III, were among the dignitaries at the commemoration that drew more than 10,000 people.
“This has to be the nadir of antisemitism in our country,” New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip told the crowd. “This has to be the moment when light starts to eclipse the darkness.”
The crowd booed Albanese when Ossip acknowledged his presence. Opposition leader Sussan Ley, who had said that a conservative government led by her would reverse a decision made by Albanese's center-left Labor Party government this year to recognize a Palestinian state, was cheered.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Albanese over the attack on the Hannukah celebration, saying “your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.” Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to link widespread calls for a Palestinian state, and criticism of Israel's military offensive in Gaza following Hamas' 2023 attack, to growing incidents of antisemitism worldwide.
Images of the victims, aged 10 to 87, were projected at the commemoration. “Waltzing Matilda” was sung in honor of the youngest victim, whose Ukrainian parents gave their Australian-born daughter what they described as the most Australian name they knew.
A widely acclaimed hero of the massacre, Ahmed al Ahmed, sent a message of support from his hospital bed. The Syrian-born immigrant was shot after wrestling a shotgun from one of the gunmen.
“The Lord is close to the broken-hearted. Today I stand with you, my brothers and sisters,” he wrote.
His father, Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed, was invited to light a candle on the Jewish candelabrum known as a menorah on the final night of Hannukah.
Beyond the famous beach, people around Australia united with Sydney's stricken Jewish community by lighting candles and observing one minute of silence at their homes at 6:47 p.m. to remember the moment the massacre unfolded. Television and radio networks across Australia also fell silent.
The federal and New South Wales state governments declared Sunday a national Day of Reflection to mark Australia's worst mass shooting since 35 died in Tasmania state in 1996.
Albanese had earlier announced a review of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies following last week's attack, which was inspired by the Islamic State group.
Indigenous leaders held a traditional smoking ceremony on Sunday morning at the waterfront Bondi Pavilion, where an impromptu memorial has grown as flowers and heartfelt messages have accumulated. The memorial is to be cleared on Monday.
Mostyn, the governor-general, accepted an invitation from the National Council of Jewish Women for women of all faiths to lay a flower at the memorial on Sunday morning. Hundreds of women and girls dressed in white joined her in making the gesture.
She later delivered a message from the British monarch saying he and Queen Camilla were “appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic attack on Jewish people the Hannukah celebration on Bondi Beach.”
One of the suspects, Naveed Akram, 24, was shot by police. He has been charged with 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to those wounded. His father, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene.
The Health Department said 13 of those wounded at Bondi remained in Sydney hospitals on Sunday.
Police bolstered security around Bondi on Sunday, including officers armed with rifles. There was criticism that the first police responders last week were armed only with Glock pistols, which did not have the lethal range of the assailants' shotguns and rifles. Two police officers were critically wounded.
Flags flew at half-staff on the Sydney Harbor Bridge and government buildings, which were lit in yellow on Sunday night in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Alex Ryvchin said the victims' families felt “tragically, unforgivably let down” by government failures to combat a growth in antisemitism in Australia since the war between Israel and Hamas began in 2023.
A day after the attack, an emergency meeting of federal and state leaders committed to tightening national gun laws with measures including limiting the number of guns an individual can own. Sajid Akram legally owned six guns, including the two shotguns and two bolt-action rifles used at Bondi.
The New South Wales state parliament will sit on Monday to debate new hate speech and gun draft laws.
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Echoing the dismantling of USAID, other countries are changing funding priorities and health and hunger programmes in Africa will lose out
The notion of humanitarian aid being used to combat poverty and hunger is being replaced in Europe with geopolitical “games” as states redirect aid to Ukraine and to defence spending, analysts warn after recent announcements by Sweden and Germany.
Earlier this year, humanitarian groups called for European donors to fill the gap as President Donald Trump dismantled the USAID programme, but instead other nations are further pulling back from their commitments around the world.
In December, Sweden announced a 10bn kronor (£800m) cut in development funding to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Tanzania and Bolivia. Germany's humanitarian budget of €1.05bn (£920m) for 2026 will be less than half of last year's, with spending refocused on areas deemed a priority to Europe.
“I think we are losing a consensus of solidarity and responsibility which has been established for a while now,” said Ralf Südhoff, director of the Berlin-based Centre for Humanitarian Action.
“Germany this year has started to phase out Latin America, decreased engagement in Asia and say they want to focus now on crises which have an impact on Europe,” he said, noting that while Ukraine was in need of funding because of Russia's invasion, its location in Europe meant it was saved from the cuts developing countries have experienced.
The UK also announced earlier this year that it would be cutting aid to fund defence spending. Norway has increased its civilian support to Ukraine by 2.5bn kroner (£185m), to a quarter of its aid budget, but has been accused of making Africa pay for that rise with a 355m kroner cut (£26m).
France's budget for 2026 will also see a €700m cut to aid spending, with a 60% reduction in food aid, while increasing defence spending by €6.7bn.
“It's a broader geopolitical trend and there's a misleading belief by European actors that they have to play this game now in the same way as Moscow, Beijing, Washington,” said Südhoff, suggesting aid will be more “transactional” and directed to where donors see direct benefits for themselves. “The reaction now is not to fill the gap or attempt to do so but to follow the [American] cuts.”
Analysis of Germany's 2026 aid budget by Venro, a coalition of German NGOs, shows that the country is slashing funding to traditional development and poverty-reduction programmes, with a 20% cut for the World Food Programme and 33% for the Gavi vaccine alliance.
One of the few elements of the budget not cut is Germany's partnerships with the private sector in developing countries.
Anita Kattakuzhy, director of policy at Near, a coalition of civil society groups in the global south, said a wider pattern is emerging among donors.
“Budgets are being reshaped under political pressure, and the communities who bear the consequences have no way to shape those decisions,” said Kattakuzhy.
“Cutting funding in this way may meet short-term priorities in donor capitals, but it destabilises the local systems that are keeping crises from getting worse.”
Among the countries most affected by aid cuts is Mozambique, which has suffered from cyclones and droughts as well as a resurgent conflict in the country's Cabo Delgado province that has displaced more than 300,000 people since July.
The country has received only $31m of $222m funding required this year, leading to food distribution happening only every two months and covering 39% of caloric needs, according to the UN.
The cutting of development funding by Sweden will directly hit programmes used to rehabilitate and provide healthcare and education to people displaced by the insurgency in the Cabo Delgado region, which began in 2017.
All four of the African countries removed from Sweden's development funding have seen cuts for HIV/Aids services, as experts warn there will be a reversal of years of progress in fighting the disease.
Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are among six countries, along with Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia – that could bear the brunt of cuts to health programmes tackling HIV/Aids, according to analysis by the Boston Consultant Group.
Ilaria Manunza, country director for Save the Children Mozambique, said aid cuts have already made 2025 very difficult: “Every cut compounds the risk of long-term developmental setbacks, particularly in education and child protection,” said Manunza. “If current trends continue, 2026 will be extremely challenging … there is a real risk that progress made over the past decade could be reversed.”
The Food and Drug Administration is not adding “black box” warnings to COVID-19 vaccines, even though an agency center recommended it, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said on Dec. 15
“When it comes to the ‘black box' warning, we have no plans to put that on the COVID vaccine,” Makary said during an appearance on Bloomberg Television.
Russian troops abducted around 50 residents of the village of Hrabovske in Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, about 200 meters from the Russian border, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.
According to preliminary information, on Dec. 18, Russian forces illegally detained about 50 civilians — residents of the village of Hrabovske — holding them without access to communication or adequate conditions. On Dec. 20, they were forcibly taken to Russia.
“I immediately contacted the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, demanding information about the whereabouts of the illegally deported Ukrainian citizens, details on the conditions of their detention, and their urgent needs, as well as requesting measures for their immediate return to Ukraine. I also sent a letter to the ICRC,” Lubinets wrote.
The Ombudsman also urged civilians in the area to evacuate immediately, as staying in the combat zone is dangerous. He stressed the need to adopt a law on compulsory evacuation, particularly for children, from areas where there is an immediate threat to their lives and freedom.
The information about the abduction of Ukrainian civilians in Sumy Oblast was also confirmed earlier by a spokesperson for Ukraine's General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii.
Most of those forcibly taken are elderly men and women; one of the women is 89 years old, Lykhovii told Ukrainska Pravda on Dec. 21. Almost all of them had previously refused to evacuate deeper into Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Law enforcement agencies have already launched an investigation into the forced deportation of civilians, the spokesperson added.
Later today, Viktor Trehubov, the head of communications for Ukraine's Joint Forces, told Suspilne that on Dec. 20, Russian military units from the 36th Brigade entered a border village and attempted to advance up to one kilometer into Ukraine. Among the 50 civilians taken, most were men — people who had previously refused evacuation.
Fighting is ongoing in the village of Hrabovske, the Joint Forces Task Force wrote on Facebook. Ukrainian troops are actively working to push the Russian forces back into Russian territory.
"Despite some reports in the media, Russian forces are currently absent in the neighboring village of Riasne," the statement also clarified.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of civilians continues from the border communities of Sumy Oblast, as reported by Governor Oleh Hryhorov on Dec. 21. "Today, some residents from the Krasnopillia community, who had previously refused evacuation, were evacuated by armored transport," he wrote.
The border villages in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy Oblast are subject to waves of Russian attacks on a daily basis. The relentless strikes have triggered mandatory evacuations in hundreds of communities.
Sumy Oblast has been a key target for Russian forces throughout the full-scale invasion due to its location on the northeastern frontier. It continues to face near-daily strikes, but Ukrainian forces have maintained control over most of the region.
Junior Investigative Reporter
Linda is a Ukrainian junior reporter investigating Russia's global influence and disinformation. She has over two years of experience writing news and feature stories for Ukrainian media outlets. She holds an Erasmus Mundus M.A. in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from Aarhus University and the University of Amsterdam, where she trained in data journalism and communication studies.
The meeting is part of ongoing diplomatic negotiations in Washington's latest push to secure a peace deal. A Russian team is also expected to meet with U.S. delegates again on Dec. 21.
On Dec. 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Western leaders during an annual meeting with his defense ministry, calling European leaders "piglets" and declaring that the goals of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine would be met "unconditionally."
Ukrainian and Russian delegations have rushed to Miami to take part in yet another round of talks with the U.S. representatives in what some see as an American effort to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
According to preliminary information, on Dec. 18, Russian forces illegally detained about 50 civilians — residents of the village of Hrabovske — holding them without access to communication or adequate conditions. On Dec. 20, they were forcibly taken to Russia.
Russian forces launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from Russia's Rostov Oblast, along with 97 drones from Russia's Millerovo, Kursk, Orel, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
Atesh operatives set fire at a railway hub in Bataysk, in Russia's Rostov Oblast, which Russian troops use to supply their forces in occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
"No matter how difficult it is for us, we need to protect as many people as possible, protect Odesa and our other regions as much as possible," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the planned replacement.
"I believe such strength exists in the United States and in President Trump. And I believe we should not look for an alternative to the United States, because all alternatives are uncertain as to whether they can end the war)," President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters.
Liberated in 2022, Kherson is still under daily attack from Russian forces across the Dnipro River. The Kyiv Independent's Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko report from a city living under anti-drone nets and constant surveillance, showing how everyday life, from hospitals and schools to aid deliveries and cultural events, continues under threat, and why residents refuse to leave.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry is working on establishing a mechanism for providing Ukrainian citizen living abroad the ability to vote in the country's next election, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 20.
Sea drones have become a crucial component of Ukraine's defense toolkit, and co-production with a NATO ally could enhance long-term output and deepen European defense-industrial cooperation at sea.
According to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Russia had mobilized 18,092 foreigners from 128 countries as of October.
MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Athens has joined the PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) program for European countries to purchase American weapons for the Ukrainian armed forces, Yury Pilipson, Director of the Second European Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with TASS.
"As far as we know, Athens recently joined the PURL initiative for European countries to purchase American weapons for the Ukrainian armed forces, although the Greeks had previously been reluctant to do so," he noted.
He was commenting on reports in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini that the country is once again under pressure from the US and NATO partners to announce its participation in the PURL initiative.
The diplomat stressed that Greece, from the very beginning of the special military operation, has been "actively assisting the Kiev regime with weapons and ammunition." However, he said, the particular cynicism on the part of the Athens authorities is that they are well aware of the Ukrainian armed forces' subsequent use of these weapons against civilians in Donbass, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Crimea, and other southern regions of Russia, "where a large Greek community has long lived."
According to the diplomat, there is no doubt about involvement of ‘senior comrades' in Greece's accession to the announced initiative.
"There's no doubt that their 'senior comrades' persistently pointed out this 'oversight' to them and ultimately achieved their goal. Everyone knows that Kiev is consistently pushing the Greek leadership to transfer highly effective Russian-and Soviet-made air defense systems, currently in service with the country's armed forces, to the Ukrainian Armed Forces—without regard for Greece's own defense capability," he said.
"All of this clearly illustrates the neoliberal totalitarianism that reigns in the European Union. The era of a unipolar world order is irrevocably fading into the past, yet the Western camp is trying with all its might to maintain hegemony, which requires strict intra-bloc discipline and the de facto renunciation of national sovereignty, even in such critical areas as defense and security," the diplomat said.
Despite the Greek leadership's support for Ukraine, Pilipson noted that the country's population "does not share this approach, to put it mildly."
"According to a poll commissioned by the Kathimerini newspaper in July of this year, 72% of respondents believe that Athens should have taken a neutral stance in the Ukrainian conflict," the diplomat said.
On July 14, US President Donald Trump and Secretary-General Mark Rutte launched the PURL initiative, which replaced free US arms deliveries to Kiev and those on credit. It allows European NATO countries and Canada to purchase American weapons for Ukraine's needs through NATO structures. On September 17, the alliance's representative in Kiev, Patrick Turner, announced that American arms deliveries to Ukraine were underway.
MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Kirill Dmitriev, Special Representative of the Russian President, Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, called for acknowledging the existence of well-funded and well-organized campaigns inciting war in the US, UK, and EU media.
"Let's acknowledge the well-funded, well-organized warmonger media campaign in the US, UK & EU to undermine President Trump's peace plan. UK/EU politicians push the "let's go to war with Russia"—covering up migration blunders/cashing in on weapons sales via "friendly" contractors," he wrote on the X social network.
Earlier Dmitriev commented on the statement made by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, in which she denied mass media reports on presence of Russia's plans to establish control over the entire territory of Ukraine and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party's top lawyer during President Donald Trump's first impeachment.
Three years on, the Manhattan Democrat is in the fight of his political life against New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a liberal challenger backed by prominent left-wing figures like Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders. In his campaign launch earlier this month, Lander declared: “We need leaders who will fight, not fold.”
“I'm running for Congress because we're facing a five-alarm fire for our democracy” Lander declared in his mid-December launch video.
Goldman is among more than two dozen congressional Democrats battling serious primaries this year — a surge that party insiders attribute to a wave of emboldened liberals across the country who watched Mamdani's unlikely rise and remain frustrated at their party's struggles to fight back against Trump.
Democrats in Washington say primaries are simply part of life in a big-tent party. But privately, many see the surge in far-left challengers as an expensive headache that distracts from the party's goal of seizing control of Congress next November. And it has infuriated some Democrats — including among the most vulnerable members — who fear the party will have to divert money away from the bigger fight against the GOP to protect incumbents in safe seats.
“I think we've got individuals who might be caught up in the moment, caught up in the internet,” said Rep. Greg Meeks, a fellow New York Democrat who has watched liberal challengers line up against many in his home state delegation. “To me, it is them missing the boat, though, because what they're upset about and angry about is the President of the United States, and what we should be doing is uniting behind Grace [Meng] and Adriano [Espaillat] and [Ritchie] Torres.”
Rep. Juan Vargas of California was even more blunt: “The problem is, they're attacking their own. It's like, attack the other guys. … We will have spent this energy and money fighting amongst ourselves. And it's really dumb.”
Top Democrats believe that most of their sitting members will ultimately prevail. But they acknowledge that the dozens of showdowns between incumbents and liberal insurgents across the country offers further proof of how younger, more progressive candidates are determined to pull the party leftward with a new generation at the helm — all amid a broader identity crisis over the direction of the Democratic Party.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a California Democrat who also faces a contested primary, recalled recently sending a memo to his colleagues predicting that the 2026 election would be about a single theme: “Did you fight or didn't you fight?”
“If you're doing the same old thing over and over again, you're gonna lose. So it's about standing up to Trump, delivering results, providing a positive agenda. But you can't take anything for granted,” Gomez told CNN.
In the heated battle for Goldman's lower Manhattan seat, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN that he is fully behind his fellow Democrat. And he signaled that he believed each of his members would fend off challengers this cycle.
“Primaries are a way of life in the House of Representatives. … Our members are going to fight hard, make their case to the voters and come back to office,” said Jeffries, who faced his own short-lived primary threat from a Democratic Socialist NYC council member this year. His No. 2 in the House, Rep. Katherine Clark, faces her own contested primary this year, against a former city councilor who's complained that current House leaders are “not stopping Trump.”
Goldman, for his part, told CNN he is looking forward to “running on my progressive record.”
“I think that when people look at my record and they learn more about the work I've been doing here the last three years … people will realize they have someone who's representing their interests,” Goldman said.
Asked about the pushback from Hill Democrats, a spokesman for Lander said he has made clear why he's challenging a sitting Democrat in the second Trump era, pointing to the opening argument he made in his launch video calling for a more urgent fight for democracy.
The video included footage of him being arrested by ICE as he tried to escort a migrant out of immigration court in June. “The problems we face can't be solved by strongly worded letters and high-dollar fundraisers.”
Another Democrat facing a contested race, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, told CNN he doesn't believe Mandami's support doesn't necessarily translates to other candidates down the ballot.
“Mamdani is exceptional. Not every candidate who claims to be in his mold is the real deal,” Torres said, adding of his own primary challengers: “I have five of them. The more the merrier.”
Democrats' primary battle won't siphon away official party resources: The Democratic campaign arms of the House and Senate typically don't spend on primary challenges. But party leaders often use personal travel time to campaign for incumbents.
The real hit, according to members, is that those with primaries can't give money to party groups or use their own time and money to help in vulnerable districts.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads House Democrats' campaign arm, acknowledged that protecting those incumbents “takes some resources.” But she made clear that her focus is on swing-seats needed to flip the House.
“The number one thing we can do to make a difference, to put a check on this administration, to have a Congress that's functional, is take back the majority in the House,” she said.
Still, one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss their primary race candidly, complained that the money they are currently raising could be going directly to those purple seats instead of their own race.
“Could I be doing other stuff for other members? Absolutely,” this lawmaker said.
The surge in far-left challengers has also exasperated Democrats like Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who now has to run for reelection in one of the toughest districts for Democrats after Texas Republicans redrew the House map.
“I see it in New York – I think everybody in New York has a socialist [challenger]. It's really bad for the Democratic Party that we're having to deal with [this] and spend resources, instead of having all these resources for our November challenge,” Gonzalez told CNN.
Gonzalez is facing his own challenger, who has been nicknamed “the Mamdani of south Texas.” But he questioned whether his opponent yet had the fundraising to get off the ground: “I think donors are smarter than that. I don't see him raising much money. I'm thinking that's probably [the same] across the country.”
That's not the case everywhere.
Rep. John Larson raised $800,000 in a deep blue Connecticut seat to fend off a challenger, who is also the former mayor of his home state's capitol of Hartford. Rep. Mike Thompson in California raised more than $600,000 the same quarter. A third Democrat, Rep. Brad Sherman in California, raised $322,000. All three were outraised by their Democratic challengers last quarter.
In those three contests, however, the primary is less ideological than about pushing forward a new generation in politics. Larson, Thompson and Sherman are all in their 70s. (In California, that could also become a November problem. That state's “jungle primary” rules mean that the top-two finishers will make it to the general election ballot, regardless of party.)
“Winds of change, there's always an element that's out there,” Larson told CNN, when asked why he believed so many of his colleagues were facing challenges from inside the party this cycle. He dismissed that Mamdani or the insurgent left had anything to do with the surge.
And he said he's feeling good about his own prospects: “If you've done a good job, people respect that.”
CNN's Alison Main contributed to this report.
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MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will participate in an informal summit of CIS countries, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced.
"They [the meetings] will take place because, naturally, Putin will speak with everyone individually over the course of these two days. This will be mandatory," he said in response to a TASS question.
The Kremlin spokesman added that such days of informal communication are always imply bilateral meetings.
"In fact, that's the value of this format," Peskov concluded.
Members of the Ukrainian partisan group Atesh sabotaged a key railway supply hub near the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, disrupting Russian logistics to occupied territories, the group claimed on Dec. 21.
Atesh operatives set fire at a railway hub in Bataysk, in Russia's Rostov Oblast, which Russian troops use to supply their forces in occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
According to the group, the station is used to supply troops and military vehicles to the southern front. “As a result of the arson, the work of the main logistics hub, through which the occupation forces are supplied in all southern directions, was disrupted," the group wrote on Telegram.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims at the time of publication.
The Atesh group regularly conducts sabotage at military sites in occupied Ukrainian territory and deep within Russia.
Earlier last month, partisans reported a sabotage operation against an electric locomotive allegedly used for transporting military cargo from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Junior Investigative Reporter
Linda is a Ukrainian junior reporter investigating Russia's global influence and disinformation. She has over two years of experience writing news and feature stories for Ukrainian media outlets. She holds an Erasmus Mundus M.A. in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from Aarhus University and the University of Amsterdam, where she trained in data journalism and communication studies.
The meeting is part of ongoing diplomatic negotiations in Washington's latest push to secure a peace deal. A Russian team is also expected to meet with U.S. delegates again on Dec. 21.
On Dec. 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Western leaders during an annual meeting with his defense ministry, calling European leaders "piglets" and declaring that the goals of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine would be met "unconditionally."
Ukrainian and Russian delegations have rushed to Miami to take part in yet another round of talks with the U.S. representatives in what some see as an American effort to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
According to preliminary information, on Dec. 18, Russian forces illegally detained about 50 civilians — residents of the village of Hrabovske — holding them without access to communication or adequate conditions. On Dec. 20, they were forcibly taken to Russia.
Russian forces launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from Russia's Rostov Oblast, along with 97 drones from Russia's Millerovo, Kursk, Orel, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
Atesh operatives set fire at a railway hub in Bataysk, in Russia's Rostov Oblast, which Russian troops use to supply their forces in occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
"No matter how difficult it is for us, we need to protect as many people as possible, protect Odesa and our other regions as much as possible," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the planned replacement.
"I believe such strength exists in the United States and in President Trump. And I believe we should not look for an alternative to the United States, because all alternatives are uncertain as to whether they can end the war)," President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters.
Liberated in 2022, Kherson is still under daily attack from Russian forces across the Dnipro River. The Kyiv Independent's Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko report from a city living under anti-drone nets and constant surveillance, showing how everyday life, from hospitals and schools to aid deliveries and cultural events, continues under threat, and why residents refuse to leave.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry is working on establishing a mechanism for providing Ukrainian citizen living abroad the ability to vote in the country's next election, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 20.
Sea drones have become a crucial component of Ukraine's defense toolkit, and co-production with a NATO ally could enhance long-term output and deepen European defense-industrial cooperation at sea.
According to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Russia had mobilized 18,092 foreigners from 128 countries as of October.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discuss why animal cruelty is so important to end on 'My View with Lara Trump.'
Senior officials in President Donald Trump's administration say they are cracking down on animal cruelty, rolling out coordinated actions across the Justice Department, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to target dogfighting, puppy mills and animal testing.
"We are forming a strike force... and we're going to have designated U.S. attorneys in every state to prosecute these [animal abuse] cases," said Attorney General Pam Bondi on "My View with Lara Trump" on Saturday.
Bondi appeared with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discuss their interagency animal welfare initiative.
HHS UNLEASHES SWEEPING CRACKDOWN ON CHILD ‘SEX-REJECTING PROCEDURES,' THREATENS HOSPITAL, MEDICAID FUNDING
Members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet are coordinating an animal welfare initiative across the Departments of Justice, Agriculture and Health and Human Services. (Reuters; Getty Images)
Bondi said her department would work with the USDA to conduct special training for prosecutors and law enforcement agents on executing search warrants in animal abuse cases.
"We just last week convicted someone, for the first time ever, of using a firearm in a violent crime, and the violent crime was dogfighting," Bondi said.
In another example that shows "no one is above the law," Bondi told host Lara Trump that 190 dogs were seized from former NFL player LeShon Johnson.
"That was the most seized from one single defendant. So we're coming after you if you're going after these babies," she said, holding a small black puppy named Guru in her lap.
RFK JR. ANNOUNCES 'HISTORIC CRACKDOWN' ON 'BROKEN' ORGAN DONATION SYSTEM
Rollins said the USDA is taking a tougher approach to shutting down abusive puppy mills, moving away from issuing warnings and toward stricter enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.
"Compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, which is from the 1960s, was hovering around 65, 67% until the last few years. We're now closer to 92%, but it's that 8% that we're really going to focus on."
She described the poor conditions dogs can face in these mass-breeding operations. "No more puppy mills where you have puppies stacked on top of each other, where, if you don't sell them, then you drown them in a barrel because it's the cheapest way to do it."
Kennedy said all the major sub-agency heads at HHS are "all deeply committed to ending animal experimentation."
He said new studies on animal testing show "that the predictivity of animal models is very, very poor for human health outcomes. There are much more efficient ways of predicting human health outcomes. We are using, even in their nascent stages, computational modeling and AI," which he said provides much better results.
The HHS chief said there are about 100,000 primates in research labs across the country.
"There are another 20,000 that are imported every year, and we're very concerned about that. We're trying to put an end to that completely," he said, adding that his department was "re-educating researchers" to improve the predictability of human health outcomes.
ESCAPED MONKEYS FROM MISSISSIPPI TRUCK CRASH PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON NIH-FUNDED TULANE LAB
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Justice Department will train prosecutors to combat dogfighting cases and execute search warrants as part of an interagency animal welfare initiative. (Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters)
In September, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) changed its rules to ensure funding could be used to "retire their primates to sanctuaries after the experimentation is done."
"Until now, there was no option like that, no alternative, except the researcher euthanized that animal after they were through. Now we're developing sanctuaries across the country," he said.
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Kennedy framed animal welfare as a measure of the country's character.
"The badge of a really humane nation is the way that it takes care of its animals," he said.
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KISS star Gene Simmons told CNN on Sunday that Americans should stop worrying about politics and said it didn't matter who their neighbors support because, "It's their America too."
KISS frontman Gene Simmons downplayed politics during an interview with CNN on Sunday, and urged Americans to stop worrying about their neighbors' political beliefs.
"It's nobody's business who you support," Simmons told Manu Raju on CNN's "Inside Politics." "Nowadays, people engage in, 'So are you pro or,' and my first question is, ‘Who the f--- are you? Who are you?' Since when does who I support or not support is the business of anyone except my conscience?"
Raju then asked Simmons about the Make America Great Again (MAGA) wing of the Republican Party.
"Some of it makes sense and some not," Simmons replied, questioning why anyone cared about his political views. "But literally, have a sense of humor. Take a pill, shut up and stop worrying what your next-door neighbor believes or doesn't believe. It's their America too."
SYLVESTER STALLONE, GEORGE STRAIT LEAD TRUMP'S KENNEDY CENTER HONORS RED CARPET
Musician Gene Simmons, a founding member of the rock band KISS, is seen on Capitol Hill on Dec. 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Simmons also said he spoke with President Donald Trump after receiving a Kennedy Center Honor earlier this year.
"Had some face time with Senator Tillis and Blackburn and met Mr. Schiff and so on. But the telling moment was after we all got our Kennedy Center awards, as I had some face time alone with the president," he said.
"And I actually met the president and on and off for years and years, decades before he entered politics. And the conversation was what human beings do. How‘s the family? How are the kids? And, you know, all that stuff. It‘s not always about politics," Simmons continued.
EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP-LED KENNEDY CENTER NEARLY DOUBLES FUNDRAISING FROM BIDEN ERA, SMASHING RECORD WITH $23M HAUL
Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley of KISS attend the 48th Kennedy Center Honors at The Kennedy Center on Dec. 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi)
Simmons was on Capitol Hill this month to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of the American Music Fairness Act.
In what could mark a major shake-up for the music industry, the legislation would require AM and FM radio stations to pay recording artists and performers when they broadcast their songs, ending a decades-old exemption in U.S. copyright law. The bipartisan bill would align traditional radio with digital and streaming platforms that already pay artists royalties, while offering low, flat fees to protect small local stations.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., introduced this version of the bill in January, while Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., brought forth the legislation in the Senate this year.
More than a dozen conservative groups urged House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to support the bill.
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Sylvester Stallone, right, shows Gene Simmons, center, and Paul Stanley, left, members of the band KISS, his Kennedy Center Honors medal, in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
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Fox News' Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
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New York winemaker Nova Cadamatre reveals which signature whites and reds best introduce first-time drinkers to the upstate region, pointing to bottles available through the Fox News American Wine Club subscription.
A renowned winemaker calls New York's Finger Lakes "one of the only cool continental climates in the U.S. for wine-growing" — touting the beauty and benefits of an area that is increasingly grabbing the national spotlight.
Nova Cadamatre, together with her husband, Brian, opened Trestle Thirty One winery in 2015 in the Finger Lakes. She splits her time between the emerging powerhouse region and California's globally recognized Napa Valley.
Unlike California, where summers are reliably dry and conditions stable, the Finger Lakes see "precipitation of some sort throughout the year — and it includes us having rain during the growing season," Cadamatre told Fox News Digital.
IRANIAN REFUGEE BUILDS WORLD-RANKED AMERICAN WINERY ROOTED IN HERITAGE AND HEALTH
The result is wine that tastes different than anywhere else in the country, she said.
Wine Enthusiast recently named the Finger Lakes as the American Wine Region of the Year — a feat that Gov. Kathy Hochul's office said "recognizes the region's world-class winemaking, sustainable practices and collaborative community that have helped define New York State as a leader in American viticulture."
Nova Cadamatre, the first female Master of Wine in the United States, opened Trestle Thirty One winery in New York's Finger Lakes region with her husband in 2015. (Autumn Stein)
Her office's note added, "It's a win for our state's economy and our reputation as a global wine destination."
In bestowing the honor, Wine Enthusiast said, "New York's largest wine-growing region has come a mighty long way in a few decades. Where wine lovers once had to search for quality, these days it's the norm."
NASHVILLE'S HIDDEN 'WINE COUNTRY' PROVIDES TASTE OF TENNESSEE IN WHISKEY BARRELS
"Making wine in New York really forces you to be creative and very resourceful because the industry is not as well established as it is in California," said Cadamatre.
The region has been evolving fast.
Wine Enthusiast recently named the Finger Lakes as the American Wine Region of the Year. (Getty Images)
Since her very first Finger Lakes harvest, Cadamatre said she's watched the area shift from underdog to emerging powerhouse.
Climate change, while destabilizing in many wine regions, has had a paradoxical benefit in the Finger Lakes, Cadamatre said.
Trestle Thirty One's Engine Riesling is featured in the Fox News American Wine Club.
"We are becoming warmer," she said.
"We're able to grow different varieties than we did 20 years ago and ripen them more consistently."
Cadamatre founded Trestle Thirty One winery in New York's Finger Lakes region. "We're able to grow different varieties than we did 20 years ago and ripen them more consistently," she said. (Jay Gillotti)
She likens the region's trajectory to Napa's early ascent.
"The Finger Lakes, right now, is kind of like where Napa was in the 1970s," she said.
TEXAS WINERY BEATS NAPA ELITES WITH SMALL-TOWN SAVVY AND TOP-NOTCH TASTE
Cadamatre views Trestle Thirty One's Engine Riesling, featured in the Fox News American Wine Club, and Cabernet Franc, available through the Fox News Wine Shop, as ambassadors for a region still creating its identity.
Cadamatre splits her time between New York's Finger Lakes region and California's Napa Valley. (Autumn Stein)
"They're really great exposure to what the region has to offer," she said.
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The Engine Riesling is "great as just an apéritif or a sipper or with a cheese plate and charcuterie, hanging around with friends," she said.
"But it's also dry enough where it'll go really well with lighter, red meats."
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For a winemaker who has built her career on both coasts, Cadamatre is bullish about the future of viticulture in the Finger Lakes.
Cadamatre has high hopes for the future of winemaking in the Finger Lakes. (Autumn Stein)
"I think it's just a real testament to all the work that the community's done here to get the word out about our beautiful wine region," Cadamatre said.
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She's the first female winemaker in the United States to earn the prestigious Master of Wine title — which she earned in 2017.
"It's the highest level of certification you can achieve in the world of wine," Cadamatre said. "Right now, there are about 432 of us in the world."
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As she also recently told SUNY Morrisville, where she earned her degree in horticulture, "I've been working my butt off for a long time. I've made a lot of wine over 20 years."
Learn more about the Fox News Wine Shop here.
Peter Burke is a lifestyle editor with Fox News Digital. He covers various lifestyle topics, with an emphasis on food and drink.
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“Kablooey!” That's the word U.S. Geological Survey volcanic experts used to describe a muddy eruption at Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone National Park on Saturday morning. Video shared by the USGS on social media shows mud spraying up and out from the pool just before 9:23 a.m. in Biscuit Basin about midway between park favorites Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic.
This image made from video provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows a muddy eruption at Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone National Park on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (U.S. Geological Survey via AP)
“Kablooey!”
That's the word U.S. Geological Survey volcanic experts used to describe a muddy eruption at Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone National Park on Saturday morning.
Video shared by the USGS on social media shows mud spraying up and out from the pool just before 9:23 a.m. in Biscuit Basin about midway between park favorites Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic.
Other recent eruptions have mostly been audible and not visible, because they happened either at night or when the camera was obscured by ice.
The agency said the Black Diamond Pool was previously the site of a hydrothermal explosion, in July 2024, that sent rocks and mud flying hundreds of feet high and damaged a boardwalk. It prompted the closure of the area to visitors due to the damage and the potential for additional hazardous activity.
So-called dirty eruptions reaching up to 40 feet (about 12 meters) have occurred sporadically since then.
Researchers installed a new camera and a seismic and acoustic monitoring station this summer, and they say the instruments, along with temperature sensors maintained by the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program, can better detect and characterize the eruptions.
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory webcam at Black Diamond Pool didn't disappoint Saturday.
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“We got a nice clear view of one of these dirty eruptions under bright blue skies with the surroundings covered in snow (ah, winter in Yellowstone!),” USGS Volcanoes said on social media, noting that it was a great example of the kind of activity that has been happening at the spot over the past 19 months.
Experts say there is no real pattern to the eruptions at the pool and no precursors.
Park officials say Yellowstone preserves the most extraordinary collection of hot springs, geysers, mud pots and fumaroles on Earth. More than 10,000 hydrothermal features are found within the park, over 500 of them geysers.
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reflects on the energy Charlie Kirk had and says she is ‘in awe of' Erika Kirk's strength in the face of ‘the toughest times' at TPUSA's AmericaFest 2025 (Credit: Turning Point USA).
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard delivered a blunt warning about "Islamist ideology" at a high-profile conservative gathering Saturday, casting the threat as fundamentally incompatible with Western freedom.
"The threats from this Islamist ideology come in many forms," Gabbard told an audience at Turning Point USA's (TPUSA) annual AmericaFest conference.
RIFT IN MAGA MOVEMENT ON FULL DISPLAY AT TPUSA'S AMERICAFEST
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard oversees the nation's 18 intelligence agencies. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)
"As we approach Christmas, right now in Germany they are canceling Christmas markets because of this threat."
Gabbard, who oversees the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, said the ideology stands in direct conflict with American liberty.
"When we talk about the threat of Islamism, this political ideology, there is no such thing as individual freedom or liberty," she said.
Gabbard's remarks were notable given her role overseeing the nation's intelligence community, a position that traditionally avoids overt ideological framing in public remarks, particularly at partisan political events.
TPUSA BEGAN AS A SCRAPPY CAMPUS GROUP AND GREW INTO A NATIONAL, MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR POLITICAL FORCE
AmericaFest 2025, hosted by Turning Point USA, is taking place in Phoenix, Arizona. (Jon Cherry/AP)
Turning Point USA's AmericaFest has become a marquee gathering for conservative activists, lawmakers and influencers, where national security, immigration and cultural issues are increasingly framed as part of a broader ideological struggle.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment clarifying whether Gabbard's remarks reflected official U.S. intelligence assessments or her personal views.
TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk positioned the organization as a hub for conservative youth activism, frequently hosting high-profile figures who frame political and security debates in ideological terms.
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Charlie Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA, was killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Kirk carried that influence onto college campuses nationwide, drawing large crowds for live, unscripted debates on religion, Islamism, free speech, immigration and American culture. It was at an event at Utah Valley University, where he was fielding open-mic questions from thousands on Sept. 10 when he was shot and killed.
The charged nature of modern political activism has also raised alarms about political violence, with authorities increasingly warning of threats tied to large public gatherings.
European security officials have raised security alerts around holiday events in recent years following a series of Islamist-inspired attacks, including deadly incidents in Germany, France and Belgium, prompting heightened police presence or temporary cancellations at some Christmas markets.
Amanda covers the intersection of business and geopolitics for Fox News Digital.
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Jared Kushner with his wife, Ivanka Trump, acknowledges applause at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, Oct. 13, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP, File)
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Jared Kushner attend a meeting with Ukrainian officials, Nov. 30, 2025, in Hallandale Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, right, and Jared Kushner wait for the arrival of President Donald Trump at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, N.J., en route to attend the Club World Cup final soccer match, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, center, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, foreground right, and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries Kirill Dmitriev, behind Witkoff, arrive to attend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Jared Kushner speaks during a news conference following a military briefing with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Civilian Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, Oct. 21, 2025. (Nathan Howard/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the dawn rose on President Donald Trump's second term, one key figure from his first administration stood back, content to focus on his personal business interests and not retake a formal government role.
Now, nearly a year into Trump 2.0, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been drawn back into the foreign policy fold and is taking a greater role in delicate peace negotiations. Talks had initially been led almost solo by special envoy Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul who had no government experience before this year.
The shift reflects a sense among Trump's inner circle that Kushner, who has diplomatic experience, complements Witkoff's negotiating style and can bridge seemingly intractable differences to close a deal, according to several current and former administration officials who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.
That role was on display this weekend as Kushner and Witkoff hosted Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev in Miami for talks on the latest proposals to end Russia's war in Ukraine and they also met with Turkish and Qatari officials to discuss the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as they look to implement the second phase of Trump's ceasefire plan.
The lengthy session Saturday with Dmitriev followed several weeks of shuttle diplomacy, with Witkoff and Kushner meeting most recently with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian and European diplomats in Germany. The American envoys were set to hold further talks with Dmitriev on Sunday, according to a White House official.
Witkoff, a longtime pal of Trump's, is seen by some inside the administration as an oversize character who has traveled the world for diplomatic negotiations on his private jet and does not miss an opportunity to publicly praise the president for his foreign policy acumen, the officials say.
Kushner has his own complicated business interests in the Middle East and a sometimes transactional outlook to diplomacy that has distressed some officials in European capitals, a Western diplomat said.
Still, Kushner is seen as a more credible negotiator than Witkoff, who is viewed by many Ukrainian and European officials as overly deferential to Russian interests during the war that began with Moscow's invasion in February 2022, the diplomat said.
“Kushner has a bit more of a track record from the first administration,” said Ian Kelly, a retired career diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to Georgia who now teaches diplomacy at Northwestern University. Kelly stressed, however, that the jury is still out on Kushner's intervention.
Trump views Kushner as a “trusted family member and talented adviser” who has played a pivotal role in some of his biggest foreign policy successes, said White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly.
Trump and Witkoff “often seek Mr. Kushner's input given his experience with complex negotiations, and Mr. Kushner has been generous in lending his valuable expertise when asked,” Kelly added.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott called Kushner “a world-class negotiator.” Pigott noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is grateful for Kushner's “willingness to serve our country and help President Trump solve some of the world's most complex challenges.”
In an interview with CBS' “60 Minutes” in October, Kushner spoke about his unconventional approach to diplomacy.
“I was trained in foreign policy really in President Trump's first term by seeing an outsider president come into Washington with a different school of foreign policy than had been brought in place for the 20 or 30 years prior,” he said.
But some Democrats and government oversight groups have expressed skepticism about Kushner's role in shaping the administration policies in the Middle East while he manages billions of dollars in investments, including from Saudi Arabia and Qatar's sovereign wealth funds through his firm, Affinity Partners.
Similarly, Witkoff has faced scrutiny for his and his family's deep business ties to Gulf nations. Witkoff last year partnered with members of Trump's family to launch a cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, which received a $2 billion investment from a United Arab Emirates-controlled wealth fund.
“What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,” said Kushner, who is not drawing a salary from the White House for his advisory role.
White House counsel David Warrington said in a statement that Kushner's efforts for Trump “are undertaken in full compliance with the law.”
“Given that Jared Kushner was a critical part of the efforts leading to the historic Abraham Accords and other diplomatic successes in the first Trump Administration, the President asked Mr. Kushner to be available as the President engages in similar efforts to bring peace to the world,” Warrington said in a statement, referring to Trump's first-term effort that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations. “Mr. Kushner has agreed to do so in his capacity as a private citizen.”
Kelly and other veterans of U.S. diplomatic encounters with the Russians over many years are also skeptical about Kushner's ability to secure a Russia-Ukraine deal because Witkoff technically remains in the lead.
“I don't see that the Witkoff approach is going to work,” Kelly said. “He doesn't really read the Russians well. He misunderstands what they say and reports the misunderstandings back to Washington and the Europeans.”
“They seem to have this idea that the magic key is money: investment and development,” Kelly said. “But these guys don't care about that, they are not real estate guys except in the sense that they want the land, period.”
For the first half of the year, Kushner stayed out of the spotlight, even as he pushed, unsuccessfully in some cases, to install some former associates — those with whom he worked on negotiating the Abraham Accords — into powerful roles in the new administration, according to the current and former administration officials.
Kushner had told Trump and others that while he would not be joining the second-term White House, he stood ready to offer his counsel if it was desired. That is a role he also played on a few occasions during the Biden years as the Democratic administration tried, without success, to expand the Abraham Accords.
Although Kushner remained an informal sounding board for Trump and top advisers, he resisted getting directly involved, even as the president expanded his peacemaking pursuits, until it became clear to him and others that the job might be too much for Witkoff to seal on his own, the officials said.
As Trump's efforts to forge an agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza faltered over the summer, Kushner came in, trading on his experience and contacts in negotiating the Abraham Accords to help Witkoff push Trump's plan over the finish line.
Agreed to in late September after frantic talks surrounding the annual U.N. General Assembly, the 20-point plan is still a work in progress, but its implementation is being coordinated by Kushner and numerous members of his Abraham Accords team.
“We always bring Jared when we want to get that deal closed,” Trump told Israel's parliament, the Knesset, shortly after the agreement. “We need that brain on occasion.”
As soon as the Gaza plan was finalized, Kushner said he was returning to his family and day job in Miami, where he heads a multibillion-dollar private equity firm. His involvement in high-stakes peacemaking was only temporary, Kushner said, joking that his wife, Ivanka, might change the locks if he did not get home soon.
“I'm gonna try to help set it up, and then I'm gonna hopefully go back to my normal life,” Kushner said in October.
But within weeks of shepherding the Gaza ceasefire, Trump turned again to his fixer-in-law to dive into the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. They had been deadlocked for months despite persistent efforts by the White House to lure both Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy into an agreement.
Trump hinted then that he would continue to lean on Kushner when the stakes are highest, just as he has done.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
World War II Navy veteran Ira “Ike” Schab, one of the dwindling number of survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 105.
Daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs told The Associated Press that Schab died at home early Saturday in the presence of her and her husband.
With his passing, there remain only about a dozen survivors of the surprise attack, which killed just over 2,400 troops and propelled the United States into the war.
Schab was a sailor of just 21 at the time of the attack, and for decades he rarely spoke about the experience.
But in recent years, aware that the corps of survivors was dwindling, the centenarian made a point of traveling from his home in Beaverton, Oregon, to the annual observance at the Hawaii military base.
“To pay honor to the guys that didn't make it,” he said in 2023.
For last year's commemoration, Schab spent weeks building up the strength to be able to stand and salute.
But this year he did not feel well enough to attend, and less than three weeks later, he passed away.
Born on Independence Day in 1920 in Chicago, Schab was the eldest of three brothers.
He joined the Navy at 18, following in the footsteps of his father, he said in a February interview for Pacific Historic Parks.
On what began as a peaceful Sunday, December 7, 1941, Schab, who played the tuba in the USS Dobbin's band, was expecting a visit from his brother, a fellow service member assigned to a nearby naval radio station. Schab had just showered and donned a clean uniform when he heard a call for fire rescue.
He went topside and saw another ship, the USS Utah, capsizing. Japanese planes roared through the air.
“We were pretty startled. Startled and scared to death,” Schab recalled in 2023. “We didn't know what to expect, and we knew that if anything happened to us, that would be it.”
He scurried back below deck to grab boxes of ammunition and joined a daisy chain of sailors feeding shells to an antiaircraft gun above.
His ship lost three sailors, according to Navy records. One was killed in action, and two died later of fragment wounds from a bomb that struck the stern. All had been manning an antiaircraft gun.
Schab spent most of the war with the Navy in the Pacific, going to the New Hebrides, now known as Vanuatu, and then the Mariana Islands and Okinawa, Japan.
After the war he studied aerospace engineering and worked on the Apollo spaceflight program as an electrical engineer for General Dynamics, helping send astronauts to the moon.
Schab's son also joined the Navy and is a retired commander.
Speaking at a 2022 ceremony, Schab asked people to honor those who served at Pearl Harbor.
“Remember what they're here for. Remember and honor those that are left. They did a hell of a job,” he said. “Those who are still here, dead or alive.”
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U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker breaks down Miami peace talks between the U.S. and Russia and President Trump's push for a breakthrough.
Kremlin envoy Kirill Dimitriev told reporters in the U.S. that peace talks with Ukraine are proceeding "constructively," even as Russian forces launched a deadly missile strike on Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa.
"The discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow," Dimitriev told press gathered Saturday for a meeting in Florida.
Dimitriev met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff as well as President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. That meeting came after the U.S. side completed separate meetings with Ukrainian representatives.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sounded apprehensive about where peace talks stood when speaking to the press on Saturday.
US ENVOY GAVE RUSSIAN AIDE TIPS ON HOW TO SELL UKRAINE DEAL TO TRUMP: REPORT
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have both met separately with President Donald Trump. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP; Christian Bruna/Getty)
"The key question remains how the United States responds after consultations with the Russians. At this point, I honestly don't know, but I will know later today," he said.
Russia's campaign against Ukraine has continued unabated despite the peace talks. A Saturday strike on Odesa killed eight people and injured 27 others.
Russian President Vladimir Putin noted on Friday that the nation's "troops are advancing," and expressed confidence that Russia would achieve its goals by military force if Ukraine does not accept its peace terms.
PUTIN CALLS TRUMP'S PEACE PLAN A ‘STARTING POINT' AS HE WARNS UKRAINE TO PULL BACK OR FACE 'FORCE'
Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, Yuri Ushakov, and Kirill Dmitriev arrive for talks with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin's Senate Palace in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
"Our troops are advancing all across the line of contact, faster in some areas or slower in some others, but the enemy is retreating in all sectors," Putin declared Friday during his annual news conference.
"The goals of the special military operation will undoubtedly be achieved. We would prefer to accomplish this and address the root causes of the conflict through diplomatic means," he continued.
Ukrainian military members carry the coffin of Vasyl Ratushnyi, a Ukrainian serviceman who served as a drone operator in "Madyar's Birds" unit and who was killed fighting Russian troops at the front, during his funeral ceremony outside St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
"However, if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means," Putin declared.
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Russia's peace terms have so far required Ukraine to give up vast swathes of territory, including some territory not already under Russian occupation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on X: @Hagstrom_Anders.
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard denied U.S. intelligence that reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin is aiming to capture all of Ukraine and parts of Europe that were formerly under Soviet control.
Reuters reported on Saturday that intelligence shows not only is Putin still looking to take all of Ukraine, but his war goals extend to Europe, citing six anonymous sources. One of the sources said the most recent intelligence report from that batch was from September, months before President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. That peace plan includes only some land concessions with Ukraine, while Putin also recently dismissed claims of potential Russian attacks on Europe as “nonsense.”
In a statement responding to the report, Gabbard rejected the intelligence as sourced from “Deep State warmongers” who are trying to “undermine” the U.S. peace efforts.
“Deep State warmongers and their Propaganda Media are again trying to undermine President Trump's efforts to bring peace to Ukraine — and indeed Europe — by falsely claiming that the ‘U.S. intelligence community' agrees to and supports EU/NATO viewpoint that Russia's aim is to invade/conquer Europe (in order to gin up support for their pro-war policies),” Gabbard posted on X. “The truth is that ‘US intelligence' assesses that Russia does not even have the capability to conquer and occupy Ukraine, what to speak of ‘invading and occupying' Europe.”
Her rebuttal was met with praise from Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who leveled similar attacks against the intelligence.
“[Gabbard] is great not only for documenting the Obama/Biden origins of the Russia hoax, but now for exposing the deep-state warmonger machinery trying to incite WW3 by fueling anti-Russian paranoia across the UK & EU. Voices of reason matter — restore sanity, peace, and security,” Dmitriev posted on X.
The fierce denial of any expansionary goals of Putin's comes as the Trump administration is desperate to get its 28-point peace plan over the line after months of negotiations.
PUTIN SIGNALS NO COMPROMISE TO END WAR
Talks have resumed this weekend in Miami, with Dmitriev meeting with Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner on Saturday.
Dmitriev had told reporters those discussions were “proceeding constructively,” but that the two sides will continue to hash out key sticking points on Sunday.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The Justice Department has released thousands of files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the incomplete document dump Friday did not break significant ground about the long-running criminal investigations of the financier or his ties to wealthy and powerful individuals.
Maria Farmer was an artist working for Jeffrey Epstein in New York City and has long said that she went to the FBI in 1996 to ask them to investigate the wealthy financier for having child pornography. But her attorney Jennifer Freeman told The Associated Press that FBI has never acknowledged or confirmed her account, until now. (AP video by Kristin Hall)
The Justice Department has started releasing its files on Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender known for his connections to powerful figures, including Donald Trump
This photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a hallway during a search of Jeffrey Epstein's home on July 6, 2019, in New York. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
EDS NOTE: NUDITY - This photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a room in Jeffrey Epstein's home, July 6, 2019, in New York. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
EDS NOTE: NUDITY - This photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a collection of art in Jeffrey Epstein's home, July 6, 2019, in New York. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department's public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.
The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Justice Department didn't answer questions Saturday about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”
Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department's much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein's crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.
Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department's initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.
Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.
The gaps go further.
The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain's former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountability
Among the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department's decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.
The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein's homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.
There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.
Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors' names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.
That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the law forced the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein's crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.
“I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.
Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.
The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages records in the department's possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.
Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases or freedom of information requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.
Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.
Trump's Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions and was no explanation given for why any of them were together.
The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 yet never charged him.
Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.
One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.
Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.
“For every girl that I brought to the table he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are under age, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”
The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.
Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump's first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein's accusers.
He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.
“I'm not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.
“There's been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.
Jennifer Freeman, an attorney representing Epstein accuser Maria Farmer and other survivors, said Saturday that her client feels vindicated after the document release. Farmer sought for years documents backing up her claim that Epstein and Maxwell were in possession of child sexual abuse images.
“It's a triumph and a tragedy,” she said. “It looks like the government did absolutely nothing. Horrible things have happened and if they investigated in even the smallest way, they could have stopped him.”
___
Associated Press journalists Ali Swenson, Christopher L. Keller, Kristin M. Hall, Aaron Kessler and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
In this article
The opening weekend for Disney's "Avatar: Fire and Ash" was less of a blaze and more of a simmer.
And that's the expectation for the full theatrical run of the third installment in James Cameron's Avatar franchise.
During its first three days in theaters, "Fire and Ash" tallied $88 million, falling well shy of analysts' expectations, which called for a debut haul between $110 million and $125 million. For comparison, 2022's "Avatar: The Way of Water" brought in $134 million during the same three-day period.
Internationally, the film collected $257 million, bringing the film's global opening to an estimated $345 million.
"Fire and Ash" faced some theatrical headwinds, namely its over-three-hour runtime. There was also less pent-up demand compared to "The Way of Water," which was released more than a decade after the first Avatar film. Some box office analysts and critics noted that "Fire and Ash" has less technological innovation than its predecessors, which had been a driving factor in past ticket sales.
Around 5.2 million domestic moviegoers went to see "Fire and Ash," according to data from EntTelligence, a massive decline from the 8.7 million that ventured out in 2022 to see the opening weekend of "The Way of Water."
Still, the Avatar franchise has never been front-loaded at the box office. The first film, 2009's "Avatar," generated just $77 million in its opening weekend domestically, but stayed in theaters for nearly a year. By the time it exited theaters, the film had generated $2.7 billion globally. With re-releases, the film now stands at $2.9 billion, according to data from Comscore.
"The Way of Water" ran in theaters for 23 weeks and has grossed $2.3 billion globally.
"With less than two weeks remaining in the box office year, the pressure on 'Avatar: Fire And Ash' to deliver big was intense and though the film may have come in a bit below pre-release opening weekend projections, the Avatar films have always been known for their marathon box office trajectories," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.
Also aiding the franchise at the box office are premium large-format ticket sales. The Avatar films have over-indexed with the more expensive experiential screens like IMAX and Dolby as well as 3D showings. Disney reported that 3D and premium theaters accounted for 66% of the weekend total.
While 3D films have fallen out of favor with domestic audiences, they remain popular internationally —especially in China. Indeed, "Avatar" made the bulk of its money outside the U.S., with a whopping $2.08 billion coming from overseas.
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Every parent hopes that their child will still come to them years from now to spend time together, share their victories and setbacks, and seek guidance.
As a conscious parenting researcher, I've studied more than 200 kids, and I'm a mother myself. This kind of lifelong closeness is built early on in the small, everyday moments that teach a child whether it's safe to be fully themselves around their parents.
Here are the practices parents should start early on if they want a relationship that lasts well into adolescence and adulthood.
Children rise to the expectations we set for them. When kids are micromanaged or constantly overcorrected, they can slowly become more resentful or secretive.
Offer trust early and often. Try saying: "I trust you. If anything feels tough, you can come to me." This trust becomes the foundation they rely on later, when life gets more complicated.
If you want your child to come to you as a teen, they need to learn early that their inner world is safe with you.
When you shut down crying, fear or frustration, your kids may just stop bringing them to you. Validation can sound like: "Everything you feel is allowed here." Emotional safety now leads to emotional openness later.
I've seen so many kids pull away from their parents because they feel suffocated by expectations.
Give them space to be curious, loud and weird. Kids stay more connected to the people who allow them to be who they are as they grow older.
Acceptance isn't the same as agreement. It's the message: "Who you are is loved and welcome here."
Children stay close to adults who make room for their whole identity, not just the parts that are easy to parent. When they feel accepted now, they're less likely to hide themselves later.
The strongest parent-child relationships are built on repair. Replace "I'm sorry you feel that way" with: "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. I'm going to do better."
When parents take responsibility, they teach children that mistakes don't break the relationship.
Kids are more likely to shut down when they don't feel heard. So when they share fears or frustrations, they're usually asking for connection.
Instead of immediately trying to offer a solution, try saying: "Tell me more about that." Listening builds the bridge they'll keep crossing as the stakes get higher.
If a child learns early that disagreement leads to conflict, punishment, or withdrawal of your love, they'll stop being honest later.
Healthy closeness requires emotional freedom, so when your child disagrees with you, respond with curiosity instead of control. Teach them that honesty is safe and that it will never threaten your bond.
Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting and the creator of the BOUND and FOUNDATIONS journals, now offered together as her Holiday Emotional Safety Bundle. She is widely recognized for her expertise in children's emotional well-being and for redefining what it means to raise emotionally healthy kids. Connect with her on Instagram.
Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC's new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.
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In this article
Microsoft's Xbox has had a tumultuous year.
A slew of layoffs, price hikes and studio closures have led many to declare — not for the first time — that the Xbox is dead.
Laura Fryer, former executive producer at Microsoft Game Studios, said in June that the company seems to have "no desire or literally can't ship hardware anymore."
Former Microsoft executive and ex-Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra slammed Xbox's "confusing" strategy in a now-deleted X post in October, saying the company is potentially heading for a "death by a thousand needles."
The company's overall gaming revenue decreased 2% year-over-year, with a 29% dip in Xbox hardware sales, according to Microsoft's first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2026.
The broader console industry has been in a major slump, with hardware spending down 27% year-over-year in November, which is typically a busy shopping month, according to a recent report from research firm Circana.
It was the worst November in two decades, IGN reported, citing Circana data.
Combined Switch and Switch 2 unit sales were down more than 10% during the month and PS5 sales were down more than 40%, IGN said. But the Xbox Series hardware took the biggest beating, with a dramatic 70% drop in sales.
In console sales, Xbox can barely see the leaders this year.
Nintendo's Switch 2 has sold 10.36 million units since its debut in June, the company said in its latest earnings report. Sony's PlayStation 5 had 9.2 million units sold in 2025, according to its most recent financial results.
Microsoft's Xbox Series S and Series X, at 1.7 million units, couldn't outsell the original Nintendo Switch, which launched in 2017 and has sold 3.4 million units so far this year, data from game sales tracking site VGChartz estimated.
Microsoft declined to comment on Xbox sales or numbers.
The company stopped reporting console unit shipments in 2015 as the gap between Xbox and PlayStation widened.
The Series S, Series X and PS5 all originally released in 2020, with some updates being released since then.
In November, Valve made a splash with its next-generation Steam Machine, which is set to launch next year.
The reveal of its console-PC hybrid generated buzz across the gaming landscape, with The Verge declaring that "Valve just built the Xbox that Microsoft is dreaming of."
The mini cube will be able to run Windows PC games through Valve's own Linux-based SteamOS as a television console or as a gaming computer. Gamers will have access to Steam's extensive library of thousands of games.
But Microsoft doesn't seem too worried about falling behind.
"We're not in the business of out-consoling Sony or out-consoling Nintendo. There isn't really a great solution or win for us," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a 2023 podcast.
In congratulating Valve on the release, the Xbox boss gave a nod to the movement to expand gaming access "across PC, console and handheld devices."
As Sony and Nintendo have firmly established themselves as hardware companies, Microsoft is pushing toward Bill Gates' original vision of an all-encompassing entertainment hub in the living room.
"Ultimately, the addressable market is anybody who wants to play games, and Microsoft wants to serve that market," Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told CNBC.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a recent interview with the TBPN podcast that the company's gaming business model will look to be "everywhere in every platform," from consoles to TV to mobile.
His comments also hinted that the next Xbox may function more like a PC.
"It's kind of funny people think about the console and PC as two different things," Nadella said. "We built a console because we wanted to build a better PC, which could then perform for gaming. So I kind of want to revisit some of that conventional wisdom."
Xbox President Sarah Bond echoed the idea, saying in a recent interview with Mashable that the company's next-generation console will have "some of the thinking" seen in the Xbox's new handhelds, which were built by hardware manufacturer Asus in partnership with Microsoft.
Launched in October, those devices support cross-platform gaming and can run PC games bought from Epic Games, CD Projekt and Valve stores.
Xbox has already incorporated that approach into the latest Backbone Pro, which rolled out in November.
Designed in partnership with Backbone Labs, the portable gaming controller offers access to cloud gaming on mobile, PC, smart TV and other streaming devices.
So what will Microsoft's new-gen console look like?
Little is known about where the company is at in its development.
A source familiar with Xbox strategy told CNBC that the company is looking at creating an open system that enables players to jump between console, PC and cloud gaming — and any form of entertainment beyond gaming.
Pachter said that while Microsoft is not completely abandoning hardware, the company is splitting its audience into existing buyers interested in specialized consoles and everyone else.
In a 2019 interview with The Verge, Spencer said that he was not concerned with focusing on console sales as much as making games accessible.
"I do think as we look at the next decade of gaming, as we think about reaching the over 2 billion people on the planet who play games, many of those people won't be buying consoles and gaming PCs," Spencer said.
Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which gives subscribers access to games from a variety of publishers, is a clear example of this strategy.
Microsoft has been steadily expanding its title offerings on the service.
The platform's most basic tier, Game Pass Essential (previously Game Pass Core), which costs $9.99 and launched in 2023 with 36 games, now offers over 50 titles.
Ultimate tier members have access to over 500 titles.
The growth in cloud gaming has been blistering.
Xbox reported a record 34 million Game Pass subscribers in 2024 and a total Game Pass revenue of almost $5 billion over the last fiscal year.
Xbox said in a November blog post that the number of cloud gaming hours from Game Pass subscribers was up 45% compared to the same time last year. The Microsoft subsidiary also said console players are "spending 45% more time cloud streaming on console and 24% more on other devices."
In announcing the benchmark, the platform added that Xbox Cloud Gaming is now in 30 countries with the expansion into India, which it called "the fastest-growing gaming market in the world," home to more than 500 million gamers this year.
Although Microsoft faced heavy criticism from subscribers after increasing the cost of its Ultimate tier by 50% from $19.99 to $29.99 in October, the company is reportedly testing an ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Omdia senior principal analyst George Jijiashvili told CNBC that a free Game Pass tier would likely act as a user-acquisition tool, especially for gamers who have not invested in consoles yet.
However, due to the high costs associated with cloud gaming, an ad-supported tier would likely not be able to actually drive a meaningful amount of revenue, he said.
Cloud gaming is inherently difficult to scale since it needs to balance computing power and operating costs with user affordability.
"With console-grade cloud gaming, you need to essentially run every single instance of the game in a server," Jijiashvili said. "You need a dedicated hardware for every single person that's streaming the game, meaning it just doesn't scale."
Despite gaming's scaling limitations, Microsoft seems committed to doing what it has done with the rest of its products — moving it to the cloud.
"They've evolved into a primarily cloud services company," Pachter said. "So everything they've done since they started acquiring studios at Xbox has been toward the connected experience in the home to view entertainment."
Microsoft has spent the past few years building out its entertainment hub with a catalog of original games through an acquisition blitz.
In 2018, the software giant more than doubled its game studios with a string of acquisitions that included Ninja Theory, inXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment.
Two years later, Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, which owned Bethesda, for $8.1 billion. It was the company's largest gaming acquisition until its 2023 purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion.
Pachter said that the software giant's gaming spree was also a move to collect "enough content" to bolster its cloud gaming services.
Yet Microsoft's approach to using its roster of exclusive titles has seen a stark shift recently.
As Xbox exclusives still struggled to compete with wildly successful PlayStation games like "Marvel's Spider-Man" and "God of War," the company has made a definitive pivot away from its original-content strategy.
Bond recently said in an interview with Mashable that the idea of exclusive games is "antiquated" as the company has leaned into cross-platform gaming.
Microsoft announced in October that the upcoming "Halo" game will be available on Sony's PlayStation 5, marking the first time the major franchise has become accessible on a competing console.
In 2024, Xbox opened four formerly exclusive games to other consoles.
Spencer said at the time that the move did not indicate a change in Xbox's exclusive strategy, but the company has since continued to bring several former exclusives to rival platforms.
In a January interview, Spencer said that the company won't "put walls up" where users can engage with Xbox games.
"What we've learned is put the games first, make sure the games can be as great as they can," he said. "We love the experience on our own hardware, on our own platform, but our games will show up in more and more places."
Microsoft laid off 1,900 workers, around 9% of its gaming division, in January and slashed another 650 jobs from Xbox in September.
In May, the company also shut down several studios under game publisher Bethesda, including "Redfall" maker Arkane Austin and "Mighty Doom" developer Alpha Dog Games.
The gaming unit was hit again when company-wide layoffs in July led to Microsoft shelving "Perfect Dark" and "Everwild," games that have reportedly been in development for at least seven years, as well as multiple unannounced projects.
Some have attributed the cost-cutting measures to mounting pressure to hit lofty profit goals.
The company reportedly asked its gaming division in 2023 to target profit margins of 30%, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The goal was a significant jump from the 12% profit margin Xbox reached in 2022, as revealed in court documents, and well above the average video-game industry standard of 17% to 22%, analysts told Bloomberg.
Microsoft told CNBC that while the company does set ambitious goals, the reported 30% profit margin target was incorrect.
Microsoft has raised prices on its aging lineup of flagship consoles twice over the past year. Nintendo and Sony also announced price hikes for their respective consoles in August.
The PS5 currently starts at $549.99, and the original Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 cost $399.99 and $499.99, respectively.
Xbox's new ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X were priced at $599.99 and a staggering $999.99, respectively.
With a growing number of consoles and handhelds in the market, competition is fierce for a dedicated group of customers that will always be interested in owning hardware.
But Xbox is betting that cloud and cross-platform gaming are the future.
For a decade, claims have been made about the death of the Xbox, and what comes next could fully spell the end, or bring a metamorphosis.
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Chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) is considered to be one of the key beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, thanks to robust demand for its advanced graphics processing units (GPUs).
The stock has been under pressure recently due to concerns about valuations of AI plays and growing competition in the AI chip space from rivals like Broadcom (AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Alphabet-owned Google's tensor processing units (TPUs). Nvidia is also facing uncertainty related to chip exports to China amid geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Despite ongoing pressures, several top analysts remain bullish on Nvidia for several reasons, including its solid track record, strong execution, continued innovation and dominant position in the AI GPU market. TipRanks' AI Analyst also has an "outperform" rating on NVDA stock with a price target of $205.
Let's look at the views of three such Wall Street pros who are bullish on Nvidia's growth potential.
Following a virtual meeting with Nvidia's vice president of investor relations, Toshiya Hari, Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya reiterated a buy rating on NVDA stock with a price forecast of $275, saying that he continues to view it as a top pick.
Among the key takeaways, Arya mentioned that while Nvidia agrees that Gemini 3 is a top large language model (LLM) that is trained on Google's in-house TPU, the company contends that it is too early to declare a clear winner. Specifically, the company emphasized that the existing GPU-based LLMs available were all trained on old Hopper (2022) architecture and cannot be compared with the upcoming LLMs that are trained on NVDA's Blackwell (2024) GPUs.
Arya highlighted that management is confident about the expected launch of the Blackwell-backed LLMs in early 2026, which would prove that "they are at least a full generation ahead of competition." In fact, external benchmarks like MLPerf and InferenceMAX view Blackwell as the clear leader in both training and inference, with Nvidia standing out in terms of key metrics like tokens per watt and revenue per token.
The five-star analyst added that Nvidia continues to have demand and supply visibility into at least $500 billion of revenue opportunity for Blackwell, Rubin and networking for calendar years 2025 to 2026. Interestingly, the recent deals with ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Anthropic/Microsoft are incremental to this $500 billion outlook (as they are letter of intents) and represent potential upside.
Overall, the meeting reinforced Arya's bullish thesis, with the analyst finding NVDA stock's valuation attractive. Specifically, its price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples of 25x and 19x of 2026 and 2027 earnings, respectively, imply only a 0.5x PEG ratio. That's compared to the average of 2x for the Magnificent Seven stocks and growth competitors.
Arya ranks No. 270 among more than 10,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 58% of the time, delivering an average return of 17.7%.
Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon is also upbeat about Nvidia's prospects and has a buy rating on the semiconductor stock with a price target of $275. In his latest note to investors, the analyst discussed some interesting takeaways from his virtual investor meeting with Stewart Stecker, senior director of investor relations at Nvidia.
Rasgon noted that the $500 billion outlook announced in October for cumulative Blackwell, Rubin and networking sales for calendar years 2025 and 2026 will likely see an upside, as it doesn't include new deals such as that with Anthropic, the OpenAI 10 GW collaboration, and partnerships in the Middle East.
On concerns about competition from Google's in-house chips, Rasgon noted that while Nvidia acknowledges the progress that Google has made in more than 10 years, the company believes that it is about two years ahead of the search engine giant's TPU program.
Nvidia argues that, given the evolving AI market, it will be challenging for Google to persuade cloud service providers to deploy TPUs as they are meant for specific model structures. "But they believe NVIDIA's programmable platform solutions remain the best hardware for cloud AI infrastructure," said Rasgon.
Regarding President Donald Trump's recent post about allowing Nvidia to ship H200 AI chips to China, subject to a 25% cut that goes to the U.S., Rasgon noted that Nvidia is still waiting to secure licenses to ship H200s, after which it intends to look into demand requests and commence manufacturing. Moreover, Nvidia has not yet obtained any details about the 25% revenue sharing with the U.S. government and is currently unclear about how this fee will be accounted for.
Rasgon ranks No. 144 among more than 10,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 67% of the time, delivering an average return of 27.3%.
In a research note on the 2026 outlook for semiconductors, Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis reaffirmed a buy rating on Nvidia stock with a price target of $250. Curtis called Broadcom (AVGO) as the top pick, citing ASIC (application-specific integrated circuits) inflection and the highest level of estimate revisions expected for the company in the semiconductor group. That said, he remains bullish on Nvidia.
"We haven't given up on NVDA given the technology moat and valuation at 18x the $10 EPS bogey," said Curtis.
The five-star analyst contends that ASIC adoption is still in its early phases, giving Nvidia plenty of room to grow amid robust spending. He thinks that ongoing worries about NVDA are overstated, given that Blackwell Ultra rollout is on track and Rubin is set to ramp in the second half of 2026.
Furthermore, Curtis noted Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip space and expects the company's Vera-Rubin and NVLink 6 launches in the second half of 2026 to bolster its position. He expects Blackwell-backed LLMs to be introduced in the first half of 2026 and act as a potential catalyst for NVDA stock.
Curtis also expects Nvidia's launch of its new CPX chip in the second half of 2026 to benefit from higher capital spending by hyperscalers and rising focus on inference. The analyst currently expects CPX to generate revenue of $13 billion in calendar year 2027. Based on all these positives, Curtis raised his 2026 and 2027 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Nvidia to $7.82 and $9.50 from $6.83 and $9.03, respectively.
Curtis ranks No. 58 among more than 10,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 27.8%.
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For years, Braden Wallake has posted everything from business lessons to animal pictures on his LinkedIn page. A fateful midweek post on a late-summer day stopped the marketing executive in his tracks.
Wallake shared a teary-eyed selfie with a message about his feelings after laying off staff. Just like that, he was the "Crying CEO."
"I woke up the next day, texted my marketing person and said, 'I think I went viral last night,'" said Wallake, whose post has raked in more than 57,000 reactions and 10,000 comments.
Users blasted the HyperSocial CEO as being "manipulative" and displaying "self indulgence." The photo "would make a great dart board," another wrote.
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Corporate executives and founders like Wallake were sold on the idea that a vibrant social media presence can boost their personal and firm-wide brand awareness. But the reality is less picture-perfect than it's made out to be.
In many cases, these leaders come off not as relatable but as cringey. And they're learning the hard way that their digital footprints can even have material business implications.
"There can be real benefits from CEOs being online, but there can also be great risks," said Ann Mooney Murphy, a Stevens Institute of Technology professor who has studied how company leaders gain social media celebrity status. "One needs to tread carefully."
The pitfalls of social media usage for business leaders are becoming increasingly clear as more executives take to the platforms. Nearly three-fourths of Fortune 500 chief executives had at least one social media account last year, up from roughly half in 2019, data from Influential Executive showed.
More than seven out of 10 Fortune 100 CEOs with social platforms posted at least once a month in 2024, a 32% increase from the year prior, according to an analysis from communications firm H/Advisors Abernathy released this week. CEOs have flocked in particular to the work-focused social site LinkedIn, where they post three times a month on average.
An active social media presence can help build brand recognition and drive attention from mainstream news outlets, Murphy said. It can also allow executives to develop para-social relationships directly with consumers — something that was once reserved for more-traditional celebrities like actors or athletes, she said.
While company news was king in these posts, H/Advisors Abernathy found executives devoting more social real estate to sharing personal happenings. This softer style of content — examples of which include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sharing pictures from Taylor Swift's "Eras" tour and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon posting details for his DJ sets — can help keep followers engaged, Murphy said.
A subsector has sprouted up around executives' social media habits, with several businesses offering training programs or consulting services focused on best practices. PayPal made waves in marketing circles earlier this year when it posted a "Head of CEO Content" role, which paid upwards of $300,000 in part to lead social media communications strategy.
But in recent years, a growing list of anecdotes like Wallake's "Crying CEO" experience show how posting through life can go awry.
Jason Yanowitz boasted on X in October that Blockworks, the crypto company he co-founded, saw "massive growth" and hit "record revenues" in 2025. He also said the company was shuttering its news division and recommended staffers to anyone hiring journalists covering digital currencies.
One user suggested that Yanowitz forgo smiley faces and strike a tone with less "triumphancy" in a post announcing job cuts. Someone else replied that "before jumping into what's next," he should "address the real people who were impacted."
Yanowitz, who declined CNBC's interview request, later wrote on X that he "should not have mentioned revenue" in the original post.
Around the same time as Yanowitz's tweet, a social media video featuring Snowflake revenue chief Mike Gannon offered a case study on how these incidents can evolve into real-world crises.
In an Instagram clip viewed millions of times, Gannon told a street interviewer that the data storage firm was slated to rake in $10 billion "in a couple of years." Shortly after, Snowflake said in a regulatory filing that statements made in the interview were not authorized and that investors "should not rely upon" them. The company declined to make Gannon available for an interview.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared visions for his business ventures on social media in between musings about politics and cultural issues. Two years ago, Musk found himself in court defending comments related to business plans made on X, his social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
In several instances, readers have responded directly to executives whose content they find problematic or cringe-inducing. Some, like Ryan Benson, have also mocked the broader trend of business leaders' attempting to connect directly via social media.
"It's just disingenuous," said Benson, 28. "They're not trying to speak with people the way that maybe an influencer has success in. They're trying to talk at people to make them think something about their position."
Executives' missteps on social media can catalyze discontent from investors, consumers or employees, according to Murphy of the Stevens Institute of Technology. In some situations, she said social media statements could lead to increased regulatory or legal risk for the companies they represent.
Despite the downfalls, corporate leaders who have seen the underbelly of social media don't regret being online.
HyperSocial's Wallake said he initially took time away from LinkedIn to let the dust settle and now thinks twice before making a post. But Wallake still recommends other business managers harness social media to grow their brands given the benefits. If someone does bring up his teary picture, Wallake brushes it off.
"If people want to call me the 'Crying CEO,' they're more than welcome to," Wallake said. "If they actually get to meet me, they're going to see me smiling way more often than they're going to see me ever crying."
When Yehong Zhu, co-founder of media technology startup Zette AI, jumped on a day-in-my-life trend, responders roasted her over perceived laziness. People said she should be "embarrassed" and was "fundamentally useless to society." One commenter said they were "printing this out and taping it to the wall to remind me every time I catch myself believing in meritocracy."
Zhu received handwritten hate mail tied to the post sent to her office. But she also noticed a flood of press coverage that included the company's name and signups to a product waitlist, underscoring the power of publicity — even if it's negative.
"After there was this huge influx of attention, I realized, you know what, maybe all attention is good attention," Zhu said. "As long as your name is in their mouth, you're doing something right."
Zhu later understood that her post was taken as "rage bait," a genre of content so infamous that Oxford named it the 2025 word of the year. She's currently undergoing a social media rebrand and is considering leaning toward controversial posts — with the hope of winning more attention online.
"I was not trying to rage bait," she said of the original post. "The day that I actually try to rage bait, everybody will be actually enraged."
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For homebuyers, getting one preapproval for a mortgage that has palatable terms may seem good enough.
More than two-thirds — 69% — of homebuyers submit only one mortgage application, according to a new report from Zillow.
However, you shouldn't stop there, experts say. With the average interest rate on a traditional 30-year mortgage sitting above 6.2% as of Friday, even a half-point difference in the rate can be a game-changer for some homebuyers, who already face elevated prices on housing and other necessary expenditures like groceries, health insurance and utilities.
"In my experience, shopping around for a mortgage is one of the most overlooked opportunities for consumers to improve their financial outcome," said certified financial planner Mike Casey, founder and president of AE Advisors in Alexandria, Virginia.
"Many borrowers default to the lender recommended by a real estate agent or their existing bank without comparing alternatives," Casey said.
Despite weakening home prices and signs of economic slowing, rates on 30-year mortgages have largely remained in the 6.2% to 6.3% range over the last two months, according to Mortgage News Daily. While down from nearly 8% in October 2023, it is a far cry from the below-3% average seen in late 2020 and early 2021 amid the pandemic, when home prices began skyrocketing due in part to demand and low rates.
The average price for a house in November was $359,241, a 45.8% jump from $246,326 at the beginning of 2020, according to home-buying site Zillow.
Here's a look at other stories affecting the financial advisor business.
For buyers who are stretching their budget to make the purchase, shopping around can make a big difference. A 2023 study from Freddie Mac noted that buyers could see a full percentage-point difference among lenders.
"Rates can vary between different lending institutions, and closing costs can vary dramatically as well," said CFP Kevin Arquette, owner of WealthPoint Financial Planning in Lutz, Florida.
"That can make a big difference over the course of a 30-year term," Arquette said.
For illustration: On a $360,000 30-year mortgage with a 6.25% fixed rate, the monthly payment — including principal and interest but not property taxes or homeowners insurance — would be $2,216.58, according to Bankrate's mortgage calculator. If you were to pay that amount monthly over the life of the loan, you would end up forking over $437,969 in interest.
A loan with a rate just a half-percentage point lower — at 5.75% — would mean a monthly principal and interest payment of $2,100.86 — a $115.72 difference. Over the life of the loan, interest paid would total $396,310 — a savings of $41,659.
As for the estimated closing costs, it's important to understand when shopping around what's covered and if any of those expenses are negotiable.
Closing costs are what you pay at the settlement table and cover things like title insurance, property taxes, lender fees and any so-called points you are paying. A point is 1% of the sale price, and paying points often comes with a mortgage rate that's lower than what you'd get otherwise.
Your lender may be able to help you determine whether a lower rate with higher closing costs makes sense for your situation by showing you how much of your loan you will have paid off in, say, five years under different scenarios, Arquette said.
Be aware that if you do apply for a mortgage preapproval, the lender generally will check your credit report as part of the process. This "hard inquiry" will cause your score to go down a few points temporarily.
However, multiple mortgage applications don't necessarily hit your credit report as separate inquiries, said Margaret Poe, head of consumer credit education for TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus.
"For example, if you rate-shop by applying for three different [loans], all three inquiries will appear on your credit report, but the credit-scoring models will only count them as a single inquiry," Poe said.
The key is to apply for them relatively close together. You typically get a 45-day window, but some credit scoring models allow just 14 days, Poe said.
"If your goal is to limit the impact to your credit score, you may want to consider submitting all your mortgage applications within a 14-day period," she said.
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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alexander Vasylenko, a financial analyst for a large steel producer who also does AI training work in his free time. He was born in Ukraine, worked for CIBC in Canada, and is now based in New York. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
From what I've seen, the workload in finance will be different in a couple of years, and it's necessary to think about how you are going to fit into that.
Two years ago, I would have had to walk an AI model through every single step and input to have a large language model calculate free cash flow. Now, I can provide five PDF files, reference three other outside sources, and ask the model to use these assumptions to calculate free cash flow.
The technological progress over the past two years is just astonishing. It's a bit scary when you wonder how useful you'll be going forward.
I began AI training in 2023, while I was looking for a job that involved some form of equity valuation work. I had a lot of interviews, but no offers. A recruiter had reached out to me on LinkedIn to saying she was looking for experts in finance and economics to teach AI models. I was skeptical at first, but decided to give it a shot. Very quickly, I realized that I enjoyed the work and could share my background while getting paid to contribute to this technology.
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Now, my work life is nine to nine. I work my day job until five and then do AI training until nine every night. I usually work on Saturdays and occasionally a couple of hours on Sundays. In that time, I've seen the models become drastically better at doing financial analysis, and it can take nearly a full day's work to create one AI prompt that can actually stump the models.
The work pays well, and I find it interesting. I'm contributing my experience to a technology that will inevitably enter every industry. The financial industry is not an exception, and by understanding how this works and will impact my job, I'll be better prepared when the changes come.
I first started in finance in my native Ukraine, where I worked as a stock trader at a proprietary trading firm before moving to one of the largest Ukrainian investment banks. I left Ukraine 9 years ago and moved to Canada, where I studied and then became an analyst at CIBC.
After the war started in Ukraine, my family moved to the US, and I followed them to New York. Here, I started an AI training job with Remotasks making $30 an hour, which I later learned was low.
A few months later, I was hired into my current full-time role working as a financial analyst at a large steel producer, where I value strategic projects and investments and analyze how the larger economy might impact our company's performance.
I was then contacted by another company to do more AI training work. I have continued to pick up more projects since, working predominantly on the weekends and after my main job, around 15 to 20 hours a week.
I work a lot, but my family lost everything in Ukraine, so I have people to take care of here.
The work is project-based, but I don't recall a single day when there wasn't a project available. Once you're onboarded with a company, team leads reach out to you with work you might be able to help with. These projects can have very tight deadlines.
As someone writing the prompt, the pay usually ranges from $50 to $70 an hour, while reviewers can make from $90 to $120. With my experience, I've seen the pay stretch up to $160. The growth in pay suggests that AI is still dependent on humans.
I'm now working for one company that makes challenging questions to sell to large language models for training, and also working directly for a tech company training its model.
The goal is to write a prompt that's challenging enough to stump the model, alongside the criteria or steps needed to solve the problem. The AI engineers will judge the model responses against these criteria to understand why the model is failing.
As a writer, you have to put small traps within your tasks and ask it to grab information from as many different sources as possible. Your job is to make every task tricky without being ambiguous.
As a reviewer, I ensure that the prompts are actually failing to answer the question, and not because the task was poorly written.
Right now, it takes between three to eight hours to write a task that triggers model failure, and we're heading to a world where it could take a day or two.
I enjoy writing and have published some of my equity research on Seeking Alpha. In a way, the AI training work is like a hobby for me.
I am hopeful that my combination of finance and AI experience will position me better for the changes that are coming.
In the future, industry professionals with skills and knowledge in their field will have AI bots that perform the tasks they currently do. The professional's job will be to check the bots' work and take responsibility for the outputs.
The people who will evolve in this environment are those who know their subject matter well and those who know how to combine their knowledge with AI. The closer you are to these changes and the deeper your understanding of them, the better positioned you will be.
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Tesla is going all in on its "Robotaxi" service — and putting factory workers and sales staff in drivers' seats to make it happen.
The electric-car maker has started recruiting workers off factory lines to operate its ride-hailing fleet. Tesla is offering production associates and material handlers extra hours and pay to take on the role of AI operator, according to posters that appeared at its California factories earlier this month.
The AI operators sit in the driver's seat, actively monitoring the vehicle while Tesla's Full Self-Driving software is engaged, and taking over when needed. Tesla plans to eventually release the software as a fully autonomous service.
The extra sets of hands will help the company expand ride-hailing availability in the Bay Area, the posters said.
The posters, which also appeared in several engineering facilities, noted that staffers could earn $500 if they refer a friend for the AI operator role.
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Some sales staffers in Nevada and Arizona moved over to similar operator roles in Las Vegas and Phoenix last month, according to a review of LinkedIn profiles.
Adding more operators could help Tesla speed up service. After Tesla rolled out its Robotaxi app to the public in September, wait times spiked, with some passengers reporting on social media wait times as long as 40 minutes and a lack of available vehicles.
Business Insider's Alistair Barr said he's recently seen wait times around 10 minutes in the Bay Area, and during peak commuting times, the app at times says it cannot provide a ride due to "high service demand."
A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Tesla completed the self-certification process for service in Nevada and Arizona last month. It has yet to apply for a license with the Nevada Transportation Authority to launch a commercial service, but it has a permit from the Arizona Department of Transportation that allows it to operate commercially in the state, spokespeople from the agencies told Business Insider.
The company has yet to begin offering paid rides in either state.
Meanwhile, the company launched its Bay Area ride-hailing service in August. It's not registered as an autonomous vehicle service in California; it operates its service with a driver because the state has stricter regulations around autonomous vehicles than most other states, many of which operate around an honor system where the company self-certifies its vehicles.
Tesla has a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission that allows it to provide transportation services to employees and some members of the public as a regular car service with a driver. The agency has said Tesla is not authorized to transport members of the public in an autonomous vehicle.
Tesla currently has 1,655 vehicles and 798 drivers registered for its ride-hailing service in California, according to a spokesperson for the CPUC. Tesla is required to update the agency incrementally as it adds new vehicles to the fleet, but not drivers, the spokesperson said. (The registration number reflects vehicles approved for use; it doesn't necessarily indicate how many are operating at any given time.)
Last December, Tesla registered more than 220 test drivers and 100 vehicles for a permit with the California Department of Motor Vehicles that would allow it to test its autonomous software with a test driver.
A spokesperson for the DMV said Tesla has yet to apply for a driverless testing permit, which would be required before the company can offer AV rides to the public.
The company also operates a ride-hailing service in Austin, where it launched with a safety operator in the passenger seat.
Musk said during an xAI event earlier this month that Tesla's Austin service will be driverless by the end of the year.
"I think it's pretty much a solved problem, we're going through validation right now," he said, according to a recording posted on social media.
A spokesperson for the Austin Transportation Department told Business Insider that the company has yet to inform the city of the date it plans to roll out the driverless feature to its commercial service. Tesla is not legally required to inform the city, but it has typically alerted it to changes to its service, the spokesperson said.
Tesla is hiring for AI operators across the US, including in Illinois, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Texas, according to its website. The role has around-the-clock shifts and requires workers to sit behind the wheel while FSD is engaged, interact with passengers, and collect detailed reports on vehicle performance. It can also involve testing in various cities across the country. The salary ranges from around $25 to $30 per hour.
The recruiting process involved an FSD test drive, a valid driver's license, and passing a drug test and background check, according to people who interviewed for the role.
Musk said in October that the company plans to expand its service to eight to 10 metropolitan areas by the end of the year. The company is testing its service in several cities across the country.
Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@businessinsider.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address, a nonwork device, and nonwork WiFi; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
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Since Michael Burry launched a Substack in November, he's been sharing plenty of investing insight, but he isn't the only "Big Short" trader who has something to say about the current market landscape.
Danny Moses, the former member of FrontPoint Partners, the firm led by Steve Eisman that successfully bet against the housing market in 2008, spoke to Business Insider about the potential problems he sees developing in the AI market and how he thinks investors should navigate the rapidly evolving space.
As the AI boom has unfolded, many finance pros have weighed two primary questions: Is there a bubble in the AI market, and if so, should it be compared to the dot-com era of the early 2000s?
Moses thinks the answer to both questions is yes. While he doesn't deny that the AI trade is real and a secular growth story, he also sees strong parallels between the two tech crazes that suggest investors need to tread cautiously.
"The growth was real, but the math didn't work," he said. "And I think that we're reaching a point where the math is starting not to work."
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Moses emphasized that his take on potential AI market problems isn't a call to short the industry. Rather, he noted it's a call for investors to do their homework and find the right names to gain valuable exposure as the market continues to grow.
In his view, that means sticking with the tech sector's most dominant names that have the resources to continue scaling and aren't bound by the same constraints that some smaller companies are. The best examples include Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
"They can turn down their capex at any point, and they're still cash flowing positive, as opposed to these other companies, which are dependent upon that spending within AI," he said.
Moses isn't bullish on all of Big Tech's top names, though. He cited Oracle as an example of problems within the AI market, noting the company's high debt levels and the cash that it will require the fulfill the orders from tech clients. He also highlighted volatile tech stocks Super Micro Computer and CoreWeave as examples of riskier plays within the AI trade.
In his view, though, investors are finally starting to account for the fact that not all AI stocks are created equal as the divide between relative outperformers and underperformers becomes increasingly hard to ignore.
"I think it's proof that investors are beginning to sort out the winners and losers of the trade, and they'd much rather have comfort and other businesses with stronger balance sheets to fall back upon to express the AI theme," Moses added.
He also said that he's bullish on uranium, as the metal is being increasingly touted as a key component of the AI buildout that will be necessary to sustain the industry in the coming years.
That said, he thinks the timeline for when it will start to spur growth is one that investors should be paying close attention to, as it is sometimes misunderstood amid the AI hype.
"One of the trades that I like is uranium, which thematically, should work, but it takes a long period of time," Moses said. "There's a mismatch in the timing of how people think that companies will experience AI growth and actually the infrastructure that it's going to take to power it."
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Russian President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide said on Sunday that changes made by the Europeans and Ukraine to U.S. proposals for an end to the war in Ukraine did not improve prospects for peace.
The U.S.-drafted proposals for an end to the nearly four-year-old war, leaked to the media last month, raised European and Ukrainian concerns that they were tilted too far in Russia's favour and that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration could push Kyiv into conceding too much.
Since then, European and Ukrainian negotiators have met with Trump envoys in an attempt to add their own proposals into the U.S. drafts, though the exact contents of the current proposal have not been disclosed.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that the European and Ukrainian changes would not improve the chances of peace.
"This is not a forecast," Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies, though he said he had not seen the exact proposals on paper yet.
"I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace."
Ushakov made the remarks after Putin's special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, met in Florida on Saturday with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dmitriev said the talks would continue on Sunday.
The Miami meeting followed U.S. talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials.
At stake is whether Putin will agree an end to the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers are sidelined and whether or not a peace deal brokered by the United States will endure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine would back a U.S. proposal for three-way talks with the United States and Russia if it facilitated more exchanges of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders.
Ushakov said that a proposal for three-way talks had not been seriously discussed by anyone and that it was not being worked on.
Russia says that European leaders are intent on scuttling the peace talks by introducing conditions that they know will be unacceptable to Russia, which took 12-17 square km (4.6-6.6 square miles) of Ukrainian territory per day in 2025.
Ukraine and European leaders say that Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its aims after what they cast as an imperial-style land grab.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence.
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Bitcoin's price may still dominate headlines, but among analysts and institutional strategists, attention is quietly shifting elsewhere.
Instead of debating whether Bitcoin can reclaim upside momentum in the near term, market observers are increasingly focused on a deeper question: whether the structural signals that once reliably guided Bitcoin's four-year cycle are beginning to fracture.
The shift comes on the backdrop of fading demand indicators, rising exchange flows, and a growing divide between analysts.
On the one hand, some believe Bitcoin is entering a traditional post-peak correction. On the other hand, others argue that the pioneer crypto may be breaking free from its historical cycle altogether.
Analyst Daan Crypto Trades argues that recent price behavior has already challenged one of Bitcoin's most dependable seasonal assumptions.
“BTC Looking ahead, Q1 is generally a good quarter for Bitcoin, but so was Q4, and that one didn't quite work out this time. No doubt 2025 has been a very messy year. Massive inflows and treasury accumulation, which were matched by big OG whales and 4-year cycle selling. Q1 2026 is where Bitcoin has a chance to show whether the 4-year cycle persists or not,” he wrote.
Rather than signaling a definitive breakdown, the underperformance suggests friction. ETF inflows and corporate accumulation are being absorbed by long-term holder distribution, muting the impact those inflows once had on BTC price.
That structural tension is also visible in US spot market data. According to Kyle Doops, the Coinbase Bitcoin premium, often used as a proxy for US institutional demand, has remained negative for an extended period.
The message is not capitulation, but hesitation, which means capital is present, yet unwilling to chase.
On-chain data highlights the need for cautious interpretation, as Bitcoin exchange inflows surge to levels historically associated with late-cycle behavior.
“Monthly exchange flows have surged to $10.9 billion, the highest since May 2021. High exchange flows like this signify increased selling pressure, as investors move assets onto exchanges to liquidate positions, take profits, or hedge against downturns. This is further evidence of a market top and the start of a bear market amid heightened volatility,” said analyst Jacob King.
Historically, similar spikes have coincided with profit-taking phases rather than early accumulation periods.
On-chain analyst Ali Charts argues that despite structural changes, Bitcoin's timing symmetry remains striking.
“Bitcoin's price cycles have followed a strikingly consistent pattern, both in timing and magnitude. Historically, it takes around 1,064 days from the market bottom to the market top, and about 364 days from the top back to the next bottom,” he wrote, outlining how previous cycles adhered closely to that rhythm.
If that pattern persists, the analyst suggests that the market may now be inside its corrective window. Historical retracements imply further downside before a durable reset.
At the institutional level, views are diverging without turning chaotic. Fundstrat's Head of Crypto Strategy Sean Farrell acknowledged near-term pressures while maintaining a longer-term bullish framework.
“Bitcoin is currently in a valuation ‘no man's land',” Farrell said, citing ETF redemptions, selling by original holders, miner pressure, and macro uncertainty. Still, he added, “I still expect Bitcoin and Ethereum to challenge new all-time highs before the end of the year, thereby ending the traditional four-year cycle with a shorter, smaller bear market.”
That possibility is echoed by Tom Lee, whose view has been amplified across crypto commentary, suggesting that Bitcoin will soon break its 4-year cycle.
Fidelity's Jurrien Timmer takes the opposite stance. According to Lark Davis, Timmer believes Bitcoin's October peak marked both a price and time top, with “2026… a down year” and support forming in the $65,000–$75,000 range.
Together, these perspectives show why analysts are no longer fixated solely on Bitcoin price. The pioneer crypto's next move may not decide who was bullish or bearish, but whether the framework that has defined its market for over a decade still applies at all.
Read original story Analysts Look Beyond Bitcoin's Price As Tom Lee Flags a Structural Shift by Lockridge Okoth at beincrypto.com
Bitcoin may be down for the year, but it could still be headed to a price of $1 million.
Bullish Bitcoin (BTC +0.22%) price targets are nothing new for Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of Strategy (MSTR +4.23%), the company formerly known as MicroStrategy. He's generally considered to be the biggest Bitcoin bull in the world, and his company is the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.
It's one thing to be making bullish price predictions when the price of Bitcoin is soaring. But it's another to be doing so when the price of Bitcoin is trading more than 30% below its all-time high from October.
That's what makes his latest price predictions so stunning. He still thinks Bitcoin could rally to the $150,000 price level by the end of 2025, before hitting the $1 million price level by the end of 2029. If that's the case, it would imply a head-spinning 1,049% gain for the world's largest cryptocurrency.
There are a number of key assumptions that Saylor is making in his $1 million price prediction.
Most importantly, Saylor is assuming that the pace of Bitcoin institutional adoption will continue to accelerate in coming years. The first big step came back in 2023, when Wall Street started to buy into the idea of Bitcoin as a stand-alone asset class with its own unique risk-reward characteristics. The next step was the launch of new spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2024. And then the final step came in 2025, with the rollout of the new pro-Bitcoin policies of the Trump administration.
That's setting up nicely for Bitcoin heading into 2026. As Saylor sees it, new products from Wall Street are making it easier than ever to hedge away the volatility of Bitcoin. At the same time, banks and financial institutions are increasingly looking to create new Bitcoin-based financial products, such as new credit products collateralized by Bitcoin. That should help to create even more demand for Bitcoin over time.
Image source: Getty Images.
Another key assumption is that Bitcoin will continue to rival gold as a potential store of value. The moniker "digital gold" is already commonplace, and Bitcoin has at times acted as a safe-haven asset during times of extreme macroeconomic uncertainty. Earlier this year, the fear of higher global tariffs had traders and investors moving their money into gold and Bitcoin.
Over time, Saylor sees the market cap of Bitcoin rivaling the market cap of physical gold. The market cap of gold right now is approximately $30 trillion, while the current market cap of Bitcoin is $1.75 trillion. If Saylor is right, this implies a potential 15x to 20x upward move in the valuation of Bitcoin. That easily leads to a price of greater than $1 million for Bitcoin, based on a current price of $87,000.
Given Bitcoin's historical track record, it's easy to buy into many of Saylor's core assumptions. At a time when the U.S. government has created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and when the Trump administration has pledged to make America the "crypto capital of the world," it's hard not to see the pace of institutional adoption accelerating over time. In many ways, the Bitcoin genie is already out of the bottle.
But the real sticking point comes to all the assumptions about Bitcoin as "digital gold." If that's true, shouldn't it be performing like physical gold?
This year, Bitcoin is down 8%. By way of comparison, gold is up more than 65% for the year. Simply stated, this just shouldn't be happening.
Moreover, crypto bulls continue to make the case that the famous Bitcoin four-year cycle is now a thing of the past. That, too, rings a bit untrue.
Historically, Bitcoin has been prone to four-year cycles of boom and bust. In 2014, 2018, and 2022, the value of Bitcoin plummeted. If history is any guide, 2026 is setting up to be another bust year for Bitcoin.
However, due to the wave of buying from large institutional buyers and the arrival of the new spot Bitcoin ETFs, some are now arguing that Bitcoin is headed into an economic supercycle. But is it really possible that Bitcoin's price only goes up from here?
The one good sign -- at least, for now -- is that massive Bitcoin treasury companies have not yet started selling their Bitcoin. If they do, it could be time to head for the exits. For its part, Strategy has actually been ramping up its purchase of Bitcoin heading into 2026.
While Bitcoin could eventually hit a price of $1 million by the end of 2029, the most likely scenario is that it will take much longer. I'm expecting the price of Bitcoin to move higher over the next few years, but I'm also preparing for future volatility ahead, including a possible drawdown in 2026.
Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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It's no secret that Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack has staked out a spot as perhaps the most hawkish member of the U.S. Federal Reserve since her appointment in 2024 after a career at Goldman Sachs.
Next year, however, she will be in a more prominent position to advance those views.
The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) sets interest rate policy. Among its twelve voting members are four of the Fed's eleven district presidents who serve rotating one-year terms. In 2026, the head of the Cleveland Fed — Hammack — will join that voting group.
"My base case is that we can stay here [with rates] for some period of time, until we get clearer evidence that either inflation is coming back down to target or the employment side is weakening more materially," Hammack told the WSJ over the weekend.
"I take it with a grain of salt," said Hammack of last week's November Consumer Price report, which showed a shocking decline in the headline rate of inflation to 2.7% from 3.1%, with a similar drop for the core rate.
Hammack blamed data distortions due the last fall's government shutdown, and her own calculation puts the rate at more like the 2.9% or 3.0% that economists had previously forecast.
All things being equal, easier central bank monetary policy is assumed to be good for risk assets like stocks, commodities and bitcoin BTC$88,334.07. While that's surely been the case this year for stocks and commodities like gold and silver — all of whom are at or near record highs — bitcoin has struggled, beginning a tumble from its own all-time record not long after the Fed's first rate cut in September.
Among the finalists to be President Trump's pick for the next Fed chair is current Fed Governor Chris Waller.
Waller three days ago said he judges the current 3.5%-3.75% level of the fed funds rate range as 50 to 100 basis points above the neutral level — meaning Fed policy remains fairly restrictive.
Hammack, though, told the WSJ that the fed funds range today is "a little bit below" the neutral rate, meaning she thinks current policy is at least somewhat stimulative.
That's a massively wide delta between two of 2026's key policy-setters. Wherever rates go in 2026, there are sure to be dissents on what is typically a unanimous or near-unanimous vote. Whoever ends up Fed chair could find it problematic to line up the seven votes needed at each meeting to set policy.
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Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.
In this article
Volatility is nothing new for crypto investors, and 2025 has been a wild ride, with bitcoin climbing above $125,000 in October before experiencing several sharp drops — peak to trough, a decline of over $40,000 from its record high.
"Crypto is a volatile asset class, and in some sense, there is no avoiding that volatility," said Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset management company which runs one of the largest bitcoin ETFs, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). "It's an alternative asset class, and we are seeking its particular return characteristics," he said.
Bitcoin is now trading near $88,000, and whether the next move is up or down, investors in the crypto space need to have what it takes to stomach the volatility. There may be some help — in the form of new market ideas and classic diversification concepts — to cushion portfolios from at least some of crypto's risk-on nature. These are some of the ideas to consider.
Identify your appropriate portfolio sizing.
The first step is to make sure your crypto position sizing within your portfolio is appropriate. Some financial advisors are going out on a limb and telling investors to hold as much as 40% in crypto. But for most investors, there is a strong case to be made for crypto remaining only a modest part of a broadly diversified portfolio. This can vary by an individual's age, income, risk profile and other factors, but a good rule of thumb is to allocate no more than 5% of a well-balanced portfolio to crypto. Even so, many investors opt for a smaller allocation, often in the 1% to 3% range.
Consider dialing down the risk level in your other holdings.
David Siemer, co-founder and chief executive of Wave Digital Assets, an investment advisory firm specializing in digital asset management, emphasized the importance of ensuring the rest of an investor's portfolio is aligned to help maintain volatility at a comfortable level. That may mean a less heavy tilt to the market's leading growth stocks across the broader portfolio.
"Because [crypto's] going to give you either rocket fuel or the opposite, you probably want to be a little heavier on value stocks or bonds, for example," he said.
Diversify within the crypto asset class.
Bitcoin is the largest digital asset by market capitalization, but there are many others with valuable use cases, Pandl said. Adding exposure within a crypto portfolio to ether and the solana cryptocurrency, for instance, "can be a way to make sure you're capturing all of these trends in your portfolio," he said. This approach may improve risk-adjusted returns in the same way diversification improves risk-adjusted returns in other asset classes, Pandl added.
Still, investors need to recognize that other types of crypto are highly correlated to bitcoin, so there's only so much diversification within crypto itself that's possible, Siemer said.
Other advisors caution that many of the non-bitcoin digital assets becoming popular still trade more like tech stocks than stores of value. It is too soon to know how their trading will evolve, investment advisor Nate Geraci, president of NovaDius Wealth Management, told CNBC's "ETF Edge" earlier this year, and they may remain more closely hitched to the risk-on market trade than bitcoin itself does over time.
Using ether as an example, Geraci said, "I view it more as a tech play than bitcoin, which many view as digital gold. It takes time for advisors and investors to get comfortable with where it fits in a diversified portfolio. It's very early quite frankly," he added.
Buy a range of ETFs, or buy into the concept of an index-based crypto fund.
The crypto ETF landscape has significantly expanded since the Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January 2024. Bitcoin and ether spot ETFs have garnered billions in institutional inflows, and asset managers are actively filing for ETFs covering solana, XRP, litecoin, cardano and more, with the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) and the Solana ETF (SOLZ) as examples.
Investors should expect many more ETFs to launch in the next year, which will provide additional options for consumers and opportunities for diversification, Pandl said.
Investors can also now take an index-based approach within ETFs, which is a convenient way to gain diversification in crypto, while managing volatility. Grayscale has an index fund, the Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF (GDLC) that became available as an ETF in September and holds a basket of the top five crypto assets weighted by market capitalization. Seventy-five percent of the assets were bitcoin as of Dec. 8, but that automatically rebalances based on market capitalization, Pandl said.
The recently launched Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF (BITW) holds 10 crypto assets including bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana, chainlink and litecoin. It is the first ETF to also include exposure to cardano, avalanche, sui and polkadot. But as with the Grayscale crypto index fund, it is important for investors to understand that holdings remain heavily weighted to the more established cryptocurrencies. BITW allocates 90% of its holdings to bitcoin and ether.
Use a financial advisor who is crypto friendly.
One of the ways to encourage diversification — and shield against big portfolio swings — is to work with a financial advisor who can help you craft an appropriately diversified portfolio that includes crypto. Not all advisors incorporate crypto into their model portfolios, but that's starting to change as digital assets gain traction.
Thryve Wealth Management, for example, uses bitcoin as a hedge against the U.S. dollar. Randol W. Curtis, chief investment officer, said if inflation continues at 2.5% to 3%, that's a significant erosion of the U.S. dollar's purchasing power. That's where bitcoin comes in. "Every bitcoin will be worth more and more dollars every year that the dollar inflates away," Curtis said. The firm is also researching the ethereum and solana platforms, used primarily for stablecoins.
Ric Edelman, who runs the Digital Assets Council of Financial Advisors, told CNBC earlier this year that crypto's mainstream adoption phase is occurring at a time when investors need to hold equities later in life than ever before to achieve retirement income security, and bonds are not able to serve in the same role as they did throughout the 20th century. As the asset allocation model shifts away from the classic 60% stock/40% bond approach, crypto needs to play a bigger role in investing, he says.
There are now crypto ETFs offering an income component to perform some of the functions that bonds once did within a portfolio, including Simplify Bitcoin Strategy PLUS Income ETF (MAXI) and a planned bitcoin income fund from the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock.
Dollar cost average and rebalance in the crypto market.
Another way to reduce crypto's volatility is dollar cost averaging, which involves systematic weekly or monthly purchases of crypto. That way, whether it's going up or going down, you're buying in at various prices, which will reduce the volatility, said Steve Larsen, president of Columbia Advisory Group and co-founder of the Certified Digital Asset Advisor designation.
Larsen also advises regular crypto rebalancing. He gives the hypothetical example of an investor who holds 5% of his portfolio in bitcoin, which rises to 7% based on market appreciation. The investor should then sell 2% of his bitcoin holdings and use the proceeds to buy other assets. If bitcoin becomes too small a percentage of the portfolio, the investor can buy more, Larsen said.
Advisors have professional tools to automatically rebalance portfolios. Additionally, most major retail brokerages offer clients rebalancing and trading tools as part of their online account tools. The problem is, many self-directed investors don't take the time to do this.
"The reason people get stunned with bitcoin is they don't treat it like anything else," said Ivory Johnson, founder of Delancey Wealth Management. If you had tech stocks and you never rebalanced when tech stocks tanked, you'd be kicking yourself. Bitcoin is the same thing. "It goes up, and people think it's going to keep going to the sky. Treat crypto like any other asset class," he said.
Johnson points to previous market cycles where investors made risky bets based on unbridled optimism. "There are people who lost their entire savings because they thought there was no way General Motors could go bankrupt." In 2009, it was one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history.
Consider downside protection ETF products.
Some investors who want to dabble in crypto, but who prefer downside protection, might consider a principal protected note, a financial instrument that returns the principal amount invested at maturity regardless of the underlying asset's price movement.
Multiple companies offer these types of products. Calamos Investments, for example, launched the first "downside protection" crypto ETF in January, the Calamos Bitcoin Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBOJ). The fund company offers multiple ETFs using this strategic approach with different levels of downside protection — 100%, 90% or 80%.
Of course, there are management fees associated with ETFs, and even higher fees on more sophisticated products. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has an annual management fee of 0.25%, versus 0.69% on the Calamos bitcoin ETF. But some investors prefer to use professional managers versus investing on their own directly, Siemer said. "For some people, doing it in a simple product that's easy to buy has value," he added.
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“DeFi is dead.” That's how Maple Finance CEO and co-founder Sid Powell summarizes what he sees coming for crypto over the next few years.
However, this doesn't mean the end of decentralized finance; rather, it is the end of treating DeFi as something separate from traditional markets.
“In a couple of years, institutions won't distinguish between DeFi and TradFi at all,” Powell explained to CoinDesk in an interview. “Eventually, all capital markets activity will take place onchain.”
Think of it this way: before the internet, people would buy goods and services the traditional way — by going to merchants physically. After the internet and e-commerce revolution, people are still shopping, but the majority is done with just a click or two.
In Powell's view, blockchains will play a similar role in the financial services sector. Onchain finance is simply the next technology layer on which global markets will settle, much like the internet changed how people shop.
Most people and businesses are now relying more on e-commerce platforms like Amazon or Alibaba to shop for their goods and services because it's an easier, efficient and sometimes cost-effective way to find the best product or value.
Powell expects a similar shift in the legacy financial services sector, where crypto becomes the infrastructure for capital markets, with the majority of transactions clearing and settling using public ledgers rather than legacy systems. He also sees more debt capital markets adopting crypto-native structures, including BTC-backed mortgages and other asset-backed securities tied to crypto loans, as well as crypto card issuers whose receivables can be securitized and sold into the capital markets.
Of course, a proper regulatory framework will need to be established before this pivot occurs.
And who will use this new financial system? Sovereign wealth funds, pension managers, insurers and large asset managers, or “the managerial class that controls the world's financial markets,” as Powell puts it, will be the primary holders of this new “onchain paper.”
This is what Powell means when he says, "DeFi is dead," where the blockchain technology becomes the dominant infrastructure layer, without even thinking twice that people are using a new technology to conduct their everyday financial transactions
While the total overhaul could take time, signs of such change are already being felt across the system.
Take stablecoins, for example. Following the passage of the GENIUS Act, financial giants are adopting or considering their use en masse. PayPal has launched PYUSD, Société Générale has issued euro- and dollar-pegged stablecoins via its crypto unit, and Fiserv has introduced FIUSD for use across payment networks, while Wall Street giants including Bank of America (BAC), Citi and (C) Wells Fargo (WFC) have signaled interest in following suit.
Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) aren't issuing coins, but are building stablecoin settlement rails that could accelerate adoption, and intensify competition with tokenized deposits and other bank-led digital money.
This is where Powell's most aggressive prediction comes in about the new shift in the financial system: stablecoins could process $50 trillion in transactions in 2026, eclipsing major card networks.
He frames stablecoins as a powerful but still underappreciated tool for merchants and small businesses. Retailers already operate on thin margins and pay 2%-3% to Visa and Mastercard on card payments.
Using stablecoins for settlement can significantly reduce this cost, effectively returning several percentage points of revenue to merchants.
That economic incentive, Powell argues, will push small businesses to adopt stablecoins quickly, while neobanks and eventually traditional banks issue and support them directly.
He even went so far as to compare large stablecoin issuers to insurers like Berkshire Hathaway, as they enjoy a negative cost of capital. Users deposit dollars, and issuers park those funds in safe assets, such as Treasury bills, earning a yield while paying no interest on their liabilities. If they operate prudently, the spread between what they earn and what they owe becomes a powerful engine for compounding returns, similar to how Warren Buffett leveraged insurance float.
What does this mean for the DeFi market as it exists today?
It could hit as much as $1 trillion within the next couple of years, says Powell. The space is cyclical and macro-dependent, but he says it's growing faster than traditional finance and is tightly linked to the trajectory of stablecoins and tokenized assets. Total DeFi market cap is currently around $69 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
As the circulating supply of stablecoins grows, and more real-world and crypto-native assets are tokenized, he expects the total value locked in DeFi to climb in tandem.
In his view, the growth of DeFi is ultimately “a function of the market cap of stablecoins and tokenized assets.”
Taken together, Powell's vision is less about crypto versus traditional finance and more about how fully traditional finance becomes crypto-native. If he's right, the "death of DeFi" won't just blur the distinction between DeFi and TradFi; it will disappear into the plumbing of a new, blockchain-based market infrastructure.
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Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.
The Bitcoin price looks set to end the year in the red, having produced one of its worst Q4 performances in recent years. However, it appears that the new year 2026 might bring the relief majority of the market expects. According to a recent evaluation, the Bitcoin price structure suggests that a deeper correction looks to be on the horizon for the market leader.
BTC Price To Revisit $73,000 In 2026 Q1?
In a December 20 post on the X platform, quant trader CryptoOnchain shared fresh insights into the current layout of the Bitcoin price. According to the market analyst, the price outlook of BTC is tilting towards a bearish scenario, especially as selling pressure remains evident on the chart.
CryptoOnchain said that the price of Bitcoin is hovering around the key Point of Control (POC) level. For context, the point of control (POC) refers to the price level with the highest volume of trading activity within a given period, thereby serving as a significant support or resistance zone.
According to the crypto pundit, the failure of the Bitcoin price to quickly recover its former highs suggests an increased likelihood of seeing it break below its POC and towards the $70,000 – $73,000 range. CryptoOnchain identified this region, which was the last cycle's peak, as a critical “support flip,” where buyers might look to step in aggressively.
Furthermore, CryptoOnchain noted that the divergent Relative Strength Index (RSI) adds credence to the Bitcoin price falling to the support cushion around $70,000 – $73,000. “Traders should watch for reversal triggers around the $72,000 level,” the analyst added.
However, the market pundit warned that holding the $70,000 – $73,000 zone might be critical in preventing an even deeper correction and an extended bear market for the Bitcoin price. In essence, this “support flip” is crucial for BTC to resume its long-term bullish structure and preserve the macro trend.
The price of BTC visited the sub-$75,000 region in the year's first quarter as the global financial markets reeled from what was initially breaking out as a trade war. Hence, a return to this price level might be a tad familiar to investors, albeit it would also represent an almost 20% decline from the current price point.
Bitcoin Price At A Glance
As of this writing, Bitcoin is valued at around $88,330, reflecting no significant price change in the past 24 hours.
Select market data provided by ICE Data Services. Select reference data provided by FactSet. Copyright © 2025 FactSet Research Systems Inc.Copyright © 2025, American Bankers Association. CUSIP Database provided by FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. SEC fillings and other documents provided by Quartr.© 2025 TradingView, Inc.
By Earvin Darren Lee and Hazel Valerie Sy
IN BRIEF:
• Blockchain technology has gained prominence in public and policy discussions for its potential to enhance security, transparency, and operational efficiency.
• Legislative measures proposing the use of blockchain in managing the Philippine national budget have been filed in both chambers of Congress, led by Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV in the Senate and Representative Javier Miguel L. Benitez of Negros Occidental's Third District in the House of Representatives. On Dec. 15, the Senate approved Senate Bill No. 1506 or the Cadena Bill.
• Aligned with the theme of Trust, Transformation, and Transparency, the 4th SGV Tax Symposium held in October featured a presentation on blockchain, highlighting recent developments and practical government use cases aimed at improving transparency and efficiency in public-sector operations.
Blockchain technology, a decentralized digital ledger that enables secure, immutable record-keeping, has gained global prominence across multiple industries. By allowing transactions and data to be recorded transparently and verified by network participants without intermediaries, blockchain improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and reduces fraud risk. Industries such as finance, supply chain management, healthcare and public administration increasingly rely on blockchain to automate operations, ensure data integrity, and strengthen trust.
In the Philippines, blockchain adoption is steadily advancing as both the private sector and government explore its potential. Financial institutions and startups have begun integrating blockchain into payment and remittance systems, while the government is studying its use as a mechanism to combat corruption and promote transparency in public transactions. Pilot initiatives and consultations are underway to assess how blockchain technology can enhance government services, ensure accountability, and build public trust through tamper-resistant digital records.
BLOCKCHAIN AND THE NATIONAL BUDGET
These developments were highlighted during SGV's 4th Tax Symposium, where Armand N. Cajayon, SGV Principal under Technology Consulting, discussed the role of blockchain in public financial management, particularly in relation to the national budget. His discussion covered blockchain fundamentals, public-sector-use cases, and global examples demonstrating its impact.
Blockchain has also entered the legislative arena. Senate Bill No. 1330, written by Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV, and known as the “Blockchain the Budget Bill,” proposes placing the entire Philippine national budget on a blockchain-based system. The measure seeks to enhance transparency, accountability, and public trust by making government spending traceable and auditable in near real time through a public portal.
Under the proposal, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (CoA) will jointly implement the National Budget Blockchain System. Access would be extended to citizens, journalists, and watchdog organizations. If the bill passes, the Philippines could become the first country to fully integrate its national budget into blockchain technology.
The Bill has since evolved and been substituted by Senate Bill No. 1506, otherwise known as the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability or CADENA Bill. The revised bill calls for the creation of a digital budget portal to serve as the official and publicly accessible portal for all public budget data, which should be in an open-source, interoperable, tamper-resistant and structured digital format. This substitute bill was introduced on Nov. 12 and was approved on its third and final reading on Dec. 12.
A counterpart measure, House Bill No. 4380, has also been filed by Representative Javier Miguel L. Benitez of Negros Occidental's Third District.
At the Tax Symposium, Mr. Cajayon framed the discussion with a central question: Is blockchain a silver bullet for the Philippines' governance challenge?
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology in which all participants maintain synchronized copies of transaction records. Transactions are encrypted and validated through consensus mechanisms, making alterations extremely difficult. Unlike centralized systems, no single entity controls the ledger. Smart contracts, such as self-executing code embedded in the blockchain, enable automated, rules-based transactions that further reduce human intervention and operational risk.
Why use blockchain in public finance?
Applied to public financial management, and as discussed during the Tax Symposium, blockchain offers several advantages:
• Trust: Multiple validation points reduce reliance on single authorities.
• Transparency: Immutable records allow transactions to be traced end to end.
• Efficiency: Automation lowers administrative costs and minimizes fraud.
• Modernization: Integration with digital payment systems improves fund disbursement and control.
However, Mr. Cajayon pointed out that blockchain is not universally applicable as it does not always operate in real time, particularly in large networks where validation may take longer. Implementing blockchain also requires substantial investment, making careful evaluation essential.
As a framework for evaluating suitability, he outlined a five-point test focused on key conditions: the involvement of multiple parties; the importance of trust among participants; the management of finite resources; reliance on shared and complex business logic; and processes that operate across an extended business network.
Blockchain delivers clear value only when all these conditions are present.
IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS
Even if enabling legislation is passed, nationwide implementation would be gradual. Mr. Cajayon outlined a phased roadmap beginning with a feasibility and alignment stage during which high-value cases would be identified and key stakeholders aligned, followed by a pilot development phase focused on building permissioned pilots with key agencies. The initiative would then move into expanding participation and adding smart contract pilots. The final phase would concentrate on governance and operations, with the formalization of governance structures and supporting legal frameworks.
A proposed governance model includes a National Budget Blockchain Governance council to oversee policy, compliance, and validation authority. An inter-agency working committee led by the DICT would manage technical standards, security protocols and overall project execution.
A REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE: TORONTO
To illustrate blockchain's practical benefits, Mr. Cajayon cited the case of Toronto, which processed over two million interdivisional transactions in 2018, requiring extensive manual reconciliation, and delaying financial reporting.
The city implemented a pilot blockchain proof of concept, which consolidated data from multiple systems, digitized asset tracking, classified expenditures and automated reporting. The pilot focused on the Fleet Services division, which has the highest transaction volume.
The results were significant. Manual reconciliation time dropped from approximately 160 hours to nearly zero. Improved expenditure tracking increased forecast accuracy, enhanced transparency, and provided timely insights into asset utilization. By shifting from nominal to actual budget allocation, the city strengthened accountability and enabled staff to focus on higher-value activities.
While Mr. Cajayon concluded that blockchain is not a silver bullet that cannot, by itself, guarantee good governance, its effectiveness ultimately depends on how it is implemented and how citizens engage with it.
Technology can enable transparency, but accountability requires informed and vigilant stakeholders. For blockchain to meaningfully improve public financial management in the Philippines, it must be paired with active citizen participation, institutional discipline and sustained political will.
This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional advice where the facts and circumstances warrant. The views and opinions expressed above are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of SGV & Co.
Earvin Darren Lee and Hazel Valerie Sy are global compliance and reporting (GCR) senior managers of SGV & Co.
Ethereum trades near $2,977 as Binance staking wallets move ETH and liquidation heatmaps show pressure above $3,000.
Ethereum hovered near $2,977 as traders tracked big Binance staking wallet moves, repeated support retests, and liquidation pressure building above spot. Together, the charts frame a market watching whether ETH can hold key levels and challenge nearby resistance.
Arkham's transfer page shows multiple large Ethereum outflows between two Binance labeled wallets, “Binance: Eth2 Staking (0xF17)” and “Binance: Eth2 Staking (0xBdD).” The log includes recent transfers of 80,000 ETH marked “1 day ago” and another 80,000 ETH marked “5 days ago,” alongside older moves such as 20,000 ETH and 70,000 ETH around three months ago. The entries display USD estimates in the hundreds of millions for several of the transfers.
Binance ETH Staking Transfers. Source: Arkham / X
A social media post circulating with the screenshot claimed Binance “staked $500 million worth of ETH this week” and called the activity “bullish for Ethereum.” However, the screenshot itself shows wallet to wallet movements between Binance staking labeled addresses, so it does not, on its own, prove new staking demand from external users or net new ETH entering Binance staking.
The same post also included a promotional line asking readers not to forget to “drop your sol wallet address.” Meanwhile, the on chain view shown in the image focuses on Ethereum transfers and does not reference Solana wallets or any giveaway mechanics.
Meanwhile, Ethereum traded near $2,977 on the ETH USDT 2 hour Binance chart after returning above a highlighted support zone, according to a TradingView screenshot shared by DonnieBTC on X.
The chart shows ETH rebounding from a sharp mid week drop and then revisiting the same price band several times. Price action also remains capped by a descending trendline that links earlier highs, while several shaded bands above current levels mark nearby resistance areas on the chart.
Ethereum Support Zone Retest. Source: TradingView/X
DonnieBTC wrote that Ethereum has moved back above the highlighted zone “for a few times now.” He added that he is watching whether ETH can reclaim the area and hold it, and he said the outlook improves if price sustains above that band.
A CoinAnk liquidation heatmap shared by X user CW shows a large concentration of potential liquidation levels above Ethereum's recent trading range, as ETH moved from the low $3,100s into the $2,700s and then stabilized near the $2,900 to $3,000 area over the past week.
Ethereum Liquidation Heatmap. Source: CoinAnk
On the chart, the brightest horizontal band sits above current price, clustered around the low $3,000s. In this type of heatmap, brighter colors usually mark larger pools of leveraged positions that could be forced closed if price trades into that zone, because liquidations tend to trigger around common leverage entry points and stop levels.
CW wrote that “high leverage short positions on ETH will be liquidated soon.” Liquidations only occur if price moves into those levels, so the heatmap shows where pressure may appear, not a guarantee that ETH will reach it.
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We're closing the book on 2025, the year when Bitcoin broke into the deepest layers of traditional finance and the world's largest banks quietly became crypto service providers. In today's interview with Josip Heit, Senior Strategy Advisor at Apertum Blockchain, we explore how Layer 1 took its first real steps from vision to a living, breathing ecosystem. Over the past year, Apertum has reached remarkable heights, connecting ordinary users, entrepreneurs, and developers to next generation blockchain infrastructure. We look back at how Bitcoin and Ethereum started, especially their first mining years, and recall the defamations, insults, and arrogance of the big guys back then versus what they are doing today. Finally, we examine Apertum's place in this story and the bold path it is charting for the future. In its latest security audit conducted by CertiK, the largest Web3 security services provider, Apertum achieved an extraordinarily rare result with zero vulnerabilities identified — a feat seldom seen for any Layer-1 blockchain. This outcome confirms not only the robustness of Apertum's security, but also the integrity of its fully decentralized architecture, placing the project in the top 0.1% of blockchain projects globally for technical legitimacy.
Let's go back to 2009.
Bitcoin launches. There is no price. No exchanges. No ETFs. No institutions. Just a PDF called a “whitepaper”, a few cypherpunks in forums, and a handful of crazy people running code on laptops.
The first year of Bitcoin mining looked like this:
• Block reward: 50 BTC per block
• Block time: about 10 minutes
• So roughly 7,200 Bitcoin per day being mined, almost all by a tiny group of early adopters.
• Electricity cost? Almost irrelevant. Nobody cared.
• Value? Basically zero. People were mining digital coins that the world considered a joke.
Fast-forward to Ethereum's first year in 2015:
• Block time around 15 seconds,
• Block reward about 5 ETH per block,
• The network was busier, more “developer-friendly”, but still chaotic.
• Gas fees were low at first, but nobody had any idea that one day people would pay $50 just to move a token during peak mania.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum had something in common in their early mining years:
They were for the few.
The technical, the nerds, the people who knew where to find GitHub links and forum posts.
They were not built for your average person working 9–10 hours a day, supporting a family, afraid to make a mistake with the little savings they have.
Now jump to Apertum's early phase.
We asked a totally different question:
“What if the first years of a blockchain are not reserved for the elite miners, but are intentionally designed to onboard normal people, businesses, and communities — through tools they can actually understand?”
So instead of:
• “Download this weird software, open ports, join shady mining pools…”
we said:
• Connect to Apertum through platforms people already use.
• Make staking, yield strategies, DeFi, and automation available through a clean, transparent environment.
• Partner with third-party platforms, but keep our own chain as the transparent settlement and accountability layer.
Bitcoin's first year belonged to a tiny group of early miners.
Apertum's first years are designed to belong to builders, affiliates, entrepreneurs, and ordinary users — not just hardware farms.
That's the core difference.
Now let's talk about the fun part:
How the world's biggest voices tried to kill this entire industry.
The defamation era: When Bitcoin was “fraud”, “rat poison”, and “money laundering index”
In 2017, the CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, publicly called Bitcoin a “fraud” and said it would “blow up” and “won't end well.”
He even said he would fire any trader at his bank who dared to trade Bitcoin, calling them “stupid.”
In the same period, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, said that the rise of Bitcoin showed “how much money laundering there is being done in the world,” basically describing Bitcoin as an index of money laundering.
And of course, Warren Buffett weighed in, calling Bitcoin “probably rat poison squared” in 2018.
Let's be clear:
These are not anonymous Twitter trolls.
These are the people who move trillions of dollars.
They called Bitcoin a scam, a fraud, a bubble, rat poison, a tool for criminals.
That is defamation level rhetoric — public humiliation of an entire emerging technology and everyone who believed in it.
But here is the punchline…
Now we're at the end of 2025.
What does the landscape look like?
The same “haters” are now selling the product!
• BlackRock has one of the most successful Bitcoin ETFs on the planet, positioning Bitcoin as a kind of “digital gold” and an “alternative asset.” Larry Fink now openly says he had to “relook at his assumptions” and that crypto has a role similar to gold.
• JPMorgan — after years of its CEO calling Bitcoin “worthless”, “a fraud”, a “pet rock” — now allows clients to buy Bitcoin through the bank and see it in their statements.
• Several of the world's largest banks and asset managers are offering Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure to their wealthiest clients, often via spot ETFs and structured products.
Think about the irony:
• In 2017, if you believed in Bitcoin, you were called stupid.
• In 2018, it was “rat poison squared.”
• In 2025, the same institutions are taking fees to sell it to their clients.
They went from:
“Stay away, it's a fraud.”
to
“Here is our premium Bitcoin exposure product, sir, would you like the gold package or the platinum one?”
This is the pattern I want everybody in the Apertum ecosystem to fully understand:
1 Phase 1 – Defamation
2 Phase 2 – Quiet adoption
3 Phase 3 – Full integration
You are living in the transition between Phase 2 and Phase 3 right now.
Ethereum had a different kind of defamation.
It wasn't called “rat poison”.
It was called:
• “A bubble of useless tokens,”
• “a playground for speculation,”
• “expensive and slow,”
• “a chain you can't seriously build finance on because gas can explode.”
In the ICO mania of 2017 and later the DeFi summer of 2020, people called Ethereum a casino, a bubble, a place where scams launch and disappear.
And… a lot of that criticism had some truth in it.
• There were scams.
• There were rug pulls.
• There were ridiculous gas fees.
• There were projects with no real business model.
But out of that chaos came:
• Stablecoins,
• DeFi primitives,
• NFTs,
• and the idea that anything — not just money — can live on a blockchain.
The Ethereum story taught us something important:
Raw innovation without structure creates huge opportunity and huge confusion.
Apertum exists in the generation after that.
We are not trying to reinvent the wheel.
We are trying to connect real businesses, real users, and real strategies to blockchain infrastructure in a way that is understandable, transparent, and fair.
If Bitcoin showed the world that money can be digital, scarce, and borderless,
and Ethereum showed that logic and assets can live on-chain,
then Apertum is about something else:
Connecting people to this world without needing them to become full-time quants, coders, or day traders.
Apertum is:
• A blockchain backbone designed to be a settlement and transparency layer.
• An ecosystem that integrates with third-party platforms — like exchanges, OTC desks, staking pools, and automated strategies — while keeping all the accounting and proof on-chain.
• An environment where membership systems, affiliate structures, bots, and DeFi tools can plug in — but where the rules are visible, not hidden.
Where Bitcoin's first miners printed coins on CPUs,
Apertum's early participants validate, stake, contribute, and build:
• They might run nodes,
• participate in staking pools,
• use automated strategies connected to Apertum,
• or join memberships that give them access to tools – with all flows tracked transparently on-chain.
The idea is simple:
Make sophisticated strategies and infrastructure accessible to people who do not have the time or knowledge to build everything themselves — but who still want sovereignty and transparency.
Let's compare the models in simple terms.
Bitcoin – First Year
• Mining = run software + have hardware + almost no competition.
• Reward = 50 BTC per block.
• Energy = proof-of-work, increasingly industrialized.
• Distribution = concentrated in the hands of those who understood very early.
If you started in 2009 or 2010, you had an unfair advantage for life.
Ethereum – First Year
• Mining again = hardware, GPUs, technical knowledge.
• Gas = cheap at first, painful later.
• Use case = launching tokens, ICOs, DApps.
• Distribution = still technical heavy, plus early whales from the ICO.
Both networks slowly moved toward:
• More institutional dominance,
• Larger players running more of the infrastructure,
• And professional miners / validators taking the majority share.
Apertum – Early Years
Apertum's approach is different by design:
1 Accessibility over hardware dominance
2 Hybrid ecosystem
3 Incentives aligned with contribution
4 Proof-of-Transparency culture
We are learning from 15+ years of crypto history — and refusing to repeat the same mistakes.
I want you to notice a pattern:
• When Bitcoin was young and weak, it was easy to attack.
• When Ethereum was chaotic, it was easy to call it a casino.
• Today, when any new chain appears, the first instinct of the old world is still FUD.
We should expect defamation.
We should expect skepticism and doubt.
But we now have a playbook:
1 Document everything on-chain.
2 Work with partners, but keep the ledger of truth on Apertum.
3 Be radically honest: no guaranteed returns, no magic promises, no “get rich in three clicks.”
4 Educate people with real comparisons, real data, real history.
The same way Bitcoin outlived being called a “fraud”,
our job is to outlive whatever label people try to stick on Apertum.
Let's summarize what 2025 meant for us.
You can insert your exact numbers here, but I'll phrase it conceptually:
• We went from an idea to a functioning ecosystem.
• We connected real users to on-chain infrastructure via partners, memberships, bots, and DeFi components.
• We built the foundations of a community that doesn't just speculate, but wants to use the tools, understand the flows, and build long-term.
While the giants were busy turning their old insults into new ETFs,
we spent this year building something more important:
A bridge between the old world of “I trust the bank statement” and the new world of “I trust the chain.”
In 2025, Bitcoin became a respectable asset on Wall Street.
In 2025, Apertum started becoming a respectable infrastructure for people outside of Wall Street.
Here's how I see the next years:
1 From tools to standards
2 From early adopters to mainstream users
3 From defensive posture to confident leadership
4 Interoperability and being the backbone
We are not competing with Bitcoin as “money”.
We are not competing with Ethereum as “developer playground”.
We are building infrastructure for everyone.
If in 2009 I told you:
“One day the CEO BlackRock of the world's biggest asset manager will promote Bitcoin as an alternative to gold,
and the biggest banks will sell Bitcoin products to their richest clients…”
…you would have laughed.
Yet here we are.
The same people who called it fraud, rat poison, a money-laundering index — are now integrating it into the heart of the financial system.
History's message is very simple:
Early defamation is not a sign that something is wrong.
Early defamation is often a sign that something is too right for the old system to tolerate.
Apertum is still in its early chapters.
We haven't written our full story yet.
But we know the pattern.
So as we finish 2025, I want to say this to every builder, every early adopter, every partner in this ecosystem:
• Don't be surprised when they attack.
• Don't be shocked when they call it names.
• Don't expect the old world to clap for you while you build the new one.
Instead:
• Know your history — Bitcoin and Ethereum went through the same fire.
• Know your mission — Apertum is here to make advanced infrastructure accessible and transparent.
• Know your responsibility — no hype, no lies, no guarantees. Only hard work, clear rules, and on-chain truth.
One day, if we do this right,
the same people who laugh today will quietly adopt our standards tomorrow.
And when that day arrives,
you will be able to look back at these early calls and say:
“I was there when Apertum was a vision.
I helped turn it into infrastructure.
I didn't wait for the banks to approve it.
I was an example. Others followed.”
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Thank you for surviving the noise.
Thank you for building, even when it would be easier to just consume.
This is the end of 2025 for Apertum —
but it is not the end of the story.
It's just Block 1 of something much bigger.
In 2025, Apertum achieved unprecedented milestones, transforming from a vision into a fully functioning ecosystem. Now, it stands ready to shape the next chapter of blockchain infrastructure. Every participant, every builder, and every partner contributes to a future where sophisticated strategies are accessible to everyone, trust is anchored in on-chain transparency rather than empty promises, and technology empowers rather than intimidates.
The journey is just beginning. Apertum is poised to set new standards for what a modern, inclusive, and resilient blockchain ecosystem can achieve, and the coming years promise innovation, growth, and impact on a global scale.
Apertum is a rapidly growing Layer-1 blockchain built on Avalanche's subnet technology, providing a secure, scalable, and cost-efficient foundation for the next generation of the Web3 ecosystem. With DAO-based governance, deflationary tokenomics, EVM-compatible, and seamless smart contract integration, Launched by the Apertum Foundation on January 30, 2025, and built without VC or institutional backing, the project focuses entirely on organic growth and genuine decentralization. Its native coin, $APTM, is listed on major global cryptocurrency exchanges including MEXC, BingX, BitMart, P2B, BitexLive, LBank, WEEX, and Poloniex, reaching more than 120 million traders worldwide. Apertum has been recognized with the Top Layer-1 Blockchain Award at the FinanceFeeds and Crypto.News Awards 2025, Apertum DEX and native blockchain fully integrated with CoinMarketCap, supports over 300,000 unique wallet addresses, and has processed more than 7 million transactions, reinforcing its position as a rapidly advancing and widely adopted blockchain ecosystem. A recent audit by CertiK found no vulnerabilities in Apertum, an achievement rarely seen in any Layer-1 blockchain. The results underscore the security, robustness, and fully decentralized architecture of the network.
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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The Ethereum Foundation has set a new technical roadmap prioritizing security over speed for zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (zkEVMs), establishing three critical milestones stretching through the end of 2026.
The shift comes after zkEVM teams successfully reduced proving times from 16 minutes to 16 seconds while cutting costs by 45 times, with 99% of Ethereum blocks now provable in under 10 seconds on target hardware.
Despite these performance achievements, the foundation warned that security remains “the elephant in the room,” with many STARK-based zkEVMs relying on unproven mathematical conjectures that recent research has begun to disprove.
“If an attacker can forge a proof, they can forge anything: mint tokens from nothing, rewrite state, steal funds,” the foundation stated in a December 18 post.
The foundation established 128-bit provable security as the mandatory target for mainnet-grade zkEVMs, aligning with standards recommended by cryptographic standardization bodies.
The first milestone requires zkEVM teams to integrate their proof system components with soundcalc, a newly created security estimation tool, by the end of February 2026.
By May 2026, teams must achieve 100-bit provable security with final proof sizes under 600 kilobytes while providing compact descriptions of their recursion architecture.
The final milestone requires 128-bit provable security, with proof sizes limited to 300 kilobytes, and formal security arguments for recursion soundness by year-end 2026.
George Kadianakis from the EF cryptography team emphasized the strategic timing of securing zkEVM architectures before they become moving targets.
“Once teams have hit these targets and zkVM architectures stabilize, the formal verification work we've been investing in can reach its full potential,” he wrote.
Recent cryptographic advances, including compact polynomial commitment schemes like WHIR, techniques such as JaggedPCS, and well-structured recursion topologies, now make these ambitious security targets achievable.
The foundation plans to publish detailed technical posts in January outlining proof system techniques for reaching the security and proof size requirements.
While tightening technical standards, Ethereum has simultaneously accelerated institutional outreach through its new “Ethereum for Institutions” portal launched in October.
The platform guides enterprises and financial institutions building on Ethereum's infrastructure, highlighting the network's decade-long reliability with over 1.1 million validators and continuous uptime.
The foundation emphasized privacy-preserving technologies, including zero-knowledge proofs, fully homomorphic encryption, and trusted execution environments, as essential for compliant institutional applications.
“Privacy solutions are no longer theoretical — they're live and scaling in production,” the foundation noted, pointing to projects like Chainlink, RAILGUN, and Aztec Network.
Ethereum currently hosts over 66% of all tokenized real-world assets according to RWA.xyz, with major financial firms including BlackRock, Securitize, and Ondo Finance deploying tokenized instruments.
Source: RWA.xyz
JPMorgan Chase recently launched its first tokenized money-market fund on Ethereum, seeding the MONY fund with $100 million and opening it to qualified investors with minimum investments of $1 million through its Kinexys Digital Assets platform.
The bank's asset management head, John Donohue, told the Wall Street Journal there is “a massive amount of interest from clients around tokenization,” adding that JPMorgan expects to lead the space with product offerings that match traditional money-market funds on the blockchain.
A few days ago, Co-founder Vitalik Buterin identified protocol complexity as a fundamental threat to Ethereum's trustlessness in a December 18 statement.
“An important and underrated form of trustlessness is increasing the number of people who can actually understand the whole protocol from top to bottom,” Buterin wrote, arguing the ecosystem should accept fewer features if necessary to improve understanding.
The concern resulted from the growing tension between advanced functionality and accessibility as Ethereum's technical abstractions multiply.
“If only five people can understand how your privacy protocol works, you haven't achieved trustlessness, you've just changed who you trust,” privacy-focused layer-2 network INTMAX stated.
The foundation acknowledged these challenges in its roadmap, describing Ethereum as “too complex” for most users while outlining plans for smart contract wallets that simplify gas fees and key management.
Meanwhile, the foundation temporarily paused open grant applications for its Ecosystem Support Program in August, citing plans to shift toward more targeted infrastructure funding after awarding nearly $3 million to 105 projects in 2024 alone.
Read original story Ethereum Shifts Focus From Speed to Security With New 2026 Deadline by Anas Hassan at Cryptonews.com
Billionaire crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes just initiated a new crypto purchase.
Analysts at Lookonchain say Hayes moved $3.53 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) in just over 24 hours.
Approximately $1.5 million of the ETH was sent to the institutional crypto asset firm Galaxy, suggesting Hayes may be looking to sell.
Meanwhile, Hayes used a portion of the $2.03 million in ETH that was not sent to Galaxy to purchase 1.22 million Ethena (ENA) tokens worth about $257,000 at time of publishing.
Amid the shuffle, Hayes noted he's executing a rotation out of ETH on X.
“We are rotating out of ETH and into high-quality DeFi names, which we believe can outperform as fiat liquidity improves.”
Ethena's ENA is the governance token for the Ethena protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform built on Ethereum that provides a crypto-native synthetic dollar called USDe.
Hayes has since been an investor in and promoter of the protocol since 2023, when he became a founding advisor through his family office Maelstrom and received ENA tokens in exchange.
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The Blockchain Association led a broad industry push this week, asking Senate Banking leaders to resist efforts that would widen a ban on stablecoin yields beyond what Congress wrote into law.
According to the association, the letter was signed by more than 125 crypto and fintech groups and companies and was sent to lawmakers to warn against reinterpreting the new rules in a way that would also bar exchanges and apps from offering rewards tied to stablecoin holdings.
The coalition's argument rests on the text of the GENIUS Act, which was signed into law earlier this year by US President Donald Trump and explicitly bars permitted stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield directly to holders.
Reports have disclosed that the statute nevertheless leaves room for third-party platforms to provide incentives, a distinction industry groups say is intentional and important for competition.
Banking groups have pushed back hard. A coalition led by the American Bankers Association and other banking trade groups asked Congress to clarify that the prohibition should extend to partners and affiliates, arguing that third-party rewards could circumvent the law and drain deposits from traditional banks.
According to recent coverage, Treasury analyses cited by bank advocates estimate that stablecoins could, in some scenarios, pull over $6 trillion from bank deposits — a figure that has become central to the banks' case for tightening the rules.
Industry spokespeople say expanding the ban would chill new services that rely on stablecoins and would tilt the market toward larger, incumbent financial firms that already control many payment rails.
Based on reports, the Blockchain Association and partner groups contend that changing the law's interpretation now would reopen negotiations the GENIUS Act resolved and would sow regulatory confusion before agencies finish writing implementing rules.
Supporters of stronger limits say the aim is consumer protection — to stop stablecoin arrangements from becoming de-facto interest accounts that could undermine the banking system and reduce loans to households and businesses.
Other observers point out the issue could also shape which firms win in payments going forward, since restrictions on rewards would affect the commercial incentives of exchanges and fintechs.
Senate Banking staff are weighing letters from both sides as they consider potential fixes or clarifying language during upcoming hearings.
Regulators who must implement the GENIUS Act have been urged to issue rules that prevent evasion of the ban, and lawmakers may face pressure to either leave the law as written or to craft narrow changes aimed at banks' concerns.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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Imagine a single government decision rippling through the tech world, sending stock prices soaring and reshaping the future of industries as diverse as cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence. That's exactly what's happening right now. As of December 21, 2025, the US government's confidential review of Nvidia's H200 chip export rules has triggered a dramatic rally in NVDA stock, with shares climbing over 5% in a matter of days, according to Yahoo Finance data. This isn't just a blip on the radar—it's a potential game-changer for how cutting-edge technology intersects with global markets. Why does this matter to you? Whether you're a crypto investor, a tech enthusiast, or simply someone with a diversified portfolio, the outcome of this review could influence everything from Bitcoin mining profitability to the pace of AI innovation. Stick with me as we unpack what's driving this surge, what it signals for the future, and how you can position yourself in a rapidly evolving landscape.
The tech and crypto markets are buzzing with the news of the US government's review of Nvidia's H200 chip export policies. Announced earlier this month, this evaluation focuses on whether the high-performance chip—crucial for AI applications and cryptocurrency mining—should face stricter export controls due to national security concerns. The implications are massive. Nvidia, a titan in the GPU space, has seen its stock (NVDA) surge by over 5% in recent trading sessions, reflecting investor optimism despite the uncertainty, as reported by Yahoo Finance.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market remains a mixed bag. Bitcoin, the bellwether of digital assets, is holding steady at $87,920 as of today, though it's down slightly by 0.18% over the past 24 hours, per CoinGecko data. Ethereum, a key player in decentralized applications (dApps) and DeFi, dipped 0.35% to $2,966.54. On the flip side, privacy-focused Monero (XMR) has spiked by an impressive 4.95% to $459.88, possibly reflecting heightened interest in secure transactions amid regulatory noise. The total crypto market cap stands at a robust $3.07 trillion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $56.46 billion, underscoring the market's resilience even as the Fear & Greed Index lingers at a cautious “Extreme Fear” level of 20, according to Alternative.me.
What ties Nvidia's H200 review to crypto? The H200 chip is a powerhouse for GPU-intensive mining operations, especially for coins like Ethereum (before its full transition to Proof-of-Stake) and other altcoins. Any restriction on its availability could send shockwaves through mining communities, potentially driving up costs and reshaping network dynamics. For now, the market is watching—and NVDA investors are betting big. Curious about how to navigate this volatility? Start trading with a trusted platform to stay ahead of the curve.
Let's cut to the chase: the Nvidia H200 review is more than a regulatory footnote—it's a potential turning point for your investment strategy. If you're holding NVDA stock, the recent rally is a welcome boost, but the uncertainty of export restrictions looms large. A favorable outcome could cement Nvidia's dominance in AI and blockchain tech, pushing stock prices even higher. Conversely, stringent controls might limit international sales, denting revenue and shaking investor confidence. According to Bloomberg, analysts are split, with some projecting a short-term dip if restrictions tighten, while others see Nvidia's diversified portfolio as a buffer.
For crypto investors, the stakes are just as high. The H200 chip powers mining rigs for numerous cryptocurrencies. If access to this hardware is curtailed, mining profitability could take a hit, especially for smaller operators unable to pivot to alternative tech. This might lead to reduced network security for some blockchains due to lower hashrates—a concern for anyone invested in altcoins reliant on GPU mining. On the flip side, larger mining firms might consolidate power, potentially driving innovation in efficiency.
So, what should you do? First, keep a close eye on regulatory updates. Second, diversify your exposure—don't put all your eggs in one basket, whether it's NVDA stock or a single crypto asset. And if you're looking to act on market movements, open a trading account to capitalize on opportunities as they arise. This is a moment for strategic vigilance, not knee-jerk reactions.
To grasp the full weight of the Nvidia H200 review, we need to zoom out. Nvidia has long been a linchpin in the tech ecosystem, dominating the market for GPUs used in everything from gaming to data centers. The H200 chip, part of its latest generation of hardware, is optimized for high-performance computing—think AI model training and crypto mining at scale. Its raw power has made it a go-to for blockchain projects integrating AI, such as fraud detection systems and automated trading bots, as well as for miners seeking maximum efficiency.
The US government's scrutiny isn't coming out of nowhere. Over the past few years, tensions over technology exports have escalated, particularly with countries deemed national security risks. Chips like the H200 aren't just tools—they're strategic assets in a global tech race. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the review is part of a broader push to balance innovation with security, a policy stance echoed by both US and EU regulators. The fear is that advanced tech could be used in ways that undermine national interests, prompting calls for tighter controls.
For the crypto world, this hits close to home. Mining operations, especially for Proof-of-Work coins, rely heavily on GPU technology. While Ethereum's shift to Proof-of-Stake has reduced some of this dependency, other networks still lean on Nvidia's hardware. A restriction on H200 exports could create a supply crunch, driving up prices for existing chips and forcing miners to explore less efficient alternatives. Add to that the broader market context—macroeconomic headwinds, inflation concerns, and a jittery Fear & Greed Index—and you've got a recipe for volatility. The question is: will Nvidia's market strength and innovation pipeline outweigh these risks?
BTC Crypto Chart
The industry is abuzz with opinions on what the H200 review means for Nvidia and beyond. On the bullish side, analysts like Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives argue that Nvidia's leadership in AI and high-performance computing provides a robust safety net. “Even if export controls tighten, the demand for AI-driven solutions across sectors will keep Nvidia at the forefront,” Ives noted in a recent commentary. This view is bolstered by Nvidia's strategic pivot toward AI, which now accounts for a significant chunk of its revenue, per company filings.
Bearish voices, however, aren't hard to find. Some analysts warn that geopolitical risks could weigh heavily on Nvidia's international growth. A JPMorgan report highlighted that export restrictions could cut off key markets, potentially shaving off millions in revenue. For the crypto sector, the impact is equally uncertain. Mining expert Chris Burniske, a well-known figure in blockchain analysis, tweeted recently that “hardware bottlenecks could accelerate centralization in mining, which isn't great for network security or decentralization ideals.”
The broader tech industry is also feeling the heat. Companies relying on Nvidia's GPUs for AI development—from autonomous vehicles to healthcare analytics—could face delays if supply chains are disrupted. Meanwhile, crypto projects leveraging AI might need to rethink timelines. The takeaway? This isn't just about Nvidia or crypto—it's about the interconnected web of modern technology. Want to stay informed and act on these insights? Get started with a reliable trading platform today.
Let's talk numbers. The rally in NVDA stock—up over 5% since the review news broke, according to Yahoo Finance—suggests that investors are betting on a positive outcome or have already priced in the worst-case scenario. But beyond the headlines, there are deeper financial currents at play. For one, Nvidia's role in the tech ecosystem means its fortunes ripple across markets. A hit to its revenue from export restrictions could dampen sentiment in the broader semiconductor sector, potentially dragging down related stocks.
For crypto investors, the financial stakes are tied to mining economics. If H200 chips become scarce or pricier due to export controls, operational costs for miners could spike. This might push smaller players out of the game, consolidating power among larger firms with deeper pockets. According to CoinGecko data, mining profitability for GPU-dependent coins has already been under pressure in 2025 due to energy costs and market volatility. A hardware crunch could exacerbate this trend, impacting token prices and network stability.
Yet, there's a silver lining. Crises often breed innovation. Miners might turn to alternative hardware or more energy-efficient protocols, while Nvidia could double down on domestic markets or new product lines. For savvy investors, this volatility spells opportunity—whether it's buying NVDA on a dip or exploring undervalued altcoins poised to benefit from mining shifts. If you're ready to seize these moments, try a trusted trading solution to position yourself effectively.
Here's a snapshot of key crypto metrics to contextualize the market:
Diving into the charts, NVDA stock's recent rally shows no immediate signs of slowing, though caution is warranted. According to TradingView data, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) for NVDA sits at 68, teetering close to overbought territory (above 70). This suggests potential for a pullback if momentum wanes. However, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator remains bullish, with the signal line trending above the baseline, hinting at continued upward pressure in the short term.
On the crypto side, Bitcoin's price action at $87,920 reflects consolidation after a volatile year. Support levels around $85,000 have held firm, per CoinGecko historical data, while resistance near $90,000 looms large. Ethereum, at $2,966.54, shows similar sideways movement, with its 50-day moving average acting as a key pivot point. Monero's 4.95% jump stands out, potentially driven by breakout volume as privacy coins gain traction amid regulatory scrutiny.
What does this mean for decision-making? For NVDA, watch for RSI to signal overbought conditions as a cue for profit-taking. In crypto, Bitcoin's stability suggests it's a safer bet during uncertainty, while Monero's surge might appeal to risk-takers. If you're looking to act on these technical signals, start trading now with a platform designed for precision and speed.
ETH Crypto Chart
Peering into the crystal ball, the Nvidia H200 review could go one of two ways. In a bullish scenario, regulators opt for minimal restrictions, allowing Nvidia to expand its GPU market share and deepen AI integration across industries. This could propel NVDA stock to new highs, with some analysts projecting a 15-20% upside over the next 12 months, per Wedbush Securities forecasts. For crypto, accessible hardware would support mining efficiency and spur blockchain innovation.
In a bearish outcome, tight export controls could limit Nvidia's reach, reducing market access and pressuring revenue. This might cap NVDA stock growth in the short term, though its AI focus could mitigate long-term damage. Crypto miners, however, would face higher costs and potential network vulnerabilities if hardware becomes scarce. According to a recent JPMorgan analysis, this could accelerate centralization in mining—a trend worth monitoring.
My take? Nvidia's diversified portfolio and innovation track record lean toward resilience, even under regulatory pressure. For crypto, expect short-term turbulence but long-term adaptation. The interplay between tech policy and market dynamics will shape 2026—stay tuned.
What is the Nvidia H200 chip, and why is it under review?
The Nvidia H200 is a high-performance GPU designed for tasks like AI model training and cryptocurrency mining. It's under review by the US government due to national security concerns over advanced technology exports, as part of a broader policy to balance innovation with geopolitical risks, according to Bloomberg reports.
How could export restrictions on the H200 impact cryptocurrency mining?
Restrictions could limit access to the H200 chip, increasing costs for miners who rely on GPU-intensive processes for coins like certain altcoins. This might reduce profitability, lower network hashrates, and potentially centralize mining power among larger players with alternative resources, per industry analysis.
Is NVDA stock a good investment right now?
NVDA stock has rallied over 5% recently, reflecting optimism, per Yahoo Finance data. However, regulatory uncertainty introduces risk. Analysts are split—some see upside due to Nvidia's AI focus, while others caution against geopolitical headwinds. Consider your risk tolerance and diversify.
How are Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies affected by this news?
Bitcoin remains stable at $87,920 with a slight 0.18% dip, while Ethereum is down 0.35% to $2,966.54, based on CoinGecko data. The direct impact is minimal for now, but long-term effects could emerge if mining hardware access tightens, especially for GPU-dependent networks.
What should investors do during this uncertainty?
Monitor regulatory updates closely, diversify investments across sectors, and avoid overexposure to any single asset. Technical indicators can guide short-term moves, while long-term strategies should focus on resilience. For actionable steps, open an account to stay agile in volatile markets.
Could this review impact AI development beyond crypto?
Absolutely. Nvidia's GPUs power AI across industries like healthcare, automotive, and finance. Export restrictions could delay projects reliant on H200 chips, slowing innovation timelines and affecting companies partnered with Nvidia, as noted in recent industry commentary.
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New findings beneath the desert floor hint at entrances to long-lost chambers.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
In the world of archeology, few tools have revolutionized the field as much as ground-penetrating radar (GPR). This geophysical technique uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. Similar techniques have uncovered Viking longships in Norway, revealed lost civilizations in the Amazonian jungle, and even entire Roman cities without ever putting a shovel into dirt.
And GPR has once again delivered near one of the most well-excavated sites in the world—the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Researchers led by Tohoku University's Motoyuki Sato used GPR—along with a method known as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), which uses electrical resistance to map underground structures—to discover what's being described as an “L-shaped anomaly” in the western cemetery near the world-renowned pyramids.
According to the team's research paper, published in the journal Archeological Prospection, the structure is roughly 6.5 feet from the surface, measures 33 feet in length, and was backfilled after construction.
“The Western Cemetery at Giza is known as an important burial place of members of the royal family and high-class officers,” the paper reads. “In the initial survey by GPR and ERT we found an anomaly in the north of the survey site. The area of the anomaly could be established approximately, but the structure and the location were unclear.”
Below this L-shaped structure was an anomaly, lying 16 to 33 feet down, that the researchers described as “highly electrically resistive.” Such an anomaly could have a few explanations, but the team identified two main possibilities—a mixture of sand and gravel, or “sparse spacing with air voids.” While we know that the surrounding area (built roughly 4,500 years ago, around the same time as its adjacent pyramids) is filled with flat-roofed tombs known in Arabic as mastaba, the stretch of sand where the anomaly was found has not been nearly as intensely excavated, largely because the area sported no impressive structures to warrant a thorough investigation.
So, what exactly could this L-shape structure and its lower anomaly represent? Speaking with Live Science, Sato said the structure is likely not natural, as the shape is too sharp.
“It may have been an entrance to the deeper structure,” Sato and his colleagues wrote in the paper. That deeper structure sounds suspiciously like a tomb. “We believe that the continuity of the shallow structure and the deep large structure is important. From the survey results, we cannot determine the material causing the anomaly, but it may be a large subsurface archaeological structure.”
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Excavations revealed everything from a 14th-century Black Death group burial to three skeletons from the late 12th or early 13th centuries buried in coffins.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
A rare dig into the soil of the famed Tower of London—the first excavation at the site in a generation—yielded two skeletons from around 1500. As archaeologists dug deeper into the ground, they found roughly 20 more burials, including one group grave likely tied to the 1348 “Black Death” plague.
“Undertaking these two excavations has provided us with a generational opportunity to enhance our understanding of the evolution off the Chapel of Saint Peter ad Vincula, and the buildings which stood before it,” Alfred Hawkins, curator of historic buildings at Historic Royal Palaces, the organization that oversees the Tower, said in a statement.
The dig began as a trial excavation in 2019 to prepare the on-site Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula for a new elevator. The archaeologists helming the excavation discovered the remains of two skeletons. Subsequent excavations outside the chapel as deep as 10 feet below the surface revealed everything from a 14th-century Black Death group burial to three skeletons from the late 12th or early 13th centuries buried in coffins—an unusually expensive burial for that time.
Jane Sidell, principal inspector of ancient monuments at Historic England, said the team is already gaining insight into the residents of the Tower in a way they never have before. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said in a statement. “There is so much more to learn through further analysis about the people as well as the buildings of one of England's most evocative historic monuments.”
The Tower of London was built alongside the River Thames in the 1070s as a royal palace. It also served as a prison for high-status individuals (including King Henry VI), and housed the country's Royal Mint. But it has seemingly almost always had a chapel on its grounds.
The current parish church for the residents of the Tower of London was built in 1520, after a 1512 fire devoured the one King Edward I built in 1287. A compacted layer of stone found in the recent excavation could be a 1240 project at the site led by Henry III, showing there was a chapel before 1287.
And since the current chapel sits atop the same land as the Tower's previous chapel foundations, burials aplenty are to be expected. Of the recent finds, the older burials could have even been buried inside one of the long-destroyed chapels. “Typically, if you're buried closer to the church, you're more important, and if you're buried inside the church, you're much, much more important, and if you're buried under the altar, you are the most important person,” Hawkins said, according to National Geographic.
Known burials at the site include three queens and two Catholic saints, but finding out more about the unknown skeletons could help piece together the medieval story of the site.
“The new excavations provide the opportunity to transform our understanding of the Tower's community,” Katie Faillace from Cardiff University's School of History, Archaeology, and Religion, said in a statement. “Our work uses a biomolecular technique known as isotope analysis, which tells us about health, diet, and mobility in the past, all from a tiny fragment of a tooth. This cutting-edge method was unparalleled potential for reconstructing the experiences of the people who lived and died at the Tower, allowing us to build a rich picture of individuals' lives.”
The analysis on the first two skeletons starts developing that picture. Richard Madgwick, archaeological scientist at Cardiff University and part of the team, told National Geographic that one individual was likely a middle-aged female who died between 1480 and 1550. Clues indicate she likely lived as far away as Wales at one point, and had a diet featuring sugar—an expensive ingredient at the time.
The second skeleton belonged to a younger man who died around the same time. Details of his remains show a high-stress life that likely played out just north of London. His diet was much less exotic.
“I'm looking forward to starting analysis of some of the other amazing finds we have uncovered along the way,” Hawkins said. “This is a very, very rare opportunity to get this information.”
Along with the remains, the team found a rare burial shroud from the late 12th or early 13th century (fabric doesn't usually last through the ages), jewelry, shards of stained glass, and rare grave goods in the form of funerary incense pots dated to between 1150 and 1250 (with charcoal still inside them).
“At the moment we've got these lovely two biographies,” Madgwick said. “It hints at the dynamic movement of people and the dynamic life trajectories of the people who were buried in the Tower, but it's going to be really exciting to see whether we've picked two anomalies, or whether we see the broader range of lifeways that we see of those buried here.”
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By examining DNA preserved in decades-old air samples collected by the Swedish Armed Forces, scientists at Lund University in Sweden have uncovered clear evidence that the seasonal release of spores by northern mosses has changed dramatically over the last 35 years. The research shows that moss spores are now released several weeks earlier than they were in the past, highlighting how quickly natural systems can adjust as the climate warms.
Air sampling in Sweden began in the 1960s as part of efforts to monitor radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing. At the time, the goal was strictly related to national security, not ecology. Yet the glass fiber filters used to trap airborne particles also preserved traces of DNA from pollen, spores, and other microscopic biological material. This unexpected scientific resource was identified by Per Stenberg, a researcher at Umeå University.
"The samples have proved to be an unexpected, unique and very exciting archive of DNA from wind-dispersed biological particles," says Nils Cronberg, a botany researcher at Lund University.
Moss spores are appearing weeks earlier than before
Using this archive, the research team tracked changes in airborne moss spores across a 35-year period, focusing on 16 different moss species and groups. Their analysis revealed a striking shift. On average, mosses now begin releasing spores about four weeks earlier than they did in 1990, and the peak of spore dispersal arrives roughly six weeks sooner.
"It's a considerable difference, especially considering that summer is so short in the north," says Nils Cronberg.
Last year's climate matters more than spring weather
The findings point to warmer autumns as a key driver of the shift. When autumn temperatures stay higher for longer, mosses have more time to develop their spore capsules before winter arrives. This extra development time gives the plants a biological kick-start, allowing spores to be released earlier once spring begins. One of the most unexpected results was what did not influence spore timing.
"We had expected that snow thaw or air temperature in the same year as spore dispersal would be crucial, but climate conditions the year before were shown to be the most important factor," says Fia Bengtsson, formerly a researcher in botany at Lund University, who is now at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.
A new way to track long-term ecological change
Beyond documenting rapid ecological responses to climate change, the study introduces a powerful new approach for studying how plants and animals have changed over time. The same DNA-based method can be applied to other species that release biological material into the air. Because air samples have been collected from locations across Sweden, researchers can reconstruct ecological shifts over decades and compare trends from north to south.
"We anticipate that our results and knowledge about how nature has changed from the 1970s onwards will be part of the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the documented effects of climate change," concludes Nils Cronberg.
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Nanopores are useful for precisely determining molecule size, shape, charge, and more.
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IMEC has successfully demonstrated the full wafer-scale fabrication of nanopores using ASML's state-of-the-art extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines. Described by ASML's communications chief as an “unexpectedly awesome biomedical application,” of his firm's machinery, this could be an important advance due to the molecular sensing possibilities nanopores open up.
The qualities of nanopores are of great interest in biomedicine. As you might have determined from the etymology, nanopores are essentially tiny holes, just a few nanometers wide. In more relatable language, perhaps, these pores have diameters that make them roughly 10,000 times finer than a human hair.
Nanopores can be used by biomedical sensors due to the way molecules interact with them. The science behind their use in detection is:
In this way, these EUV fabricated nanopores can act like molecular checkpoints for biomedical sensing. They can detect and determine individual molecules like a virus, protein, or DNA etc. That's a great feature for accurate molecule identification and analysis. Furthermore, adjusting the solid state nanopore size can also be useful for filtration and molecular data storage applications, indicates IMEC.
Current nanopore production methods are claimed to be slow, limited to the lab, and expensive. IMEC's paper describes how it successfully fabricated “highly uniform nanopores with diameters down to ~10nm across full 300mm wafers.” This breakthrough – encompassing mass production, precision, and reproducibility - should put an end to the delays in adoption of nanopore-based sensors.
While we applaud the research, and the idea of making precision nanopores more accessible to medical equipment makers, we also understand that ASML EUV equipment isn't that easy to acquire. Such is the demand for this high-tech machinery by the booming semiconductor industry, we hope there remains some chance for biomedical production runs like nanopore production.
However, we are slightly reassured by the researchers highlighting that this is a step towards “cost-effective (mass) production,” as surely they will have assessed the costs of getting a 300mm wafer full of nanopores produced at this time.
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Waymo suspended its robotaxi service in San Francisco on Saturday evening after a massive blackout appeared to leave many of its vehicles stalled on city streets.
Numerous photos and videos posted to social media captured Waymo robotaxis stalled at roads and intersections as human drivers either passed them by or were stuck behind them.
Waymo said on Saturday that it had temporarily suspended service in the city due to the blackout. Spokesperson Suzanne Philion provided a similar statement to TechCrunch on Sunday morning.
“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area due to the widespread power outage,” Philion said. “Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials to monitor infrastructure stability, and we are hopeful to bring our services back online soon. We appreciate your patience and will provide further updates as soon as they are available.”
Power outage took out the waymos RIP pic.twitter.com/DPte8oOGku
The company did not provide an explanation for why the blackout had such a dramatic effect on its vehicles. One possible culprit: The blackout took down many of the city's traffic lights. (In fact, with the blackout affecting both lights and Muni mass transit, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie warned residents to stay off the roads unless they needed to travel.)
Others theorized that Waymo might have been affected by an interruption in cell service or traffic data.
The blackout appears to have been caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in the city. SFGate reports that around 120,000 PG&E customers were affected by the blackout, and while the majority of them had power restored by late Saturday, 35,000 customers were still without power on Sunday morning. PG&E's website also showed thousands of San Francisco customers still affected at that time.
A letter from Tiger Global Management leaked earlier this month said that Waymo is now providing 450,000 robotaxi rides per week, nearly double the amount that the Alphabet-owned company disclosed in the spring.
Power out in SF and the @Waymo's are causing a MASSIVE jam in North Beach 🤣 pic.twitter.com/fuvhprlyma
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There was a power outage in San Francisco on Saturday, initially leaving 124,000 of 414,000 customers—about 30%—in the dark. It also caused a widespread Waymo meltdown, with apparently all active Waymo robotaxis in the affected parts of the city stuck in robotic comas, blocking intersections and choking traffic on some streets.
Power outage took out the waymos RIP pic.twitter.com/DPte8oOGku— Vincent Woo (@fulligin) December 21, 2025
Power outage took out the waymos RIP pic.twitter.com/DPte8oOGku
Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion issued a statement at approximately 7:00 p.m., saying service had been “temporarily suspended” due to the outage. “We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work,” Philion said.
6 Waymo's parked at a broken traffic light blocking the roads. Seems like they were not trained for a power outage pic.twitter.com/9fBkoxgKwe— Walden (@walden_yan) December 21, 2025
6 Waymo's parked at a broken traffic light blocking the roads. Seems like they were not trained for a power outage pic.twitter.com/9fBkoxgKwe
As of Sunday morning there wasn't yet an update from Waymo on whether the company's robotaxis were still out of commission, nor on what had caused the problem in the first place. Gizmodo asked Waymo if the vehicles had trouble traversing blacked-out stoplights, or if the issue had something to do with data reception or transmission. We also asked the company if any Waymo vehicles were still blocking the streets. We will update if we hear back.Until there's some kind of postmortem from the Alphabet-owned company, there's no way to be absolutely sure that the problem wasn't an Anakin Skywalker-type situation, in which the nerve center of the robot hive was destroyed by a 9-year-old, causing all the robots to drop dead.
Companies like Waymo hold themselves up as harbingers of a safer future on the roads, touting statistics like 82% fewer crashes in which an airbag deployed, and 92% fewer pedestrian collisions with injuries when compared to human drivers.
Power out in SF and the @Waymo's are causing a MASSIVE jam in North Beach 🤣 pic.twitter.com/fuvhprlyma— Iago Maciel (@_iagomaciel) December 21, 2025
Power out in SF and the @Waymo's are causing a MASSIVE jam in North Beach 🤣 pic.twitter.com/fuvhprlyma
Dead waymos all over SF blocking roads due to power outage 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/CAsSxFroX3— @jason (@Jason) December 21, 2025
Dead waymos all over SF blocking roads due to power outage 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/CAsSxFroX3
But, like when a San Francisco Waymo fatally ran over a locally famous cat named Kit Kat in October, the issue may be less about Waymos being better or worse than humans in aggregate than the fact that robots fail in unpredictable, alien ways. The actual footage of Kit Kat's fatal injury shows one such example. A human driver probably wouldn't do what seems to happen in the video: start from a dead stop while a person is actively trying to coax a cat out from under their car.Similarly, human drivers tend not to suddenly go offline en masse when there's a blackout.
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The future may be electric, but that future is being postponed. The European Commission, citing the need for flexibility, has softened its ambitious plan to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.
Instead of requiring 100% of new cars to be zero-emission vehicles by that date, the revised plan would allow 10% of new car sales to be hybrids or other vehicles as long as manufacturers purchase carbon offsets to compensate. This change is part of a broader ‘Automotive Package‘ designed to help the European car industry become both clean and competitive.
If the European Parliament approves this shift, it would likely satisfy traditional European carmakers that have been asking for more time to move beyond hybrid vehicles. These companies are struggling to compete with Tesla and the surge of affordable electric vehicles (EVs) coming from China. But the policy change has created division among EV startups and their investors.
“China already dominates EV manufacturing,” said Craig Douglas, a partner at World Fund, a European climate-focused venture capital firm. “If Europe doesn't compete with clear, ambitious policy signals, it will lose leadership of another globally important industry — and all the economic benefits that come with it.”
Douglas was among the signatories of “Take Charge Europe,” an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that was published in September. Senior executives from companies including Cabify, EDF, Einride, Iberdrola, and numerous EV-related startups signed the letter, exhorting the Commission to “stand firm” on the original 2035 zero-emission target.
Their appeal wasn't enough to counter pressure from the traditional automobile industry, which represents 6.1% of total European Union employment. But continuing pressure has sparked debate within the startup community and beyond about the best path for Europe if it's to remain competitive during the energy transition.
Industry split on timeline
Even within the auto industry, opinions differ. In a statement to Swedish media, a Volvo press officer warned that “backing down on long-term commitments in favor of short-term gains risks undermining Europe's competitiveness for many years to come.”
Unlike Mercedes-Benz and other manufacturers, the Swedish carmaker had no concerns about meeting the 2035 ban. Rather than postponing the deadline, Volvo would have preferred to see increased investment in expanding charging infrastructure — something critics fear the new policy could actually discourage.
Issam Tidjani, CEO of Cariqa, a Berlin-based EV charging marketplace startup, echoed these concerns. He cautioned that weakening the 2035 zero-emission mandate could harm electrification progress overall. “History shows that this kind of flexibility has never worked out well,” said Tidjani, who also signed the Take Charge Europe letter this fall. “It delays scale, weakens learning curves, and ultimately costs industrial leadership rather than preserving it.”
To be fair, the Commission hasn't completely ignored infrastructure and supply chain issues. As part of its Automotive Package, it introduced the “Battery Booster,” a strategy that would invest €1.8 billion (about $2.11 billion) into developing a fully European-made battery supply chain. The goal is to strengthen local production and ensure supply security.
The plan received positive feedback from Verkor, a French startup that produces lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles. The company, hoping to succeed where Swedish battery maker Northvolt struggled, opened its first large-scale battery factory in Northern France this week. Verkor called the Booster initiative “a necessary step to scale up Europe's battery industry.”
Mixed signals
Still, many question whether the Battery Booster is enough to offset what they see as negative signaling about the EU's commitment to using decarbonization as an economic growth driver.
Already, traditional carmakers have begun complaining that the carbon offset requirements could make cars more expensive for consumers, potentially undermining the very competitiveness the policy change was meant to protect.
Another uncertainty involves the United Kingdom. It's unclear whether the U.K. will follow the EU's lead and modify its own 2035 combustion engine ban. Unlike both the European Union and the United States, the U.K. hasn't yet imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, despite that their rapidly increasing sales in the British market have raised concerns among domestic manufacturers.
The debate highlights ongoing tensions in climate policy between how to balance the economic realities facing existing industries with the urgency of transitioning to cleaner tech. As Europe tries to thread this needle, the decisions made now will invariably impact whether the continent leads or lags in the global EV market.
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On Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed something called the Responsible AI Safety and Education (Raise) Act, meant to, on one hand, establish an AI safety regime, and on another, troll Silicon Valley Republicans like Marc Andreessen who have been trying to dictate tech policy during the second Trump Administration. This comes just days after President Trump sent out an executive order that ostensibly blocks states from regulating AI. According to the new state law, AI companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue must draft, publish, and follow formalized sets of safety procedures aimed at preventing “critical harm,” and will have to report safety issues within 72 hours or be hit with fines, which makes it stricter than California's SB 53, which gives companies 15 days to report safety issues.About a week ago on December 11, the Trump executive order called “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” framed AI as a federal priority and outlined something called an “AI Litigation Task Force” at the Department of Justice. This task force will ostensibly have the job of challenging state AI laws determined to be in violation of the federal program on AI (basically doing nothing) according to the attorney general. Even if the executive order turns out to lack a strong legal foundation, tying state laws up in legislation is still a dreary prospect, but New York State has rushed headlong into that eventuality with this law. In an explainer for Axios published Friday, legal experts talking to Maria Curi and Ashley Gold averred that Trump's executive order relies on a strange reading of parts of the Constitution, such as the Dormant Commerce Clause, which is usually interpreted as an attempt to prevent states from writing self-dealing laws that are unfair to other states—not laws that are simply meant to fill a legal vacuum left by the federal government
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Appliance giant Shark is known for one main thing: suction. Its vacuums consistently rank among the top-tier devices that can remove dirt and gunk from the grossest floors and the highest pile rugs. So, one would assume that the same company would be able to create a device that can do the same gunk removal on your face, right?
That was my initial thought when I tested out the new Shark FacialPro Glow, which came out in early October. The device sells itself as an all-in-one, at-home hydrafacial device with some cryotherapy mixed in. SharkNinja, the maker of Shark FacialPro Glow, claims it can improve the overall look of your skin, tighten pores, and boost hydration and circulation.
In my head, I had images of running the device across my face as it suctioned all the grime out of my pores and left me feeling fresh like a professionally cleaned home.
Shark FacialPro Glow + Depuffi
If you are serious about skincare and you don't want to pay for a professional facial, then give the Shark FacialPro Glow a shot.
Pros
Cons
Honestly, the end result—both in feels and vibes and also the look and glow of my skin—was not that far off. But before you go out and purchase a $400 FacialPro Glow, it's worth understanding how it works and what we actually know about what it is doing to your skin.
If you've ever gone scuba diving, or even snorkeling, you remember all the odd pieces of equipment you need. The FacialPro Glow is kind of like that—just as many parts; and all of them are important. So, it's worth first naming them and what they are meant to do.
Power Hub: This connects and powers both attachments. It charges via a USB-C cable that's provided. The charging actually takes quite a while—4 hours to get it to full charge. And that only lasts for about the length of one facial session, give or take. So you'll need to recharge the device every time you use it, essentially.
Depuffi Attachment: First of two attachments. Its two modes deliver hot and cold temperature to the skin from a smooth metal upper component that is meant to glide across your face.
Exfoliation Attachment: Second of two attachments. Contains a powered suction-like device similar to a pore vacuum that pulls oil, blackheads, dead skin, and debris from pores and can infuse water and other substances into the skin.
See Shark FacialPro Glow at Amazon
Derm Detox AHA + BHA Exfoliating Gel: A clear, colorless gel. It contains glycolic acid, a type of alpha hydroxy acid (AHA), which helps exfoliate rough skin, retain moisture, and improve cell turnover. It also contains salicylic acid, which breaks up clogged pores and provides an overall anti-inflammatory effect.
Hydro Infuse BHA Hydrator: A liquid that gets placed into the exfoliation tank. It mainly contains niacinamide, which strengthens the skin barrier and improves its overall texture. It also contains salicylic acid and a variety of other antioxidants.
2x Normal Tips + 2 Gentle Tips: Attaches to the exfoliation attachment. Each version—gentle and normal—comes in two sizes: one size for the T-zone and one for your cheeks and the rest of your face.
Case: The products all come with a case included. It doesn't stay together super well, even with the help of an included strap that fits, albeit loosely, around it. Shark does sell a separate travel case that has a wraparound zipper, but it costs $28.
First, a little bit about my skin. Currently, my skin—and skincare routine—is as basic as it gets. I've had periods of time, especially in my 20s, where I was more acne-prone and have used everything under the sun to try to fix it. However, in the past couple of years, my skin has calmed down quite a bit. I wash my face twice a day, moisturize with a pretty basic moisturizer, and call it a day. If anything, I would call my skin a bit sensitive in that it blushes easily, or if I gently scratch or rub it, it will turn red.
Given my extremely minimal skin care routine prior to this, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the attachments and gels for the FacialPro Glow. Using it is a multistep process and each step takes a few minutes so the whole thing takes up at least 15 minutes of your time, especially when you have to remember the steps and which order they go in. It's a lot. I now understand why people pay to get facials and have someone else take care of everything.
The first step is to “prime” your skin by attaching the DePuffi attachment to the Powerhub and using the heat component. This part ultimately became my favorite step. You are basically massaging your face with a heated smooth metal device. It's incredibly calming and indulging. I wanted to just carry it around in my pocket with me and use it whenever I felt a pang of stress coming on. What this is designed to do, though, is to allow heat to open up your pores so that the other products that remove dead skin and gunk from your face work better.
The next step is to apply the Detox Gel and leave it on for three minutes. If you've never used these products before (that was me), this is going to feel a little tingly; apparently that is normal with any AHA products and you shouldn't panic. What this is actually doing is chemically dissolving dead cells on the surface of your skin—fun!
After you've waited three minutes, you wash the gel off your skin with warm water and attach the exfoliation attachment to the Powerhub. Add water to the fill tank and your desired tip (gentle or regular; I always went with gentle, but again, my skin is sensitive and fragile so listen to your skin). Once you turn the exfoliated attachment on, you'll see it has three levels of intensity. Choose whichever you prefer, but to me even the lowest level was pretty intense. Place it gently over your skin and turn it on, and you'll quickly feel like an octopus has just attached itself to your skin and is gliding along while simultaneously attempting to suction pieces of your epidermis off. And this is all while the motor is running loudly enough that you feel like you are at a car wash. You do get used to this after a while, but it's odd, to say the least.
Once you've done this for three minutes, it's time for the part that I highly anticipated: the gunk check! The exfoliator hub has two tanks, the clean tank and the gunk tank (labeled literally as such). After suctioning off all your dead skin cells, you can and should open up the gunk tank and see them for yourself. My gunk tank usually looked fairly white and cloudy, and after some research, including this dermatologist's review of the FacialPro Glow, I found that this was likely not all my dead skin cells floating, but perhaps mostly the rest of the Detox Gel that didn't rinse off initially—and maybe some dead skin cells mixed in.
The next step is to fill the clean tank with the Hydro Infuse BHA Hydrator and then use the exfoliator again, same as before, but now with the infused stuff. The idea is that the octopus suction technology actually infuses the ingredients into the skin better than if you were to just apply it alone. That's the idea anyway. The actual science on this is a bit unclear. There are no studies that show infusing the product into the skin via the suction technology is actually any better than just massaging it gently into your face with your hands.
The suction device acts almost like a less aggressive pore vacuum, which has a lot of mixed reviews from dermatologists and other skin experts. Many dermatologists actually recommend that you stay away from these types of products because they can be pretty aggressive and don't necessarily have any added benefit for the skin (again there's a lack of research on this topic in general, so it's hard to say). Worst case scenario is that you have very sensitive, delicate skin and they cause little broken blood vessels (this never happened to me), which promotes redness and can make skin conditions like rosacea flare up.
Oddly enough, though, my skin felt SO, SO good after I finished with the exfoliator. It felt plump and full of life. I felt like I was glowing inside and out. Several Gizmodo editors and reporters also said my skin did look very glowing, so it wasn't all just in my head.
The last step is to reattach the DePuffi and use the “Cool” setting for a few minutes. The cold temperatures are meant to close pores (now that they are clean and glowy) and prevent dirt from getting in and also to reduce any fluid retention. You can use this setting for up to four minutes, according to the instructions, but honestly I think I would have felt pretty similar if I had just splashed some cold water on my face. Unlike the “Heat” mode of the DePuffi, “Cool” was not fun.
My skin looked absolutely stunning, to be honest. It was soft and plump in a way that I only get if I'm on vacation on a precisely humidified tropical island. So I can't lie that my skin looked and felt far better than it did before I used Shark's FacialPro Glow. But it's hard to tell what actually made my face so healthy and glowy.
SharkNinja's claim is that the chemical formulas in the Detox and Hydro Infuse combine with the exfoliator technology to create a synergistic effect (their combined efforts are greater than the sum of their parts). This would make sense if there was research to back it up, but right now there just isn't outside of a small clinical trial that involved 60 subjects and was run by SharkNinja itself. On top of that, the two products—the Derm Detox and the Hydro Infuse—do contain ingredients that are proven (through numerous studies) to help improve the look and feel of skin. For $400, I would want to know for sure that it wasn't those products alone that were making my skin look and feel good. And if you were to continue using this on a regular basis, the Detox Gel and Hydro Infuser will eventually run out. Shark doesn't say how long they last, but I'd imagine at least a couple of months. It's unclear if other, similar products would work as well, either. You can buy replacements—$49 for the two together—on the Shark site.
The interesting thing about the FacialPro Glow is that there really isn't anything similar to it on the market, so it's hard to compare it to anything else. If this experiment has taught me anything, it's that I should try out other skincare products, at least a little bit. But whether I need to use heat and cold and suction in addition to that is unclear. And at $400 (plus the ongoing need to replace the Gel and Infuser), it would be a hard sell. But if you've tried it all, and you are still seeking that extra boost to give you healthy glowy skin, the FacialPro Glow + DePuffi is an incredibly good time.
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Years ago, when venture capitalist Jon Medved took an interest in backing various health tech startups, he had no idea that one day, he would need them to improve his own quality of life.
Israel tight-knit startup community received a blow in October when Medved, one of its most famous VCs, announced he was retiring immediately. He was forced to step down from the firm he founded, OurCrowd, after he was diagnosed with the debilitating disease of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS,) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
“This has come rather sudden,” he told TechCrunch in an audibly hoarse voice — a symptom of ALS — on what could be his last interview.
“I had been feeling a little weird before and they didn't know what was ailing me,” he explained. “I was in the hospital for several weeks recovering, and that's when they tested me and said, ‘You've got ALS,' which is a horrible disease, the worst you can imagine.”
ALS is a condition that degrades the brain's motor neurons, leading to loss of muscle control, eventually impairing walking, talking, eating, and breathing. He didn't have the classic symptoms, as his voice was attacked first, not his extremities, he said. But he knows that the condition will worsen, and there is no cure, only therapies.
Medved is considered one of the fathers of Israel's startup ecosystem — often called “Startup Nation” after the decades-old best-selling book of the same name. He helped usher it in, having moved from California to Israel in his 20s, then founding and selling several tech companies before turning to investing.
In 2013, he founded OurCrowd. While Israel has many powerful home-grown VC firms, as well as branches of global firms like Bessemer, OurCrowd essentially invented crowdsourced venture capital, where a limited partnership was open to any accredited investor.
The firm's roster attracted LPs from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, growing a network of 240,000 accredited investor LPs in 195 countries, the firm says. Many of them are doctors, lawyers, and ordinary people who not only help their investment companies, but would have otherwise been cut out of the wealth generation that VCs experience.
OurCrowd has backed names like Anthropic, Beyond Meat and Lemonade.
Medved describes OurCrowd as now a “significant player” backing about 500 portfolio companies with about 74 exits, including an exit a couple of weeks ago when its infrastructure planning startup Locusview sold for $525 million to Itron.
Despite Israel's conflict with Gaza, which has impacted its citizens and put the nation in global crosshairs over the Palestinian humanitarian crisis, its startup ecosystem has remained strong.
As the “startup nation,” Israel remains a key player for cybersecurity and defense tech as well as AI, microchips, enterprise software, food tech, health tech — the whole tech stack. For example, in November, there was “$800 million invested in the Israeli venture ecosystem in one week,” Medved said. The country now has nearly 100 unicorns and over the year, he estimates that between $15 billion and $16 billion was invested in the country in venture deals.
Now the tech of some of these startups will help him navigate life with an incurable condition.
For instance, he's had an avatar made of himself that preserves his voice, face and mannerisms. (The photo/video realistic digital twin is pictured and the full video can be seen here.) OurCrowd AI portfolio company D-ID, maker of agents and avatars, partnered with voice AI startup ElevenLabs and other companies through the ALS-focused Scott-Morgan Foundation to create an avatar system designed for people with ALS.
He just experienced this tech during a Zoom call with another person who has ALS who was using the avatar to communicate.
“So this stuff has become very, very personal to me,” Medved said. “It will preserve my voice when it goes.”
But he said there will be a variety of startups tech he will lean on.
“We've made 60, 70 healthcare investments in good companies that help people. We've got a company called OncoHost, which uses AI to help select what kind of immunotherapy will actually work for you … We have companies doing next-generation sequencing for the genome. We have companies doing chronic condition management,” he catalogs.
“I tell you now as a once-healthy person [who took health for granted] I felt human pain and disease, but once you are actually engaged in one of these nasty diseases, it changes your perspective,” Medved shared.
All of this means that, even though he's given up his position running the company and may be retiring from the public eye, “I'm far from over, ok? I want to continue to contribute, both to OurCrowd and the overall ecosystem. So I fully intend to not go off [quietly] into this good night.”
And in the end, he says “I'm very proud that in a small way, even though all we are is investors, to be part of this movement.” A video featuring Medved's “digital twin” demonstrates just how realistic his avatar already is.
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Optical fiber-tethered drones have risen to prominence in the war due to their EW disruption resistance.
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Videos and images purportedly showing spools carrying as much as 65km (~40.4 miles) of optical fiber have been shared on Russian social media channels. Previously, we reported on Ukraine-based prototypes being tested at up to 50km (~31 miles). Tethered FPV drones are hardened against electronic warfare and allow for deep, precise strikes into enemy territory. Obviously, having a longer reach (without other compromises) is an advantage.
The Russians claim to have successfully tested a massive 65 km fiber optic FPV coil.What longer distances will be seen in 2026? https://t.co/JXEt9hCBSW pic.twitter.com/dIzkmcVHwxDecember 19, 2025
The images and videos embedded above were shared by a widely followed Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) account on X. GrandpaRoy2's tweet is followed up by his Telegram source links (an app widely used in Russia). One of the videos appears to have originally been shared by the official PGI Technology account on that social media platform.
Based on our searches and review of prior reports, PGI Technology is a joint Chinese-Russian technology venture specializing in the development and manufacture of reinforced optical fiber spools for the military.
Some of the shared imagery shows that PGI makes a wide range of spools with “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60km Internal and External Unwinding.” The factory seems to have a lot of stock prepared to supply Russia's drone assault strategy.
Refinements such as Kevlar, improved windings, new adhesives, and more are touted by PGI Technology in its posts.
Optical fiber-tethered drones have become one of the prominent threats in the Russia-Ukraine war. In civilian life, wireless connectivity is often preferred or deemed necessary. But in war, with advanced electronic warfare (EW) effectively blocking the skies to swarms of deadly drones, simple, reliable tethering wins.
With the emergence of optical fiber-tethered drones as the asymmetric remote weapon of choice, range has always been an issue. Optical fiber enables fiber-optic-guided drones using FPV (first-person view) controls for precise, smart targeting. However, designers have to ask how long a spool of fiber a drone can carry without reducing a drone's deadly payload too much, and without the risk of tangling.
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We previously reported on Ukraine's unique approach to defending against physically tethered threats from the sky with its equally physical rotating barbed-wire tangling-and-snapping system.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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Chinese silicon is gunning for the crown.
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Chinese GPU maker Moore Threads just held its MUSA Developer Conference, where it unveiled "Huagang," its next-gen architecture set to debut next year. Huagang will span gaming and AI, with significant performance gains promised for both. The event was light on details, so we don't actually have any specs; just claims of what to expect, and we have a lot to look forward to if these promises are true, such as a 15x uplift in "AAA" gaming and a whopping 50x boost in ray tracing performance.
Let's start with "Lushan," the new gaming GPU powered by Huagang that will succeed the existing MTT S80 and S90 models. The latter is the best GPU Moore Threads has offered for a while, and it barely outperforms the RTX 4060, so a rehaul was long overdue. With Lushan, Moore Threads is claiming a 15x uplift in "AAA" gaming — whatever that means (raster?) — and a whopping 50x boost in ray tracing performance.
Moreover, the company is quoting a 64x increase in AI compute, 16x in texture geometry processing, 4x in texture fill, 8x in atomic access, and 4x in memory capacity. For context, the S80 and S90 carry 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, so next year's Lushan GPUs are expected to feature up to 64 GB of memory, which would be interesting to see in these times.
Another vital improvement to Moore Threads' new GPUs is full support for modern APIs such as DirectX 12 Ultimate, which should alleviate compatibility concerns. There is a dedicated 2nd-gen hardware ray tracing engine, along with a new AI hardware block for the "UniTE" unified rendering architecture, which should bring the GPU's rendering pipeline to parity with offerings from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel.
Alongside Lushan, Moore Threads also teased the "Huashan" AI GPU, which consists of two chiplets and 8 HBM modules. The performance is being touted as comparable to Nvidia's Hopper and Blackwell GPUs, with memory bandwidth exceeding even the B200. The company also claims a 50% increase in compute density and a 10x improvement in efficiency.
Huashan supports FP4 through FP64 compute and offers exclusive low-precision mixed formats: MTFP4, MTFP6, and MTFP8. In terms of connectivity, Moore Threads plans to scale these GPUs across AI factories, with over 100,000 GPUs interconnected at up to 1314 GB/s via the MTLink 4.0 interconnect.
While we didn't see any gaming or AI benchmarks for these next-gen GPUs, Moore Threads demonstrated DeepSeek V3 performance on the MTT S5000 GPU, achieving 1000 tokens per second in Decode and 4000 tokens per second in Prefill. These results put it slightly ahead of Nvidia's Hopper lineup, which has historically been the cap for Green Team in China in terms of AI GPUs.
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The MTT S5000 will launch next year, but it's not part of the Huashan lineup, as it's been in the news before. We should learn more about MT's Huagang GPUs in the coming months as the company takes industry giants like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD head-on with a state-backed Chinese alternative that should help fuel the region's self-reliance ambitions.
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Bruker's xView™ Module for the Ultima 2Pplus multiphoton microscope delivers a major leap in large-scale, high-resolution imaging.
By expanding the field of view by more than 2.5 times the standard area, xView allows researchers to capture neural activity and structural detail across millimeter-scale brain regions without compromising imaging speed or sensitivity.
Designed for cutting-edge neuroscience systems, xView opens new possibilities in brain-wide connectivity studies, circuit mapping, and disease research. It's also fully compatible with Bruker's NeuraLight 3D Ultra® Module for holographic optogenetics, enabling simultaneous large-area imaging and multi-site photostimulation.
Together, these tools offer powerful new ways to functionally map and manipulate neuronal networks in vivo.
xView's user-exchangeable lens sets give researchers the flexibility to choose the optimal balance between resolution and field of view (FOV) for each experiment.
Traditionally, expanding FOV meant switching to lower magnification objectives, sacrificing resolution due to lower numerical aperture (NA). With xView, that tradeoff is no longer necessary. Researchers can now achieve the wide FOV typical of a 10X objective while retaining the high NA (and high resolution) of a 16X lens.
When operating in large FOV mode, xView leverages Bruker's patented ETL module, which compensates for resolution loss in real time. This process is tightly synchronized and managed through Prairie View software. In effect, xView redefines the typical limits between resolution, speed, and FOV.
As a field-upgradeable module for the Ultima 2Pplus, xView expands imaging capability to cover broader regions, ideal for tracking cell signaling dynamics across previously inaccessible areas.
It also increases throughput for large tissue scans that once required stitching multiple images. Powered by Ultima xCore FPGA electronics, xView supports frame rates up to the kilohertz range for regional imaging and up to 8K resolution when high-detail acquisition is needed.
Whether your study demands fast acquisition or fine structural detail, xView brings next-level adaptability to the Ultima platform, meeting the needs of advanced neuroscience research as they continue to evolve.
Mouse brain imaged with Ultima 2Pplus and a 4× 0.28 NA Olympus objective using xView 36 and xView 45 lenses, revealing a larger FOV without loss of resolution. Image Credit: Bruker Nano Surfaces and Metrology
The xView module, together with Ultima 2Pplus or when integrated with other techniques and modules, allows scientists to carry out various neuroscience applications, including:
Source: Bruker Nano Surfaces and Metrology
*FOV achievable may be limited by objective aperture.
Automated quantitative nano-mechanical imaging
High-Speed AFM: Molecular Dynamics in Real-time
How the Ultima 2Pplus is redefining deep tissue imaging in neuroscience
Hysitron® BioSoft™ In-Situ Indenter from Bruker Nano Surfaces
Improving nanoscale imaging with dimension Nexus AFM
Neural circuit imaging with the nVista 2P miniscope
Papilio5D revolutionizes deep tissue imaging in live samples
Spectroscopic reflectometry made easy with FilmTek 2000M TSV
Streamline all-optical experiments with Quartet
Vutara VXL-Super-resolution microscopy workstation
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Manchester United saw festive cheer sapped by an injury to Bruno Fernandes during their visit to Aston Villa, with a Morgan Rogers brace firing the hosts to a 2-1 win and 10th consecutive victory in all competitions. Matheus Cunha was handed a gift late in the first-half, as he found the target, but defensive frailties ensured that the Red Devils left the West Midlands with nothing to show for their efforts.
Ruben Amorim tinkered with his 3-4-3 tactical blueprint again, in a bid to get more bodies in midfield, and saw United hold their own against in-form opposition. Cunha came close to forcing an early breakthrough, while Ollie Watkins and John McGinn passed up decent opportunities at the other end of the field.
The game burst into life shortly before half-time, with England international Rogers being allowed to drift inside off the left flank and curl a stunning strike into the top corner. Matty Cash was caught in possession three minutes into stoppage-time, with Cunha making him pay as he crashed an impressive finish across Emi Martinez from a tight angle.
United fans saw their worst fears realised at the start of the second-half, with club captain Fernandes failing to emerge from the tunnel. He was able to complete the opening 45 minutes, but had been grabbing at his hamstring and will hope to have suffered no lasting damage.
Having failed to learn their lesson when it comes to Rogers, the visitors saw Villa's star man lash home his second of the game just before the hour mark. Once again he was afforded far too much space in which to dig out a shot and find the back of the net.
Cunha should have grabbed a brace himself in the 67th minute, but the Brazilian forward somehow managed to head wide after being picked out unmarked five yards from goal. The Red Devils have now won just two of their last eight Premier League fixtures.
Senne Lammens (6/10):
Spread himself really well to repel an early effort from McGinn and displayed safe hands when called upon. Nothing he could do about either of Rogers' goals as he was left rooted to the spot.
Leny Yoro (4/10):
At fault for Villa's first as he took far too long to address the threat posed by Rogers. Was drifted past with ease before the ball ended up in the top corner. Failed to block Villa's star man again for the home side's second.
Ayden Heaven (6/10):
The teenager is still learning his trade, but is prepared to put his body on the line for the good of the collective cause. Put in two brave first-half blocks and stood up to the challenge of Watkins.
Luke Shaw (5/10):
Could have been the one pushed into midfield when Fernandes had to be replaced, but was left at the back. Frustrated by those around him as Rogers was allowed far too much space in which to work his magic.
Diogo Dalot (5/10):
Should have done better for Villa's second, with the Portuguese failing to prevent Youri Tielemans from digging out a cross. Not involved as much as Amorim would have liked, especially getting forward.
Manuel Ugarte (4/10):
Failed to keep an eye on Rogers, who was able to drift into space behind the Uruguayan. Sloppy in possession on too many occasions. Replaced by debutant Fletcher in the second-half.
Bruno Fernandes (5/10):
Handed United an injury scare when grabbing at his hamstring midway through the first-half. Was initially able to play on, but was replaced at the break with no risks being taken on his fitness.
Patrick Dorgu (5/10):
Was given license to push on, which helped United to keep Villa's buccaneering full-backs pegged inside their own half. Won the ball back for United's only goal. Still lacks confidence and takes too long on the ball at times. Did deliver a pinpoint cross for Cunha, which was wasted.
Mason Mount (6/10):
Expected to form part of United's front three, but dropped deeper to line up in a midfield trio. Allowed the Red Devils to gain greater control in the engine room. Dragged a shot wide early in the second period.
Matheus Cunha (6/10):
Flashed an early effort narrowly past the post. Hit the net in first-half stoppage-time when being gifted the ball by Cash and making no mistake as he crashed across Martinez. Missed a second-half sitter when heading Dorgu's delivery wide from close range.
Benjamin Sesko (5/10):
Asked to lead the line and should have made more of a clear sight of goal that saw him go through one-on-one. He fired at Martinez, instead of dinking over him. Was hauled off in the second 45.
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Lisandro Martinez (6/10):
Replaced Fernandes at the break, meaning that he was asked to step into an unfamiliar midfield role when United had the ball. Fizzed a long-range shot inches past the post. Dropped into the back three late on.
Joshua Zirkzee (6/10):
Involved in some neat build-up play, but was unable to find a way through. United were unable to conjure him up a sight of goal.
Jack Fletcher (6/10):
The son of United legend Darren Fletcher. Handed his Premier League debut with United chasing the game. Will benefit from the experience.
Shea Lacey (N/A):
Late introduction off the bench. An exciting talent with more to give in the future. Hit one shot straight at Martinez.
Ruben Amorim (6/10):
Will have been encouraged by a lot of what he saw from United, but was ultimately left empty-handed. Will be sweating on medical updates when it comes to Fernandes, as the Red Devils cannot afford to lose their skipper for long.
Liverpool are said to be 'concerned' that Alexander Isak sustained 'significant' damage to his leg after being hauled off injured during Saturday's 2-1 win at Tottenham. Isak broke the deadlock with a strike shortly after the half-time break, but was brought down by Spurs defender Micky van de Ven in the process, with the Dutchman sliding into the Swede at full pace, trapping the striker's leg in an awkward position.
Isak was introduced as a substitute at the start of the second half in place of Conor Bradley, with Liverpool boss Arne Slot seemingly keen to add more firepower to his side with the scores locked at 0-0 but with Tottenham a man light after Xavi Simons was sent off for a late challenge on Virgil van Dijk.
Within ten minutes of his introduction, Isak's name was on the scoresheet, but instead of running off to celebrate his goal, he writhed in pain on the floor and immediately called for medical assistance. After several minutes of treatment, he hobbled off and was replaced by Jeremie Frimpong.
As first reported by The Athletic, Liverpool believe the extent of Isak's leg injury is 'significant' and are 'concerned' at the damage he has sustained. The striker is yet to undergo an MRI scan which will reveal how long he may be sidelined for, but initial signs are not promising.
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Slot was asked about Isak at his post-match press conference, to which he replied: "I don't have any news on him. But if a player scores and then gets injured, and doesn't come back on the pitch, doesn't try to come back - which is what Conor Bradley tried to do for example but I had to take him off as well because he couldn't go on. But if a player doesn't even try to come back, that is usually not a good thing. But I cannot say anything more than that, it is just a gut feeling. Nothing medical to say about it. I haven't spoken to him about it yet."
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Isak's goal at Tottenham was just his second in the Premier League since his £125 million ($166m) move from Newcastle on deadline day of the summer transfer window, with his only other strike coming in a 1-0 win at West Ham on November 30.
The Swede has been rotated in and out of Slot's starting lineup all season long, with fellow summer arrival Hugo Ekitike splitting the minutes as the No.9. Unlike Isak, Ekitike has proven a hit at Anfield so far, scoring 10 times for Liverpool in all competitions already. He scored the Reds' second against Spurs, rising above Cristian Romero to head home a deflected cross from Frimpong.
Star forward Mohamed Salah is currently at the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt, while there is increasing speculation that Harvey Elliott could return to the club in January having failed to make an impact on loan at Aston Villa.
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Here's the lineup: Chiefs vs Titans in the NFL at 12:00 PM CT, a marquee NHL matchup in which the Colorado Avalanche clash with the Minnesota Wild at 5:00 PM CT, and Miami Heat vs NY Knicks go at it in this NBA showdown at 6:00 PM CT.
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Kansas City enters as a moderate favorite on the road (-180 moneyline and -3.5point spread), with the over/under -37.5 points in this Week 16 matchup at Nissan Stadium.
The Chiefs (6‑8) are dealing with a season‑ending Patrick Mahomes ACL injury, meaning Gardner Minshew will start under center, while offensive weapons like Rashee Rice could be limited due to concussion protocol, and defensive upgrades/declines on both sides add intrigue to the contest.
Kansas City's offense still ranks higher than Tennessee's, and the Titans (2‑12) are among the league's weaker teams, but with a backup QB and roster turnover, this game could play out tighter than expected, especially if Tennessee's Cam Ward can move the chains and keep it close.
The Colorado Avalanche (24-2-7) will face the Minnesota Wild (21-9-5) in a game that features two great teams going at it on the ice.
The Avalanche have one of the best players in the league, Nathan McKinno,n who leads the league in points with 58. Players' props for him to score or assist in the game might be worth a look.
The Wild is led by Kirill Kaprizov, who has 41 points for the season. Both high-powered offenses are expected to slug it out on the ice, with both Colorado goalkeepers having a save percentage of 92%.
A shutout is unlikely, but this could give the Avalanche the edge. Expect them to beat the Wild.
The New York Knicks take on the Miami Heat at home in Madison Square Garden. Favored by 3.5 points, New York has shown great poise this season and is 2nd in the Eastern Conference standings.
Their role players like OG Anunoby and Miles Bridges have played well. There is bench contribution from the likes of Tyler Kolek and Jordan Clarkson. They are in the midst of a 6-game winning streak, having won 9 of 10.
The Knicks (-175 ML) have been on a roll this season and are fresh off beating the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup; they will look to keep the good vibes going. Jalen Brunson is on a heater, while Mitchell Robinson has been grabbing every available offensive rebound. Expect a Knicks win and a cover on the spread.
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The Kansas City Chiefs (6-8) travel to face the Tennessee Titans (2-12) at Nissan Stadium, with the Chiefs installed as 3.5-point favorites despite being eliminated from playoff contention and playing without the injured Patrick Mahomes, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL.
Backup quarterback Gardner Minshew will make his first start of the season against a Tennessee defense that has been exploited all year. Kareem Hunt should have a field day against the Titans' (+160 ML) porous run defense that's allowed over 110 rushing yards per game.
The Chiefs' defense remains significantly better than anything the Titans can muster offensively, making Kansas City (-180 ML) an appealing road favorite as they look to finish the season at .500 and restore some dignity to a campaign that's spiraled into disaster.
The Toronto Raptors (17-11) host the Brooklyn Nets (7-9) at Scotiabank Arena in what should be a closely contested battle between two struggling Eastern Conference squads.
RJ Barrett and Gradey Dick provide Toronto (-220 ML, spread: -4.5) with enough firepower to torch a punchless Brooklyn squad that's been reeling without shooting guard Cam Thomas, who remains sidelined with an injury.
The over/under is set at 219 points, reflecting expectations of an up-tempo affair between two teams that struggle defensively.
Michael Porter Jnr. has emerged as Brooklyn's (+180 ML) primary offensive option and will need a big performance to keep the Nets competitive, while Toronto looks to snap their losing streak and take advantage of a depleted Brooklyn roster that's lost three straight games and lacks consistent scoring threats.
The Washington Capitals (18‑10‑4) visit the Detroit Red Wings (18‑12‑3) in an intriguing late‑night NHL matchup where recent form and offensive balance could decide the game.
Washington boasts a higher scoring rate (about 3.31 goals per game) and a strong defensive effort that has them near the top of the league in goals allowed, led by the scoring and leadership of Alex Ovechkin and supporting forwards like Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson.
Detroit counters at home with a solid attack paced by Alex DeBrincat and playmaking from Lucas Raymond and stout goaltending from Cam Talbot.
Both teams produce offense, and with the Red Wings' slightly better recent momentum, value may lie in the Detroit puck line and the over.
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The world is about to turn its attention to New Jersey. With the full match schedule for the 2026 FIFA World Cup now set, we're preparing for millions of visitors, a global spotlight, and an economic opening unlike anything our state has ever seen.
We now know who is playing here and when. What we still need to answer is simple: Are we ready to make sure that New Jersey's small businesses benefit from this moment?
Small businesses define our state's character. They power local economies and shape the neighborhoods visitors will experience. With any major event, businesses often can feel the earliest and most meaningful economic lift – but only when we prepare early, coordinate well, and give communities the support they need.
This is where state, county, municipal, and business leadership need to engage.
The New York New Jersey Host Committee has taken important first steps. They were the first Host Committee to produce and publish a Community Engagement Toolkit – something other host committees have yet to deliver to their communities.
The toolkit gives municipalities, cultural groups, and small businesses a practical playbook for activating around the tournament. The toolkit lays out viewing license options, programming ideas, timelines, and practical ways to shape local experiences that meet the moment. It also offers guidance for businesses – from marketing considerations to adjusting hours and staffing to handle higher traffic.
These are meaningful resources, and they give us a head start. But tools only matter if people put them to use. And as the Host Committee has emphasized, they cannot do this alone. The success of the World Cup, and the legacy it leaves behind, depends on how New Jersey's leaders decide to support the small businesses that will be at the heart of this moment.
The Host Committee plans to roll out a small-business initiative early next year to expand opportunities across the region.
They've also created and introduced Welcome World, the shared regional brand for 2026, specifically for communities to use to connect their own events and programming to the World Cup.
This is encouraging progress, and the Chamber looks forward to supporting and amplifying these efforts. But we shouldn't wait for the next announcement to get moving. Tools and guidance are out there.
The tools we need to get started are already in front of us. Every mayor, councilmember, chamber of commerce, business improvement district, educational institution, cultural institution, and local economic development office should be planning now.
Every business should be asking themselves:
We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We need to rise to the moment by using the resources already available.
The World Cup will move people through our hotels, restaurants, downtowns, cultural spaces, and transportation corridors. Visitors won't only go to MetLife Stadium – they'll explore our cities, discover new neighborhoods, and spend time experiencing the best of our state. If we prepare small businesses to shine, the economic impact will extend far beyond the eight matches we are hosting.
Preparation must be intentional, coordinated, and underway long before fans arrive.
New Jersey has the talent, infrastructure, and resilience to deliver an exceptional experience. Now we need a unified push among state agencies, local leaders, business groups, and the private sector to make sure small businesses are ready to seize this opportunity.
In 2026, the world will be watching. New Jersey can deliver not only world-class soccer, but world-class hospitality and community pride.
The Chamber will continue to partner with the Host Committee, advocate for small businesses, and serve as a steady voice for the needs of our statewide business community.
New Jersey's business community has everything to gain, but we only reach that potential if we work together.
Tom Bracken is president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, based in Trenton.
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The feeling among fans is anticlimatic as ‘businessmen have appropriated the ball that used to belong to the people'
Jonathan Zamora was seven years old the last time Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1986. “I witnessed perhaps one of the most sublime moments in the history of football,” he says, retelling a story that has become a pillar of his life.
Zamora, a Mexican football fan, does not remember how his father, Antonio, got tickets to the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. But he does clearly remember the goals: first when Diego Maradona used his “hand of God” to push the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. And then the “goal of the century”, where the Argentinian went on a slalom run, dribbling past half the England team before scoring.
In those days, tickets in Mexico were sold in packages of 13 for about $150 per person to see all 13 games [about $442, or £330, today]. “I have very vivid memories and others that are a little blurry. I remember being afraid of the height of the stands; we were in the cheapest seats,” Zamora says. He also recalls “the explosion of emotion” during the game.
When Zamora found out the World Cup would be returning to Mexico, he felt a swell of nostalgia and immediately knew he wanted to buy tickets to go to the stadium again with his father, now 71 years old.
Zamora, who has a master's degree in petrochemical engineering and works at a company that provides services to the state oil firm, knew the tickets would be expensive but was undeterred. Then reality set in. For the past four months he has been trying – and failing – to purchase seats. Through the Fifa website, he unsuccessfully entered three online ballots for the chance to win an opportunity to buy tickets and has no idea how he will be able to attend the 2026 World Cup in his home country.
“I'd like to think it's just bad luck on my part, but the reality is that it increasingly feels like there isn't actually a World Cup in Mexico,” he says.
It is the first time the tournament will be held in three different countries – the United States and Canada are the other co-hosts – with 13 of the 104 matches taking place in Mexico. Seventy-eight of the games will be held in the US. “We feel excluded,” Zamora says.
His disappointment is echoed widely among Mexican fans, arguably the most ardent of aficionados in the three host nations. The event, which is supposed to convey an international feeling of solidarity through sport, is taking place in an increasingly tense geopolitical environment as the second term of President Donald Trump has confronted the US's two close neighbours, levying tariffs and ramping up an anti-immigrant agenda.
The backdrop of unease has been exacerbated by the confusion over who will ultimately be able to attend the games in Mexico. Fifa said it received 5m applications for the ballot that opened on Thursday for 24 hours. According to the governing body, 2m tickets have already been sold across the first two early sales phases, leaving fewer than 5m still available. Zamora says he doesn't know anyone who has secured a ticket.
“Right now there's a lot of confusion. In the Sunday football team I play on, at least 20 people have gone through the same process as me, and I don't know anyone who has got anything,” he says.
Zamora was seeking tickets for the opening match between Mexico and South Africa at the Azteca Stadium on 11 June, which in the final ballot phase cost between $1,290 (£964) and $1,825 (£1,364) for a regular seat, with no guarantee that even putting down that money will secure a ticket. Hospitality options are available, with prices about $10,000 (£7,474). The prices are astronomical in a country where an average professional is paid about 7,500 pesos ($416/£311) per month and far outstrips prices in previous World Cups.
A ticket for a Liga MX match at the same stadium costs about $15 to $50, before the major renovation that started last year. A luxury box seat at the 2024 Clausura final between América and Cruz Azul reached $2,000.
“The prices are not for an average Mexican,” says the Mexican writer Rodrigo Márquez Tizano, author of A Brief History of Almost There, a collection of essays that looks at El Tri's participation in the World Cups. “The last World Cup in Mexico in 1986 still smelled of sweat and hope,” he says recalling the excitement of spectators waiting to enter the stands. “Today, before even going to the stadium, we're in a virtual line. Businessmen have appropriated the ball that used to belong to the people.”
Márquez says that after four years of taut anticipation of Mexico once again being on the global stage, the feeling in the country is anticlimactic. “Reality is unfortunately inferior to what we dreamed it would be,” he says, “because there is a feeling that nobody has tickets.” He too has applied to the Fifa ballots without any luck.
Even getting tickets for the matches scheduled in the US has been difficult for Mexican fans. Jorge García, a 40-year-old advertising executive in Mexico City, connected promptly at 10am on Thursday using his Fifa ID to join the virtual queue to participate in the latest tickets ballot. He had his credit card out and was ready to pay for a pair of tickets costing about 5,000 pesos ($265) each, hoping to take his son, León, to the stadium in Houston to see Cristiano Ronaldo in action against Uzbekistan on 26 June.
García waited for two hours to make his application. He also applied for seven games in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara, and now has to wait until February to know if he was successful or not.
“Everything is very confusing. There's little communication and clarity here in Mexico regarding the tickets. It seems like this mess is intentional so that you give up and look for tickets on the resale market. This opening match at the Azteca Stadium seems like a rehearsal for what the World Cup will be like,” says a despondent García. He has budgeted up to $700 to pay for a pair of tickets to see Mexico play at home if they become available on the resale market. Fifa said last week it would be releasing a small number of low-price tickets costing $60. They will not be available via the governing body's official platform but rather through the national associations of the participating teams.
García was only a toddler during the 1986 World Cup but has been avidly following the tournaments on TV since 1994. “I've never been to a World Cup and I thought with it being close, I would have a chance. But with these prices, it seems even further away. I guess what's left is to experience what happens in the streets, the atmosphere, and the friends who come and visit us.”
This article was amended on 21 December 2025. An earlier version said that 73 games would be played in the US; that should have said 78.
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In the English Premier League, Aston Villa (+110) will look to extend their winning streak to ten games overall when they host Manchester United at 11:30am EST. The Miami Heat also head on the road for a game against the NBA Cup-champion New York Knicks at 6:00pm EST.
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To extend their winning streak to ten matches in all competitions, Aston Villa (+110) will need to defeat Manchester United (+225) for the first time in over three years when they meet at 11:30am EST (NBC).
Eight goals were scored in Man United's thrilling 4-4 draw against Bournemouth on Monday. Matthijs De Ligt is injured, and Noussair Mazraoui is on international duty, so Ruben Amorim will have to name another makeshift backline today. Plus, midfielder Casemiro is out suspended.
With Villa defender Pau Torres also out, goals could be on the menu again today. Villa have conceded two goals per game over their previous three games, and so have Manchester United. Go with over 2.5 goals and both teams to score at -125 SGP odds.
Two teams on long winning streaks will face off at Empower Field at Mile High at 4:05pm EST (FOX). The Jacksonville Jaguars (10-4) head to Denver 5-0 ATS and SU in their previous five games.
Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos (12-2, -3) are on an 11-game winning streak but are just 2-7 ATS as betting favorites this season. Denver is starting to slip on defense, as the Broncos rank 15th in opponent points per game and 12th in opponent points per play in their previous three games.
The Jaguars rank higher in both statistics and have covered the spread by an average margin of 16.7 points per game on their five-game winning streak. Take Jaguars +3 (-105).
If you're in the market for a player prop, Broncos WR Troy Franklin (+185 anytime TD scorer) is in line for more opportunities with Pat Bryant listed as doubtful.
Longtime rivals, the Miami Heat and New York Knicks (-?) tipoff in a 6:00pm EST game at Madison Square Garden. The NBA Cup champion Knicks have won their last six games against the Miami Heat at Madison Square Garden.
With Tyler Herro's toe injury seemingly not progressing as expected, the Heat won't have their main scoring option for this one. They've also lost five of their previous six games and could struggle again tonight.
Go with the Knicks to cover (-?)
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An executive from a Premier League club is being investigated by London's Metropolitan Police for non-recent sex offences, according to The Athletic. The man - who has been described as “well-known” - is still working in the English top flight while the case is being investigated by the police. In a statement, the police said no arrests have been made.
In a story published on Sunday morning, The Athletic reported an investigation has been launched relating to the alleged sexual exploitation of under-age girls, one of whom was 15 at the time of the alleged offences.
Following that, the report says the police are investigating a complaint relating to the alleged making and distribution of indecent photographs.
The alleged crimes, which took place at several locations in the south-east of England, go back a number of years and are not related to the executive's involvement in football.
Specialist officers from the RASSO unit – Rape and Serious Sexual Offences – have now been placed in charge of the inquiry.
In quotes published by The Athletic, the Metropolitan police said in a statement: “In November, police received a report relating to the alleged taking of indecent images and sexual exploitation. Initial enquiries are being carried out. No arrests have been made.”
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The Premier League continues on Sunday when Manchester United travel to Aston Villa in the penultimate league fixture before Christmas Day.
Fulham play host to Nottingham Forest on Monday evening, before Manchester United host Newcastle United in the only Boxing Day fixture.
The Toronto Argonauts may be playing 12 road games next season, but that doesn't scare Jim Barker.
The 69-year-old didn't view the unconventional schedule as a problem when he was hired as the team's director of player personnel, and doesn't believe it was a deterrent for at least one other person offered a top job with the organization.
“It's exactly as it needs to be,” Barker said in an exclusive interview with 3DownNation. “Mike O'Shea, I know when he was looking at this job (as Argonauts head coach), that was one thing that didn't bother him at all because everything ends up being exactly as it needs to be.”
The Double Blue will not play a home game at BMO Field until August 6, 2026, due to the FIFA World Cup. Toronto is set to host six matches at the facility, including a round of 32 elimination game, forcing the Argonauts out of town.
The team has elected to play three of their “home” games in their opponent's venue during that stretch, with stops in Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan. They will also run operations out of the University of Guelph until the international soccer tournament concludes, which Barker chooses to view in a positive light.
“I'm going to look at it as we're going to have a lot of young players, and we're not going to be in Toronto. We're going to all be living together out in Guelph, where we're able to go and do our practices out there, and we get to travel to other places, and basically, as our unit becomes a true unit, that's going to help us down the stretch when we do get to play in our stadium in front of our fans,” he said. “I feel bad for the fans, but it's uncontrollable, and it's what was decided, so you embrace it.”
While the Argonauts will host a preseason game in Guelph, as they have in years past, the team elected not to play regular-season games there or at any other alternative venue. The franchise and its owners, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, have been roundly criticized for that decision, which is in stark contrast to the B.C. Lions, who will also be unable to play at BC Place during the World Cup. That organization is playing two games at a temporary facility in Kelowna, exposing its product to a different section of the fanbase.
Barker doesn't get caught up in those discussions and learned long ago that success comes from controlling what you can control.
“When I was a Division III coach, you quibble over things that you really shouldn't be. You should be just loving the game and loving the kids that are playing the game and the players that we have, and that's the way I choose to look at it,” he said. “I'm excited about the schedule. I'm excited. No team's ever done what we're going to do. We're going to be on the road till August. It's going to be a great experience, and these guys can leave a mark that nobody else ever can.”
The Toronto Argonauts finished third in the East Division standings in 2025 with a 5-13 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Franchise quarterback Chad Kelly was unable to play all season due to a fractured leg he suffered in the East Final the previous year, giving way to Nick Arbuckle, who threw for 4,370 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions to be named the team's candidate for Most Outstanding Player.
The Argonauts ranked seventh in net offence, sixth in net defence, and seventh with a turnover differential of minus-eight. The club's leading rusher was Spencer Brown with 314 yards, the leading receiver was Dejon Brissett with 907 yards, and the leading tackler was Cameron Judge with 79 tackles. Toronto ranked ninth in attendance with average crowds of 15,109, which was a 0.1 percent decrease from the previous year.
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3DownNation is a website dedicated to covering the CFL and Canadian football.
Danish Barcelona defender Andres Christensen will be out for an extended period after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury during training. The injury could also rule him out of the World Cup should Denmark qualify.
Andreas Christensen has been haunted by injuries in recent years, and now another chapter has been added to the history of injuries for the unfortunate Danish international defender from FC Barcelona
"AC' has been injured in training and scans have now shown that he has partially torn his cruciate ligament", says FC Barcelona on their website.
FC Barcelona writes that Andreas Christensen twisted his knee during Saturday's training and that he will not undergo surgery in the first place, as they have chosen a 'conservative treatment'.
This means that he will be out for several months and thus miss the upcoming highly important matches for Denmark in the World Cup playoff qualification.
It will do noting to improve the lives of LGBT people in Egypt and Iran
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The organizers of the FIFA World Cup games in Seattle have either never learned about effective sports diplomacy or are too arrogant to care.
SeattleFWC26, the non-profit group organizing the World Cup events in the city, designated a June 26 match between Egypt and Iran as the “Pride Match.” The game roughly coincides with the start of Seattle's annual Pride Parade. And so, the group has taken it upon itself to unofficially brand the sporting event with messages, and artwork, of LGBT inclusion.
Both Iran and Egypt have lodged complaints about SeattleFWC26's actions with FIFA. They want the Pride branding cancelled. That's unlikely, because the Seattle group has gone full bore on connecting soccer and sexual orientation.
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“As hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions of viewers turn their attention to Seattle during Pride weekend, we have a rare opportunity to make a lasting impact — one that educates the world, inspires our LGBTQ+ community and uplifts LGBTQ+ businesses and cultural organizations,” SeattleFWC26 explained.
“Our aim was to find a design that connected the FIFA World Cup 26 with a powerful message of LGBTQ+ inclusivity.”
It's no secret that gay people in both Iran and Egypt face terrible — and sometimes deadly — homophobia. But not at the hands of professional soccer players.
While FIFA's statutes explicitly state that the organization “remains neutral in matters of politics and religion,” that does not mean that the organization condones discrimination or homophobia.
Its rules prohibit discrimination on all the usual grounds, from race to gender, religion, opinion, sexual orientation and more. Member associations and individuals can be suspended or expelled from FIFA for failing to adhere to its statutes.
Iran and Egypt have not been suspended or expelled by FIFA because they do not bring politics onto the soccer field, where they do not belong.
The Iranian state's violent and murderous homophobia is abhorrent. The Iranian people, however, are not the Iranian regime — and most (around 80 per cent, according to a June 2024 survey) reject their political leaders.
Iranians are acutely aware of what happens to the country's dissidents. The state may well publicly hang them from a crane. “Crimes” as minuscule as insulting the Prophet or criticizing the government regularly land young men and women in prison, often with death sentences.
Egypt, meanwhile — where Islam is the state religion, Shariah law is enshrined in the country's legal system and democracy is about as robust as a boiled carrot — is scarcely safer for gay people. Laws prohibiting “debauchery” are used to oppress gays and lesbians, even if homosexuality isn't explicitly outlawed.
Iran and Egypt are places where challenging state orthodoxy, on sexual orientation or anything else, won't just get you “cancelled” or criticized on the internet — it might very well get you killed. A “Pride” soccer match in Seattle is not going to change any of this.
The World Cup, with its global stage, is not the place to virtue-signal progressive politics by provoking officials from Islamic countries — no matter how worthy the cause may be.
Do the organizers really think that some artwork and the word “Pride” will, as they boast, “educate the world”? It will not. It is pure hubris for these activists to taint the apolitical nature of sports. The world knows about the oppression of homosexuals in the Middle East, and it knows that the West is, by contrast, a haven for the oppressed.
It is these Seattle activists who are the ones in need of education, both about why the non-partisanship of sports is sacred and about what real struggle looks like. A hint: it does not look like privileged westerners with a saviour complex attempting to bait and provoke repressive regimes at the expense of athletes who've trained their entire lives for the glory of competing in the World Cup.
Get your politics off the turf.
National Post
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Former Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, has named Brazil as the country to beat in the FIFA World Cup 2026.
But he believes that Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal is the country that could beat Brazil to win the World Cup.
Ferguson sees Brazil, now managed by former Real Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti, as one of the favourites for the title.
He believes the South American football powerhouse has all it takes to win the World Cup.
Ferguson, who dominated the Premier League for many years, told Press Box PR how he worked with Brazilian twin, Rafael and Fabio at Manchester United.
“Portugal have got good players. I always think of Brazil at the World Cup. The Brazilian players—I had the two young lads, twins, Rafael and Fabio,” he said.
“I think whoever beats Brazil will win the World Cup.”
Argentina defeated France to win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with the focus being on two superstars from Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
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The 39-year-old superstar is in Jeddah to support the tour's 20-and-under showcase.ByEd McGroganPublished Dec 21, 2025 copy_link
Published Dec 21, 2025
© Getty Images
Like Learner Tien, Rafael Nadal is back for the business end of the Next Gen ATP Finals for the second year running.As an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation, the 39-year-old, 22-time Grand Slam champion is in Jeddah to support the tour's 20-and-under showcase.
As an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation, the 39-year-old, 22-time Grand Slam champion is in Jeddah to support the tour's 20-and-under showcase.
Rafa watches over the next generation 😎#NextGenATPFinals pic.twitter.com/UnLTbI9gqy
According to a press release, Nadal spent Saturday afternoon hosting a tennis clinic for Saudi Arabia's Special Olympics team and other children. A meet-and-greet with fans followed.
Rafa Nadal in jeddah with a fan ♥️ pic.twitter.com/74yGcHPCJS
That won't be the only meet-and-greet Nadal will conduct, as the winner of the Next Gen ATP Finals—Tien or Alexander Blockx—will receive a visit from Rafa afterward.No pressure.🖥️📲 Stream Tien vs. Blockx on the Tennis Channel App!
No pressure.🖥️📲 Stream Tien vs. Blockx on the Tennis Channel App!
🖥️📲 Stream Tien vs. Blockx on the Tennis Channel App!
The one. The only.Welcome to Jeddah, @RafaelNadal 👋#NextGenATPFinals pic.twitter.com/MWNhN5ALs6
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's charity reportedly lost three employees as the foundation undergoes a rebrand.
On Saturday, the Daily Mail reported that the former staffers were let go over a week ago, including Kristen Slevin, the charity's director of programs and operations.
Per a 990 tax form obtained by the outlet, Slevin's salary was $146,000.
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A spokesperson for Markle, 44, and Harry, 41, denied changes to their staffing, telling the Daily Mail, “Currently, the same full team remains in place.
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“This move does mean that some staff redundancies are inevitable, particularly with junior admin roles,” the rep continued.
“We will not be discussing these personnel details further, other than to say that we are honoured to have worked with incredibly talented and caring people who dedicate themselves to helping others.”
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A rep for the couple wasn't immediately available to Page Six for comment.
Over the summer, it was reported that Markle and Harry's team lost Kyle Boulia and Charlie Gipson, their former press secretaries, and two other employees.
Additionally, the Daily Mail reported Saturday that the charity's contributions tanked in 2024, with a reported $5.1 million worth of expenses and donations of $2.1 million.
It was reported that $1.25 million in grants was distributed.
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According to documents obtained by Page Six, the charity brought in $5.73 million in revenue and spent $3.3 million in expenses in 2023.
The charity also hit a rough patch in 2022 when an expense bill of $2,679,537 was more than the $2,005,052 in revenue.
However, the “Suits” alum and the “Spare” author's first fiscal year with the charity was a success, with $13,005,660 in revenue and $3,987,070 in expenses.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched the foundation in 2020, shortly after they quit their royal duties and moved to North America.
The charity supports parents of children who are victims of online harm, women's causes and focuses on uplifting communities.
On Friday, Markle and Harry announced they were changing the name of their charity from Archewell Foundation to Archewell Philanthropies.
By
Althea Legaspi
Bowen Yang took his last bow as a cast member on Saturday Night Live last night. News of his departure circulated on Friday, and just hours before his final show, he confirmed he was leaving with a fond farewell note on Instagram.
Yang was with Saturday Night Live for eight seasons, and spent seven as a cast member. He first joined as a writer in 2018 for Season 44, before becoming a featured player in Season 45. He was promoted to the main cast in Season 47.
His final sketch, which also closed the show, was a bittersweet, tearful one. Yang played a flight attendant who was fittingly working his final shift at JFK's Delta One Lounge, where he served eggnog from a broken machine to passengers.
“This is my last shift. It's sad. I'm gonna miss everything about this place. The way it smells. The celebrities who come through. Just last week, Josh O'Connor came through,” Yang said, nodding to last week's SNL host.
Last night's SNL host Ariana Grande, Yang's co-star in the Wicked movies, joined her friend for his final SNL skit of the night portraying his wife. In the heartfelt sketch they traded some funny lines, like when Grande told him, “All the eggnog you've made over the years. Some of it was great. Some of it was rotten.” “And a lot of it got cut,” he deadpanned. Another humorous exchange came when Yang said he wanted to go out on top, and Grande joked, “Oh, everyone knows you're a bottom.”
For his last show, Yang appeared in nearly every sketch, including during the opening monologue with Grande, a brief take in a Home Alone sketch, and portraying Yoko Ono in a hilarious “Peacock's Random Duet Christmas Spectacular” skit. He also reprised his Trend Forecasters character with Aidy Bryant, which was a Weekend Update highlight.
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But it was his final Delta One Lounge skit that won the night. It was hard not to get choked up along with Yang, who got emotional when sharing his love for those he worked with on the show and throughout the sketch. He sang through tears as he performed “Please Come Home for Christmas” with Grande. Another touching moment that drew rapturous applause came when he said, “Eggnog is kind of like me — it's not for everyone, but the people who like it are my kind of people.”
The surprise kicker came after he said, “I just feel so lucky that I ever got to work here. And I just wanted to enjoy it for a little bit longer. Especially the people. I've loved every single person who works here. Because they've done so much for me, especially my boss.” His boss turned out to be the musical guest of the night Cher, who told him, “Everyone thought you were a little too gay. But, you know what? You're perfect for me.”
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By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
Saturday Night Live honored the late Rob Reiner with a card that ran just before the curtain call of the Christmas episode hosted by Ariana Grande, NBC sketch program's first show since Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead last Sunday. The card pictured the former All In the Family star and When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride director as he was at the time he hosted SNL during its first season.
Reiner is part of Saturday Night Live history. He hosted the third ever episode in 1975 and helped establish the signature format of the late-night show as the first host to participate in sketches, including a memorable bit with original SNL cast member John Belushi as his iconic Bee character introduced in the series premiere. (Reiner also appeared as an audience member in a Season 10 SNL episode.)
In their final hours, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, along with their son Nick who is charged with their murder, attended a party hosted by Saturday Night Live alum Conan O'Brien. The event and Nick's interaction with guests, including with fellow SNL alum Bill Hader, have received a lot of coverage following the Reiners' tragic passing.
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Thanks to three-time host Ariana Grande, “Saturday Night Live” proves that it is still wickedly funny and worth watching in its 51st season.
The former Nickelodeon star returned to Studio 8H wearing a strapless archival Vivienne Westwood gown to host a very special holiday episode of the sketch comedy show. Her opening monologue included a spoof of Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Fresh off the “Wicked: For Good” press tour, we're sure she was glad to slip into something a little less pink, but still looked festive for the season.
Although Grande previously pulled double duty as host and guest in 2016, tonight the “Thank U, Next” singer chose to share the spotlight with musical guest Cher, whose last appearance on the show — aside from a brief cameo on “Weekend Update” in 1992 and at the special 50th anniversary concert last year — was in November 1987.
In addition to being one of the most buzzed-about entertainers in Hollywood right now, Grande is also known for her uncanny imitations of fellow celebrities.
She has previously spoofed Jennifer Cooledge and Celine Dion on SNL, and no doubt has a first-rate Cher impression prepared for this exact occasion.
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Earlier this week, Grande was spotted dining with “SNL” executive producer Lorne Michaels in midtown, ahead of her hosting gig.
The petite performer star was wrapped in a voluminous white coat, which fans compared to a plush duvet insert. Given the below-freezing temperatures in NYC lately, we wouldn't blame her if she did, in fact, don a duvet.
While we can only hope that Grande and Cher share the stage at least once during the evening, we'd be just as thrilled if either stepped out in a vintage Bob Mackie creation.
The legendary American fashion and costume designer's iconic looks have recently seen new light, with younger stars like Sabrina Carpenter choosing to wear archival pieces for fun industry events, including the 2025 VMAs and her Grand Ole Opry debut.
Given the vocal power and stylings of these top-tier divas, we're positive the looks — and the vibes — are going to be next level.
We can't wait to see what they wear to the notorious “SNL” after-party.
Music legend Liza Minnelli shared a powerful message following the tragic loss of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
The 79-year-old singer took to Instagram on Saturday, December 20, to honor Rob and Michele while addressing an important issue in today's society.
Along with images of the Reiners, Minnelli posted a black-and-white photo of herself drinking and smoking, but stressed that the post was not about her.
“Hey Kids, This picture is of me yet, not at all about me… it tells a universal story that needs no explanation. Let's back up,” the singer wrote. “Like everyone I know, our hearts are shattered over the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner. When violence and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) collide, the devastation reaches far beyond one moment, one person, one family.”
Minnelli went on to talk about her own experience with SUD, calling it a “dangerous illness.”
“We are all grieving. We are all feeling this great loss,” the singer continued. “The gut-wrenching question is: Could this tragedy have been prevented? Could these precious, sweet, genius lives been saved? I fear we will never have absolute answers.”
Minnelli also admitted that she stayed silent about her own battles, and it only made things worse.
“Silence only weakens the soul and deepens the harm,” she added. “I stayed quiet about my own SUD battles for far too long. I believed shame was safer. It wasn't.”
Minnelli then highlighted her upcoming memoir, “Kids Wait Till You Hear This,” which tackles the reality of SUD. It is scheduled for release in March 2026.
The singer continued with an important reminder to those struggling with SUD to seek help.
“Asking for help is strength, not weakness,” Minnelli added. “Reach out today… before it's too late.”
She ended her message with:
“Join me tonight in praying for the Reiner family. God knows they need it. I love you all.”
Fans flooded the comment section with positive messages, commending the singer for her honesty about her own experience with substance abuse.
One fan wrote, “We are all stunned by this tragic event. We love you, dear Liza, for your kindness and your bravery in writing your own story.”
Another commented, “This tragic event has left us all heartbroken and stunned. Your kindness and bravery in sharing your story are a testament to your courage and strength. Much love to you.”
Someone added, “It feels like everyone is a victim in the Reiner tragedy. Thank you for sharing your struggles and experience.”
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The Saturday Night Live episode closest to Christmas hasn't always been hosted by show alumni. It still isn't anything the show has made official or permanent, but Jimmy Fallon hosting a couple of Christmas shows in the early 2010s seems to have jump-started a tradition. Over the course of a dozen normal Christmas episodes starting with Fallon first taking that slot in December 2011—that 2021 mostly-canceled episode doesn't count—three quarters of them have been hosted by people who used to work at SNL. One that wasn't, the 2022 episode featuring Austin Butler, was preceded by an episode co-hosted by December fixture Martin Short.
That Austin Butler episode—actually the only Christmas episode not hosted by a former cast member since 2018!—also served as a mid-season farewell to longtime cast member Cecily Strong. I'm sure these types of things aren't actually planned out particularly far in advance; the nature of the show seems to be to figure out what to do in that same one-week time frame. If anything, maybe some longer-lead booking choices influence some last-episode timing decisions by chance; that's part of the SNL design, to have even the most beloved regulars somewhat subservient to the larger apparatus of the show. But having the surprise (in the sense of the news leaking out a few days before an Instagram-official day-of post) departure of Bowen Yang occasioned by the hosting of another singer-actor, one who's actually friends with this particular longtime cast member, certainly feels like the well-planned version of something that rarely is.
And, in turn, the reality of a Christmas show hosted by Ariana Grande that doubled as a series wrap on Bowen Yang was far more of the former than the latter. Yang was an important part of the past seven-and-change seasons, both for visibility (as an Asian-American and openly gay cast member, neither of which yet qualify as a minor detail within what remains a relatively homogenous group) and for being, you know, really damn funny in a way that popped with his specific sensibility more or less from the beginning. (It didn't hurt that he started as a writer, clearly knowing his version of the show's voice before he appeared on camera.) Right now, at the time of his departure, he might be the best-known person in the cast outside of Kenan Thompson, which is a hell of a place to end his run.
At the same time, Yang wasn't quite the screentime-dominating presence or decade-long stalwart of some of his immediate predecessors as de facto SNL stars. In retrospect, that makes him look like he had a great sense of when to step back, even though the reality of his precise screen-time levels is probably more luck of the draw and/or some prize sketches getting cut in a crowded cast, as he alluded in his lovely five-to-one farewell piece. Regardless of why, he got more of a two-farewells-and-some-extra-appearances goodbye than an every-sketch-farewell-tour goodbye—and again, whether by design or timing, tasteful restraint or standard SNL machinery, it felt just right.
For Yang, anyway. For Grande, the episode wasn't quite at the level of her appearance last season, even as she proved how welcome she'll continue to be on the show past what could now solidly be considered the Yang/Nwodim/Gardner era. This was very much a Christmas episode, which lent it some old-fashioned variety-show charm, and is also a charitable way of describing Cher's fairly minimal work as a musical guest. For better or worse, almost every segment was holiday-themed, sometimes paying unexpected dividends.
The monologue, for example, was the most cleanly polished of the last few seasons (at least beyond those that were just pro comedians doing stand-up), with Grande singing a full-on parody of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” about her puzzlement over what to buy her cousin's boyfriend as a gift. It was so precise and well-written, in fact, that the audience almost didn't know what to make of it without long pauses for laughter. (Maybe the music just drowned it out, but it felt like they were responding to the melody more than the actual lyrical jokes.)
It felt like a hot crowd all night, though; I'm not sure if the show has produced as many audible “awwws” in a single episode as Yang's farewell sketch did. You could hear sketches like the pitch-modulated Elf on the Shelf support group and the annual goring of a holiday classic (in this case Home Alone) play better in the studio than they might have in the living room. (To be fair, I'm spending the weekend in Delaware, which probably exacerbates the living-room factor on some ineffable level.) Not that they were all that bad; more cheap-seats predictable (and lacking in punchy endings) than truly dire, and more easy teamwork for Grande than showcase parts.
She was better-served, though, in a dance-class sketch that, as it opened, I assumed would be far worse than it actually was, helped immeasurably by allowing the people taking lessons from two bizarrely overzealous instructors. (Anyone reading this recap without watching the episode might be locked to learn that it was not, in fact, Bowen Yang playing the male instructor opposite Grande, but Marcello Hernández; Yang played their acolyte.)
And her facility with music paid off in Yang's touching farewell sketch, featuring him slinging egg nog in a Delta Airlines lounge before breaking into a holiday duet with Grande. This had hints of both Strong's “Blue Christmas”-soundtracked goodbye and Kate McKinnon's barely-disguised (and visibly teary) Colleen Rafferty send-off. So maybe the rest of the episode had to play a little broad and easy, feeling like the show had to earn a little moment of bittersweet reflection and genuine emotion. Part of what makes the sight of Yang choking up is that imperfect SNL machine, running with all the relentlessness of time's passage.
Kenan's “Black Santa” courtroom riff took a little while to warm up, but it was weirdly worth it: a defiantly strange sketch that got a lot of mileage out of another song parody (amusingly described as a Christmas song, but actually just Cher, and not the terrible Christmas single she was apparently booked to sing), Kenan's goofball energy, and Grande playing her judge role absolutely straight for several minutes just to sell her ridiculously credulous reaction to a burglar/pervert's claim that he could also be Santa Claus.
Grande was also a lynchpin of the holiday-duet sketch, because she and James Austin Johnson were actually able to cover a wide and convincing range for the impression-parade format, rather than the one-line niche gimmickry that's come to define them in recent years. (Not to speak ill of the departed, but it's telling that Yang didn't bust out his Charli XCX “impression” one more time here.)
The only sketch that sank below “funny enough but too easy” was the Love Is Blind reunion taking place after a finale where one member of the couple is revealed to be “the literal Grinch”; the premise, the production complete with scarily accurate makeup, and the performances were all there. The laughs, however, never really arrived, and everything just sat there.
Also: I'll say it. Apart from the return of Aidy Bryant to revive the trend-forecaster characters she and Yang did toward the end of her run on the show (and as her own little farewell moment back in 2022), Weekend Update was a particularly lopsided mess. A short supply of actual jokes and an over-representation of jokes that are more cutesy best-friends potshots at Che and/or Jost rather than anything in the actual world can both be salvaged. But it's a little alarming when the near-universally beloved Holiday Joke Swap fell flat. It didn't work for me because of what seemed to be a genuine on-air twist: Che apparently got Jost to agree not to do a joke swap this year, then sprung the bit on his co-anchor anyway, leaving Jost with a bunch of jokes designed to humiliate him and no real recourse.
This should have been a great escalation. The Joke Swap bit has a lot of value for building some genuine unpredictability into the live show; it's not quite improvised, but Che and Jost, to their credit, nudge it in that direction. But unlike his terrific April Fool's prank (where he got the audience to stay stony silent for a bunch of Jost's opening jokes), this variation just felt kind of… bullying? I know that's a ridiculous way to describe anything bad happening to Colin Jost short of him being physically held upside down and shaken until money rains from his pockets. But Che's joke style on these swaps is so predictable, and it's been done so many times, that tricking Jost into doing more of the same feels akin to a frat prank rather than a really inspired bit of comedy—especially when the segment had so few actual news jokes.
Spiritually, it's Yang, for his great work over the years. Actually, though, it was… Ariana Grande?! She held the show together with a degree of professionalism that's out of reach for probably 80% of the people who host. 95% if you don't include alumni.
How hard do you think Finn Wolfhard's people lobbied for him to pull double duty as host and musical guest? Also, it's kind of surprising in retrospect that, unless I'm forgetting someone, he's basically the first Stranger Things cast member to parlay that into a hosting gig since David Harbour.
Jesse Hassenger is a contributor to The A.V. Club.
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Reiner hosted the program's third-ever episode on Oct. 25, 1975, at a time when the series was still defining its identity.
By
Jessica Lynch
Saturday Night Live paused its year-end Christmas episode on Saturday night (Dec. 20) to pay tribute to Rob Reiner, honoring the filmmaker's early and influential role in the show's history.
Just ahead of the episode's goodnights, SNL aired an on-screen tribute card featuring Reiner during his time on the program.
The gesture came less than a week after Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home. Their son, Nick Reiner, has since been arrested and charged in connection with their deaths.
While Reiner became best known for his work as a director — including This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride and A Few Good Men — his relationship with Saturday Night Live dates back to the show's earliest days.
Reiner hosted the program's third-ever episode on Oct. 25, 1975, at a time when the series was still defining its identity.
Unlike the show's first two hosts, George Carlin and Paul Simon, Reiner fully participated in sketches throughout the episode, helping establish the host-as-performer format that would become central to SNL's structure. The episode is now considered a foundational moment in the show's evolution.
Reiner was joined during the episode by his wife at the time, Penny Marshall, with the pair appearing together in several sketches.
One of the most memorable moments saw their sketch interrupted by John Belushi and the Bees — SNL's first recurring characters — in a scene that captured the show's early, chaotic energy. Notably, the episode featured no musical guest; instead, Belushi performed “With a Little Help From My Friends” while impersonating Joe Cocker.
Reiner's connection to SNL extended well beyond his hosting duties.
In 1993, Chris Farley impersonated Reiner in a cold open alongside Phil Hartman's President Bill Clinton. Many performers from the SNL universe also appeared in Reiner-directed films over the years, including This Is Spinal Tap, which starred Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer — all closely tied to the show.
Earlier this year, Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were among the attendees at SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, underscoring his enduring relationship with the program.
Saturday's episode was hosted by Ariana Grande with Cher as musical guest. The broadcast also marked the final appearance of cast member Bowen Yang.
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By
William Vaillancourt
Cher closed out the final Saturday Night Live of 2025 with two tracks from her 2023 Christmas album.
The pop icon, who had been an SNL musical guest only once before, opened with the up-tempo “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” one of the original songs on the album.
Her only Christmas album—and 27th overall—also includes a duet with Darlene Love on “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” and appearances by Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé, Tyga and Cyndi Lauper.
“They're not ‘Christmas-Christmas' songs, OK?” she told Billboard at the time. “They're just great songs. And I never say that because I almost never like what I do. But I mean people love it and I'm happy. I'm so particular, but I love the songs and everyone who hears them loves them.”
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Cher's second performance was of “Run Rudolph Run,” written by Chuck Berry in 1958 and credited to Marvin Brodie and Christmas songwriter Johnny Marks for having trademarked the Rudolph character.
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Fresh off a legal win regarding royalties to Sonny & Cher songs like 1965's “I Got You Babe,” Cher, 79, was recently announced as a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She was first nominated for a Grammy 60 years ago.
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During Saturday night's (Dec. 20) Ariana Grande–hosted episode, the show closed with a sketch that doubled as a farewell for Yang.
By
Jessica Lynch
Bowen Yang‘s final episode as a cast member on Saturday Night Live ended not with a punchline, but with a song — and a moment that felt unmistakably like a goodbye.
During Saturday night's (Dec. 20) Ariana Grande–hosted episode, the show closed with a sketch that doubled as a farewell for Yang, who recently confirmed his departure after more than seven years at SNL.
The scene cast Yang as a Delta Sky Club employee working his last shift, quietly aware that something is ending.
What followed was a stripped-back rendition of the Eagles' “Please Come Home for Christmas,” with Ariana Grande joining in — and, moments later, Cher stepping into the frame.
Earlier in the day, Yang acknowledged his exit in an Instagram post, thanking Grande for how the episode handled his sendoff. “thank you to ari for sending me off in the dreamiest way i could imagine,” he wrote.
In a longer message, Yang reflected on his time at SNL, offering a characteristically self-aware goodbye. “I'm grateful for every minute of my time there,” he wrote. “I learned about myself (bad with wigs). i learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot). i learned that human error can be nothing but correct.”
Yang first joined Saturday Night Live as a writer in 2018 before becoming a featured player the following season and later a full cast member. He quickly grew into one of the show's most distinctive voices, earning four Emmy nominations and becoming a central presence during a period of major cast turnover. Alongside his work on the show, Yang has built an increasingly visible film and TV career, moving comfortably between sketch comedy, pop culture commentary and mainstream projects.
Musical farewells have quietly become SNL's way of marking meaningful exits. Kristen Wiig was serenaded by Arcade Fire during her final episode in 2012, while Cecily Strong closed her run in 2022 with “Blue Christmas.” Like those moments, Yang's goodbye allowed the show to slow down and acknowledge what was being lost — not just a cast member, but an era.
Rather than leaning into jokes, SNL let Yang sing his way out. It felt simple, sincere, and earned. Watch below.
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By Natalie Oganesyan
Weekend Editor
With her third hosting stint on Saturday Night Live, Ariana Grande brought much-needed Christmas cheer to Studio 8H, leaving Season 51 of the long-running late-nighter better than she found it through her magical holiday touch. The honorary player showcased why she's a reliable repeat customer, and that's not even mentioning the responsibility she carried to ensure pal and Wicked co-star Bowen Yang had a proper, meaningful send-off.
Grande, who has been featured as a musical guest twice (once as part of her double-duty in 2016), sang, parodied and disappeared into characters all through the night, flexing her skillset as a host who's game to try on costumes no matter how ridiculous, impressions no matter how far-fetched.
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Kicking the night off with a pitch-perfect monologue, Grande addressed the elephant in the room with a tongue-in-cheek joke; when asked if she would resurrect previous SNL sketches, like the beat-to-death Domingo, she said, to audience laughs, “When something is perfect, it doesn't need a sequel … What? That's why I just finished filming Meet the Parents 4.” The two-time Grammy winner also lent her voice to an “All I Want For Christmas Is You” parody, with lyrics like: “I don't know what to get for Christmas / For my cousin's boyfriend Steve / I don't know a thing about him / Only see him on Christmas Eve” and “Is a gift card rude? / What do I get for Christmas for this dude?”
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In a similar vein to Grande's preeminently popular “Castrati” sketch — which she delightfully reincarnated for a brief moment to introduce musical guest Cher‘s second song — “Elf on the Shelf Support Group” married pitiful personas with spot-on comedic timing in what was a standout from tonight. “I wish elves could die,” Grande's Twinkle Butter bellows as she cries Skittle tears, after a reveal shows viewers she's been ripped in half by her owners' new house cat. Mikey Day, whose poor elf is on a shelf in a frat house, laments: “They pose me in ways that aren't very jolly,” he says, holding up a giant Polaroid of him and Barbie in a compromising sex position. (An added bonus? Everyone's voice is run through what sounds like a helium speech modulator.)
In a reimagined take on the ending of Home Alone, Grande is Macaulay Culkin's Kevin, and the sweet familial reunion quickly devolves into a bloody affair as the returning relatives accidentally set off the booby traps she has forgotten to disengage. Yang plays Kieran Culkin's stand-in, his arms nightmarishly chainsawed off as Ashley Padilla's Catherine O'Hara equivalent lets out a series of horrified shrieks.
With “Dancing 101,” Grande and Marcello Hernández play under-qualified yet haughty instructors whose graceless teachings yield one of the night's best lines. The teachers, who have choreographed not one, not two, but three Jardiance commercials believe in the power of dance as literal interpretation, so when Grande spins around and gestures at her veins to indicate she's not vaccinated, the students are curious to know if that's actually the case. “You can't ask me that in RFK's America,” Grande deadpans, before breaking.
A pastiche of Love Is Blind also offers a highlight, in which Grande's hopeful bride-to-be Janelle is shocked to discover her partner is the literal Grinch (played by Day). “Hey… What the f…” begins a disconcerted Janelle. “Yeah, I guess it never came up,” the Whoville emigre says, before letting her know he doesn't actually have a penis and is not really a human being. But, four months on, at the reality show's reunion, the couple's love is on full display. They're even expecting, with the Grinch (ahem, Neil) showing off a sonogram. “Why is he standing up?” Tommy Brennan's contestant asks about the Baby Grinch in the picture.
Weekend Update — which notably featured Aidy Bryant's “Trend Forecasters” reunion with Yang — also had its solid lineup of topical jokes: “Well, it's that time of year when everybody is talking about the man who flies through the air to visit children all over the world: Jeffrey Epstein,” co-anchor Colin Jost said. Of the POTUS' lack of inclusion in the unearthed documents, he bemoaned, “Donald Trump was my favorite character in the Epstein files; it's like when House of Cards suddenly stopped starring Kevin Spacey, probably because he had booked a recurring role in the Epstein files.” On RFK's anti-trans stance, Jost added, “And yet RFK is allowed to slowly transition into Wilson the Volleyball [from Cast Away].”
Update also gave rookie Kam Patterson a chance to shine as co-host Michael Che's 12-year-old nephew, who's definitely on the naughty list, but not if he has anything to say (or do) about it first. And, in keeping with yearly tradition, the segment featured its Christmas Joke Swap — except Jost never got the memo. As such, Che took the opportunity to lob more shots at Scarlett Johansson.
“New research shows that millions of women leave the workforce due to menopause, which means there's only a couple years left on my gravy train,” Jost read, as the screen flashed with an image of his wife. “My girl already be like, ‘Colin, I'm warm. Colin, I'm sweating.' Bitch, you having a hot flash. But don't worry about me, I got a backup; they don't call Wednesday [Jenna Ortega] ‘Hump Day' for nothing.” If last year is any indication, this is sure to generate reactions from the Eleanor the Great director in the coming weeks.
And last, but certainly not least, just when SNL seemed to have forgotten about giving MVP Yang a curtain call, the episode ended with a heartfelt “Delta Lounge” sketch, featuring a tearful Yang as a retiring crew member.
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By
William Vaillancourt
Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update took on the Trump administration's many redactions in the Jeffrey Epstein files it has been ordered to produce, as well as the president's top officials like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Friday was the deadline to comply with the law that Trump himself signed, yet Deputy Attorney Blanche told Fox News that the Justice Department will publicize additional files “over the next couple weeks.” Some pages that are currently public are entirely unreadable.
“I guess they kept running out of black ink,” co-host Michael Che joked.
“Those files were so boring, the only interesting thing I saw was this picture of Bill Clinton hugged up on Melania,” he added, as a photo showed of the former president with his arm around Michael Jackson.
“Honestly, it's not fair. Donald Trump was my favorite character in the Epstein files,” Colin Jost added. “It's like when House of Cards stopped starring Kevin Spacey—probably because he had booked a recurring role in the Epstein files.”
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Later, Jost addressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. About his appearance, Jost said he was very close to blackface.
“Kennedy announced that the federal government will pull funding from hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to transgender minors. And yet,” Jost said, “RFK is allowed to slowly transition into Wilson the volleyball.”
Jost and Che, as is custom, also had a year-end joke swap—though it was only Jost who read jokes Che had written for him. And once again, Jost's wife, Scarlett Johansson, was a topic.
“New research shows that millions of women leave the workforce due to menopause, which means there's only a couple of years left on my gravy train,” Jost said. “My girl already be like, ‘Colin, I'm warm. Colin, I'm sweating.' B—h, you're having a hotflash!'”
Che had Jost, 43, go further.
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“But don't worry about me; I've got a backup. They don't call Wednesday ‘hump day' for nothing,” he said alongside a picture of the character Wednesday Addams, who is played by 23-year-old Jenna Ortega.
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By
William Vaillancourt
Saturday Night Live host Ariana Grande took on the role of Home Alone‘s Kevin McCallister, who welcomes his family back after their time apart—but forgets to disarm all the traps he has set for the wet bandits.
Kevin, in short blonde hair, is woken up on Christmas morning by his overtired mother (Ashley Padilla), who apologizes, adding that the rest of the family couldn't be there. Except at that moment, they all show up, having taken the morning flight. But amid the flurry of familiar faces, the eight-year-old doesn't warn them in time to tread carefully around the mansion.
First, his father (Mikey Day) opens the closet door to hang up his coat. A blowtorch ignites his head.
Recoiling in horror, his brother (Jeremy Culhane) loses his balance on some toy cars and falls face-first into the sharp corner of their grand piano.
When Kevin's sister (Sarah Sherman) uses the fire extinguisher on her father, that only makes things worse; Kevin had replaced its contents with kerosene.
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Another brother (Tommy Brennan) rushes to the kitchen to get water, but that attempt is foiled as well, as a trip wire activates a poison dart gun.
Home Alone pic.twitter.com/PEDyBKWIfC
Then, Kevin's sister slips on marbles into a laundry shute. She falls right into the home furnace.
Brother Fuller (Bowen Yang) isn't immune, either. When Buzz (Colin Jost) picks up the phone to call for help, that sets a chainsaw swinging from the ceiling, cutting off both his arms.
A full can of paint comes for Buzz next. He avoids it, and thinks he's in the clear. But the can hits a switch on the wall which sets a running metal fan in free fall on top of him.
Then, when the McCallisters' elderly neighbor (Andrew Dismukes) stops in say he has reconciled with his son, the chainsaw puts an end to him.
At this point, Kevin's mother comes to; she and Kevin are still alone in the foyer.
“Sorry, I've just been awake for a really long time,” she says. “Merry Christmas, Kevin.”
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“And a happy new year!” their neighbor adds, prompting them to scream. He too freaks out, and hits them both with his shovel.
As he backs out of their house, he says under his breath: “I've killed again.”
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9.6
Genre:
Folk/Country
Label:
Disques Cellier
Reviewed:
December 21, 2025
Although the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir formed less than a century ago, with a verifiable context and history, writers and listeners still treat the ensemble's music with the same mystification reserved for the pyramids of Giza, the menhirs of Stonehenge, or the cave paintings of the Neolithic age. Their demonstrations of the human voice are exceptional, presenting new possibilities as they transcend the mechanics of the throat, the grain of the body.
The shock of encountering sounds this extraordinary tends to bypass familiar categories and break into the realm of the inexplicable. The music baffles. But beneath its mystification lies a compelling story of folk repertoire, Communist propaganda, and the repeated suppression—and reimagining—of cultural identity, distorted by Western commerce and the label that reads: “world music.”
In 1986, the British label 4AD—followed by U.S. distributor Nonesuch in 1987—reissued a little-known 1975 anthology of recordings of the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir licensed from Swiss musicologist Marcel Cellier: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. Originally released on Cellier's private Disques Cellier label, the album documented a government-employed ensemble singing modernized versions of Bulgarian village songs.
The ensemble was first formed in 1951 by composer Filip Kutev, who reworked monophonic village tunes into multi-part harmonic arrangements that drew from Western choral singing while preserving the ardent throatiness of Bulgarian folk. His scoring, which blended Bulgarian rootsiness with avant-garde, bore traces of Stravinsky's grandeur, Debussy's impressionism, and Schoenberg's atonality, and resulted in a new musical genre called obrabotki (“handling” or “editing”).
In 1987, 4AD and Nonesuch's reissues both charted in their respective countries and sold hundreds of thousands of copies; the album even soundtracked David Bowie and Iman's wedding. A second volume, released by Disques Cellier in 1987 and 4AD the following year, went on to win a Grammy.
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares Vol. 1 came packaged in minimalist designs, with abstract artwork and just its title on the jacket. Nonesuch's naïve depiction of Bulgarian dress against a star-filled sky instilled an astro-romantic sensibility. 4AD's sleeve, with its vague suggestion of clouds, imposed an alliance with the heavenly. Neither album included translations of the lyrics, photos of the ensemble, nor any reference to who they were as people at all: no indication of age, location, or musical training. Aside from the tracklist, the releases offered scarcely any information at all.
Without any historical detail to orient these voices, their singing possesses a kind of beauty that swells into terror, like the vaguely unsettling feeling of setting foot in a cathedral. They are pinched into a bright, almost surgical nasality or burst loose into grand, sideways arcs, flaring out in a feral yelp. Together, their vocals tend to rush higher and higher; quicker and quicker; becoming more and more triumphant. And then they fall. And then they devastate.
The roots of these songs, though, are more prosaic. In Bulgaria, village music was typically sung by peasants while tending to agriculture and husbandry; at weddings; and to express national pride. Women who worked in shops sang together in bellowing, polyphonic unison. Their singing was not conventionally melodic by Western standards, but rather summed up by the word “izvika”: to cry out. They also used the word “buchi” to describe their own tonal quality—the same word Bulgarians use for the sound of cow's lowing.
Most fundamental to Bulgarian village music was its relationship between melody and drone. This layer endured well into the 20th century and became the most prominent feature of the Le Mystère recordings. The singers' buchi drone formed the core of the music's harmonic language, which relied mostly on unisons, major seconds, and minor thirds. Within this narrow range, the singers created an airless intimacy where adjacent tones clanged sharply against one another. Like notes crowded on a staff, the ensemble sat closely together when they sang. When Kate Bush later sang with them, in 1989, they even held one another.
It was not by accident that these folk ensembles were mostly women. In Communist Bulgaria, women were commonly associated with nationalism, imagined as the functional caretakers of tradition. These women became an instrument of cultural policy and national identity when the Bulgarian Communist Party came to power in 1946. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, the party redirected massive state resources toward reshaping folk music into a polished, modernized national symbol, staging folklore as proof of unity and continuity. It was a project hinged on purification, intended to cleanse Bulgaria's national image of the Ottoman rule that had spanned five centuries and brought violence, Islamization, and bloody uprisings.
The state pushed Bulgarian folk music toward Western classical ideas of counterpoint and harmony while systematically erasing Turkish and Romani traces, even though those communities comprised around 15 percent of the population. Under the party's rule from 1946 to 1989, listening to Turkish or Romani music could bring punishment and harassment, and ethnomusicologists worked to deny Ottoman-era influence outright. But even in Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Middle Eastern makams press audibly against Byzantine chant and Western diatonic systems.
The Communist Party tried, but failed, to root national sound in an imagined, uncontaminated past. But every claim to authenticity implies the existence of the inauthentic, and here that boundary was drawn in racial and ethnic terms, cleansing a plural inheritance into a single, state-approved voice.
Those voices were called kolektivi. Conservatory-trained composers—virtually all of them male—wrote and arranged songs for them, and professional choreographers paired asymmetrical dances to match the sporadic meters of the music. What had once been an amateur, homegrown tradition was now being polished into an artfully curated version of authenticity. Whereas song traditions had previously been passed down intergenerationally in the home, they now unfolded in public, under the auspices of the kolektivi.
In 1951, Kutev recruited the best singers from the kolektivi he could find, putting them through an arduous audition process, before they were forced to move away from their families to live in undesirable conditions in Sofia and assigned relentless schedules. Kutev's ensemble was the largest and most visible of some 15 similarly state-sponsored ensembles that began sprouting up around the more populous regions of Bulgaria.
In their songs, typical Bulgarian vocal techniques could be heard: atzane (hiccuping), provikvane (shouting), and tresene (voice shaking). The ensemble sang as though from jagged lungs, with a force serrated even further by the abrupt consonance of the Bulgarian language, which gives the music a natural percussive jolt. (And may also explain why the country reliably produces world-class beatboxers.)
Kutev and other composers wrote and arranged over 500 pieces for his ensemble, teaching them far more complex harmonic and melodic dynamics than they were used to. The women proved exceptionally gifted and adaptive, quickly transitioning from practicing their craft in their villages to professional settings. They rehearsed much like a modern orchestra, typically singing five hours a day, four to six days a week, with a 15-minute break every hour. While composers like Kutev received royalties each time their arrangement was played on the radio (which was all the time), the singers received none, only a paltry state salary.
In 1952, a year after the ensemble's formation, Cellier, the Swiss ethnomusicologist, traveled to Bulgaria to find music for his label. Cellier, who in 1969 would release pan flutist Gheorghe Zamfir on his label Disques Cellier, proved instrumental in opening Western access to Eastern European music during the Cold War. In Bulgaria, he contacted composer Georgi Minchev, who had arranged several of the ensemble's songs; Minchev, in turn, brought in additional specialists to help Cellier sift through the Radio Sofia archives in search of the strongest material for his Bulgarian folk-music anthology.
Cellier sourced around 80 percent of his material from those archives (though Nonesuch still misattributes the recordings entirely to Cellier on its website), obtaining the masters from the National Radio for a small price. Over 20 years later, he finally released a selection of songs from the Bulgarian ensemble as Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. He also registered the trademark “Le Mystère,” which granted him proprietorship of the name and obligated any subsequent user to pay him royalties.
Cellier's work caught the attention of label heads at Nonesuch in the U.S., who paid only $8,000 to license Cellier's anthology, as well as Ivo Watts-Russell, the head of the UK's 4AD, the tastemaking label home to the Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus, This Mortal Coil, and other progressive, goth-adjacent acts.
It was Bauhaus' Peter Murphy who discovered them via an Australian dancer friend and first introduced Watts-Russell to the ensemble, playing him “Prïtourïtze Planinata,” though Murphy knew neither the title of the song nor who sang it. Curiously, it was one of the only songs on the disc performed by a soloist, Stefka Sabotinova. Watts-Russell tracked down a copy of the Disques Cellier version in a record shop in Charing Cross and got in touch with Cellier about licensing the record for 4AD.
The music fit in well with 4AD's roster at the time, which boasted two of alternative rock's most incredible voices: Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, both of whom sang in their own respective idioglossia, shaking the limits of language. The label tended to gravitate toward ethereal rock music, where the sound of the voice often took precedence over the meaning of the lyrics. This order of priority ran contrary to the ensemble themselves. Traditionally, the Bulgarian village singers placed the lyrics at the center, improvising music around them, sometimes setting a recited poem to melody.
Across Le Mystère, the ensemble sings straight from the stomach: a sharp, guttural skirl, like a bagpipe. Softness is rare, airiness nonexistent. The highest notes are struck at full force. What they seek, always, is clarity: a tone that carries cleanly through the air, bright as a bell, sharp as a scythe.
Particularly on songs like “Stani Mi, Maytcho” and “Messetschinko Lio Greïlivko,” repetition is a powerful force. The melody never quite resolves but recurs in variations, until the singers come as close as possible to the gut punch of a feeling, the kind that rumbles throughout the body.
Such intensity and recursive power had a profound impact on 4AD's artists, especially Gerrard and Fraser. Just as it's incorrect to say the Bulgarian singers' voices are a pure transmutation of the ancient, we could say the same of Fraser's voice, long treated as an indecipherable marvel. Listen, and you'll hear how closely her vocal dialect sometimes mirrors the Bulgarian language. In a 2017 interview, she said that after Watts-Russell passed her the cassette in the mid-'80s, she learned it inside and out. “It became my teacher and home.”
Likewise, Gerrard attempted to sing using the ultra glottal Bulgarian technique in one of Dead Can Dance's best-known songs, “The Host of Seraphim.” She had the throat for it, though she later said, “I nearly broke my voice trying.” With its narrow melodic range, and Gerrard's voice more stinging than ever, the performance was clearly inspired by Bulgarian singing, though few have noted it. Dead Can Dance's music, in its invocations of exotic bygone cultures and an idealized Middle Ages, is threaded with a sense of ritualistic mysticism—the same kind that European and American record labels transplanted onto Le Mystère for the benefit of Western audiences.
In England and America, the formal arrival of “world music” as a discrete marketing category aligned almost perfectly with the international emergence of the Bulgarian choir, with both phenomena effectively coalescing in 1987. The term itself was invented by British label execs Roger Armstrong and Ben Mandelson in the mid-1980s as a loose industry shorthand for vastly different sounds, from lambada to Paul Simon's Graceland to King Sunny Adé's Juju Music. Western multicultural experimentation by figures like David Byrne and Peter Gabriel helped prepare the market, and Graceland demonstrated its commercial viability, with the genre soon becoming the fastest-growing sector of the international pop market. As Simon Frith observed, “world music” relied heavily on discourses of exploration and discovery, as though obscurity itself conferred aesthetic value, and trafficked in seductive contradictions: ancient yet novel, strange yet familiar.
Critics dressed their praise in these ideals. Their reviews were glowing but mostly ahistorical. “Their music is hundreds of years old, with dense, medieval-sounding harmonies,” wrote The Washington Post's Dana Thomas. Time's Jay Cocks, who began his review, “Score one for mystery,” erroneously stated that it was the first set of music ever recorded by the choir. One journalist at a small local paper in St. Louis referred to it as “the most beautiful music on the planet.” Such a breathless rave was warranted.
Across Le Mystère, the ensemble layers tight, syncopated harmonies that jolt the soloist forward or fan out around her prismatically in a velvety drone. The sound is chastening, both exacting and unstoppable. At times, it is scarcely believable that these are human voices. On “Schopska Pesen,” the ensemble's diaphonic chant sounds exactly like an instrument made of wood and horsehair and expressly designed to sound reedy.
Naturally, the choir won over many famous fans, including Linda Ronstadt. “I thought about going to Bulgaria to find them, but I didn't know whether I'd have to go out to a wheat field and see people standing there with sickles in their hands or whether they would be playing at a gig in a club,” she told the LA Times ahead of the choir's sold-out stop in L.A., as part of their first sold-out U.S. tour in 1988.
Some artists did track them down. In 1989, Kate Bush featured the Trio Bulgarka—three singers from Le Mystère who had branched off and rebranded—on her sixth album, The Sensual World. (On her previous album, Hounds of Love, she spliced a choral section from the Georgian folk song “Tsintskaro” into “Hello Earth.”) She first heard the choir through her brother Paddy, who she says was “interested in ethnic music,” and soon flew to Bulgaria to meet them herself. Their voices became a proxy for Bush's return to femininity. After several albums working only with male collaborators and writing hetero-optimistic music driven by male muses, The Sensual World was her attempt to locate her own femininity, something the trio helped ferment.
Into the 1990s, Western markets reframed the ensemble's songs as feminist acts of freedom, turning their voices toward their own cultural fantasies—like Xena Warrior Princess. The ensemble's “Kaval Sviri” played as Xena valiantly went into battle in the Hercules episode “Unchained Heart.” The show's producers, having heard the Mystère recordings, believed that the striking sounds of the Bulgarian vocals would perfectly symbolize their formidable heroine.
Decades later, in 2017, the same song appeared in Lady Gaga's documentary Five Foot Two. After Gaga documented her struggle with fibromyalgia, “Kaval sviri” played as Gaga was lifted into the air during her Super Bowl performance, a perilous stunt meant to signal her courage and valor. Another formidable heroine.
The voices of the Bulgarian choir have since found themselves in songs by Drake, Bring Me the Horizon, Tiësto and Jason Derulo, becoming further disembodied, as they were made to mimic the stutter of EDM vocals. None of this benefited the ensemble, of course. Since the Western labels and collectors like Cellier owned all recordings of the choir, the royalties transferred back only to them. Today, choir members recruited during the 1950s and 1960s are now retiring on insufficient pensions.
Watts-Russell wasn't—and still isn't to this day—much concerned with who these women were, what they were singing about, or where they are now. He wanted them to remain originless. “Frankly, the repeated listening didn't pique my curiosity up any more,” he told The Quietus in 2011. “I loved the anonymity of it. I loved not really knowing. I'm sure Marcel might have told me, or I might have asked him, but I have forgotten the details, because as I said, I didn't care.”
With that sandblasted indifference, the ensemble risks becoming another buried monument, half-emerging from the soil. Although they sing as though the Earth had found its tongue and breath, the keepers of their music are still intent upon attributing this power to mystery rather than the women themselves. Their monolith is as grand as Ozymandias'. People will study the ruin; the makers will remain unregarded. To whom will this mystery belong?
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Richard Branson's beloved wife, Joan Templeman, died on November 25, and the Virgin Group founder has continued to pay tribute to her on social media and celebrate the beautiful life she lived. On Saturday, December 20, he shared several photos of himself and Templeman again, marking what would have been their wedding anniversary.
Templeman turned 80 in July 2025, and just four months later, she passed away. When she died, Branson announced her passing in an Instagram post, informing his followers that she was his “best friend” and partner for over five decades. The couple married in 1989 and are parents to three children and five grandchildren.
Branson made another Instagram post on December 20, celebrating their time together and sharing three recent photos from Templeman's 80th birthday. They both look so happy and healthy.
“Today marks mine and Joan's wedding anniversary (coincidentally, it also marks Holly and Freddie's anniversary, and the birthday of their wonderful twins – Etta and Artie!),” Branson shared. “I still remember mine and Joan's wedding like it was yesterday. I'm not sure what I was whispering into her ear when these photos were taken on her 80th birthday this year, but I'm glad it made her smile! (swipe across).”
Fans showed their support in the comment section, flooding the post with loving messages. “Beautiful moments like this will last forever,” a comment reads. “Joan is definitely with you in spirit, just look for the signs.”
“You look like two kids Sharing secrets – I love it!,” another person shared.
Other reactions include, “Goodness – that is wonderful to be able to celebrate so many occasions on one day. What a beautiful way to remember loved ones,” “Sweet memories heal. Gratitude to you for sharing during this time. You and your family are blessed with Joan's smile in your hearts,” and “Sending love, Richard.”
The love shared between Branson and Templeman was so beautiful to witness, and she will be dearly missed by all who knew her. Branson is understandably heartbroken and devastated by his wife's passing, but he has found some solace in the outpouring of love that fans and friends have shared.
“Thank you to everyone who has shared such kind messages about Joan,” he wrote in an Instagram post on December 8. “Our whole family are so touched by the outpouring of love. It brings us great comfort, and it means so much to us all. We're the kind of family that now just want to celebrate Joan and the wonderful life she lived. I feel so fortunate to have met her all those years ago. She was just a joy to be around – as so many of your messages reiterated.”
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Jodie Sweetin harbors no ill-will toward former co-star Candace Cameron Bure, despite their opposing beliefs.
The “Full House” alum said Bure was the “closest thing” she had “to a sister” during an appearance on “The Moment” podcast earlier this week.
“Candace's faith, to be quite honest, has always been at the forefront for her, and I have zero problem with that,” Sweetin, 43, explained.
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Sweetin — who has been an outspoken champion for liberal causes, while Bure has been open about her faith — also acknowledged her opposing values with Bure, 48.
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“I have no problem with religion if it brings you peace and happiness, not necessarily saying that her brand of religion is not necessarily peace and happiness,” she explained, adding, “I don't really know.”
“I do know that I don't think you can truly love people if you don't respect them,” Sweetin said.
“I think if you don't respect people enough to allow them the same rights of marriage, of bodily autonomy and all those things, then I don't think that you can truly love someone,” Sweetin continued.
“It's some sort of weird pity, and it's not love. For me, standing up to say that how we treat other humans because they're different from us is completely unacceptable. And I'm pretty sure that is what Jesus would've said, but what do I know? I'm not a Christian.”
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Sweetin confessed she's “been loud” with her opinions and said Bure has “kept a little more quiet” when it comes to politics.
Sweetin said it's “OK” if there are “people who don't like what [she's] saying,” or who like her as her character Stephanie Tanner but “don't like you as you.”
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“It's, like, ‘Great, watch Full House and don't follow me online,'” Sweetin said.
“It's OK, you don't have to like me, but I try not to let other people's perceptions of who I should be put up any barriers of what I want to be,” she continued. “Candace and I are very different in that regard.”
A rep for Bure did not immediately respond to Page Six's request for comment.
Sweetin seemingly shaded Bure in 2022 after the latter left the Hallmark Channel for Great American Media — which she notoriously declared keeps “traditional marriage at the core,” thus excluding gay couples.
Singer JoJo Siwa shared a screenshot of an article titled “Candace Cameron Bure's Plan For New Cable Channel: No Gays,” via Instagram at the time, with Sweeten pointedly responding in the comments thread, “You know I love you ❤️❤️.”
Bure subsequently unfollowed Sweetin on the platform.
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Sweetin previously spoke out on the complicated dynamic, again comparing Bure to a family member.
“We just exist in different worlds, but she is still someone I have known since I was 5 years old,” Sweetin said during a May episode of the “Vault” podcast.
“It's like family members. Maybe we don't talk all the time — and I know if politics come up, it is not going to go well, but I don't hate you. I am not going to not hug you, but I'm also not going to not keep my mouth shut.
She added, “I'll be nice, but I will not be quiet.”
By Natalie Oganesyan
Weekend Editor
Spoiler alert: The following article discusses the plot points for the penultimate episode of Pluribus Season 1, “Charm Offensive.”
After a biblically maddening period of isolation — 40 days, to be exact — Carol (Rhea Seehorn) finds respite in the arms of Zosia (Karolina Wydra), her envoy from the Others, chosen specifically because of her resemblance to the romantasy author's initial sketches for her novel series' love interest. Their poignant reconciliation (a dam of emotion ruptures, as Carol's hyperventilates and clutches to Zosia's arms like a lifeline) closes out the seventh episode of Pluribus, and this week's penultimate showing deepens the two's relationship, as Carol and Zosia share a kiss, bed and sunset-tinged strolls.
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And though “Charm Offensive” offers Carol an interlude of sorts to her monumental grief — at the state of the world, at the loss of her wife Helen (Miriam Shor) — it doesn't preclude her ongoing investigation into the hive mind.
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As star and recently minted Golden Globe nominee Rhea Seehorn tells Deadline, “I assumed this [Zosia and Carol's relationship] must be a complication because they've sent her to her to be enticing and attractive. But then we started going down this road of Carol being utterly broken by the isolation she's put through, as well as the existential threat that this could be your life for the rest of your life; never speaking to anyone again until you just die on your couch alone, and it's horrific and jarring to say the least. So she's in this very fragile and vulnerable place.”
While Seehorn classifies Carol's feelings toward Zosia as genuine, “There's another part of her though, the whole time, going, ‘Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. This can't be real.'”
Throughout the episode's several tenderhearted vignettes, Zosia and Carol go on dates, ranging from the flirtatiously competitive (a croquet match) to the awe-inspiring (on a hike, the latter confesses her favorite sound in the world is the forlorn whistle of a train horn, something she's never shared with anyone before; Zosia unconsciously wills the passing caboose to emit the noise). But their lazy days spent getting couples' massages is interrupted when, in a gesture of support for Carol embarking on a new Winds of Wycaro book (with a WLW romance at its center this time), Zosia brings her to the newly resurrected diner where she first began penning her initial drafts, recreated down to the server who would allow her to commandeer a four-seat booth all day. Carol, who usually finds a way to find fault with everything, reminisces fondly about a time before her big break, when she was still broke, before the bubble bursts.
“She remembers what was great about it, and comes away, realizes, this is manipulative,” Seehorn explains. “This is all part of a ploy, but at the same time, it is an act of kindness. It was a loving thing to do. Are those two things mutually exclusive? And these larger, rippling questions of — I think she's starting to feel like she's going a little crazy — ‘How are you defining what real love is?' And if there is nobody that loves her or wants to be around her anymore in the way that she used to define love, then can this be real love? Is it Carol's hang-up that real love has to be unique to me; it can't be that you love someone else the same, because now you're taking away from that? The same as saying, ‘My book is great, but so is this, and so is that?' [And that] somehow takes away the compliment? Is that a failing of Carol's or a manipulation of theirs? She's playing a lot of chess in her head, or maybe weighing things out, but she's definitely tipping the scales on purpose to support a delusion that is a salve for how broken she is.”
As show creator Vince Gilligan told Wydra, the collective doesn't “have secrets, they're not secretive, they're not manipulative, they're genuinely good, loving, kind, unflappable beings.” So if that's the case, is the dynamic between Zosia and Carol real or illusory? Does it matter that Zosia, albeit with difficulty at first, uses the word “I” to assert her individuality, or is this another attempt at placating Carol?
“I want people to have their own experience of what comes up for them, and have their own opinions of what it is,” the actress says. “Is it that Zosia is finally pulling away from that collective mind and from the hive and becoming an individual? Is she evolving within the the collective mind? Is she evolving to become her own person and showing her own personality? Is she falling for real for Carol? Are the feelings that she [is] experiencing real, or is the collective mind full of memories and information about who Helen was and what Carol likes, and to make her happy, they perform for her?”
Gilligan, as he's made known before, wants viewers to untangle these colossal questions for themselves: “I know this is never the most satisfying answer, but I really — with this show more than any show I've ever worked on — want the audience … to come to their own conclusions. I want the audience to decide: Is this true love, or is it artifice? What does it represent?”
Alison Tatlock, who co-wrote the finale and serves as executive producer, adds: “I feel like it's sort of a perfect storm for Carol to be vulnerable enough, after being deprived of human interaction for such a long time and having gone through the trauma of the first couple of episodes of losing her wife in such a horrible way and then being abandoned. She is desperate for some kind of human connection, and we all have the ability to trick ourselves or to tell ourselves a story that suits the moment, and her story for the moment that she needs is this is a person, this is an individual and I can make a connection.”
Put another way, finale director/writer/EP Gordon Smith, says, “Sometimes when a question like that gets asked, it's like, ‘OK, would I rebound with an alien, sort of hive-mind creature after 40 days alone in the desert and shortly after the death of my wife?' I don't know.” He adds that Carol certainly “could be susceptible to that situation,” though Gilligan humorously notes, “The tricky thing is: We always say Vladimir Putin's in there somewhere.”
Pluribus will air its Season 1 finale early next week, Dec. 24. It has already been renewed for a second season.
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This series is multi-layered and interesting. Some of the podcasts about the show are diving deeper into the story. There's certainly nothing else like it on TV.
The show got off to a great start, but it is incredibly boring now. The past two episodes have been awful.
Go back to 30 second videos on TikToc. You'll be happier.
sooooo booooooring
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Live from New York, it's the last “Saturday Night Live” of 2025!
“Wicked: For Good” star Ariana Grande is set to host the episode, marking her third time hosting “SNL” and fifth overall appearance after two stints as musical guest in 2014 and 2022. Grande was last on stage in Studio 8H in October 2024, when she hosted ahead of “Wicked” hitting theaters.
Cher, whose first “SNL” appearance was in 1987, will be tonight's musical guest. She has been involved with “SNL” recently, though, as she performed during “SNL50: The Anniversary Concert” in February 2025.
Tonight's Christmas episode will also be repertory player Bowen Yang's last episode after seven years with the show. Yang, who recently co-starred with Grande in the “Wicked” films, was hired as a writer on the show for Season 44, and was promoted to featured player in Season 45 before a Season 47 call-up to repertory player.
Ariana Grande will host “Saturday Night Live” tonight, Dec. 20, with musical guest Cher.
“SNL” is on tonight, Dec. 20. The episode will air live from coast-to-coast at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT.
If you don't have cable, you'll need a live TV streaming service to stream “Saturday Night Live” for free. One option we love is DIRECTV, which comes with five days free and starts at $39.99/month, with plenty of subscription options and genre packs that include NBC.
You can also watch “SNL” for free with a Peacock Premium free trial (seven days, then $16.99/month). Peacock also has new “SNL” episodes available to stream in full on Sunday mornings.
Tonight's episode is the last “SNL” of 2025. The show will return for the second half of Season 51 in mid-January with a host and musical guest that will likely be announced during tonight's episode.
This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for the New York Post, Page Six, and Decider. Angela keeps readers up to date with information on how to watch all of your favorite reality TV shows and movies on each streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she's also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, celebrities, and pop culture. Prior to joining The Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews
When it comes to the most convincing UFO sightings ever recorded, Redditors have shared a wealth of opinions and insights. Here are some of the most frequently mentioned and highly regarded cases:
This incident is often cited as one of the most compelling due to the large number of child witnesses.
"The Ariel school incident in Africa is my favourite. Surprised it hasn't been mentioned. 60 plus children apparently witnessed a craft landing in the schoolyard and a few beings came out."
["Over 60 kids saw something unexplained that day and the majority of their testimony
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"Bugs" is far from one of the most game-changing episodes of "Supernatural," but it did have a positive effect on the horror series in the long run. According to creator Eric Kripke, the Season 1 outing — which is currently the second-lowest rated episode on IMDb — taught the minds behind the show what not to do from that moment on.
"[W]e overreached on several monsters," Kripke told TV Insider. "It wasn't working from a production standpoint. 'Bugs' was famously terrible. I went to [exec producer] Bob Singer and told him the visuals were coming off like cheesy B movies. He said that we should focus on [Sam and Dean] — and the monsters have to be [more like] characters."
In an older interview, Kripke cited "Hook Man," "Route 666," "No Exit," and "Red Sky at Morning" — all of which aired during the first three seasons — as other low points.
"Sometimes, you try things that just don't work at all, and because of our time and budget, you don't have the time to go back and re-do them," he said. "You have no choice but to air them in their deformed state, and so you have to live with millions of people watching your mistakes."
Like its showrunner, "Supernatural" itself isn't above self-deprecation. In the Season 11 episode "Don't Call Me Shurley," Chuck, aka God (Rob Benedict), describes a negative instant reaction to his autobiography: "Last time I saw that look on an editor's face, I just handed in 'Bugs.'"
Read more: Arrow EP Marc Guggenheim Reveals He Was Warned That 'If Arrow Wasn't A Hit, There Would Be No More CW'
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Psychic Modulation Phonec3 is a unique retro Lo-Fi inspired Synthesizer plugin that will return in an upgraded version in early 2026.
Many virtual analog/analog modeling synthesizers attempt to imitate the sounds of vintage analog instruments, with varying degrees of success. Psychic Modulation took a different, “vintage” approach from the very beginning with its Phonec Synthesizer. The plugin focuses on retro Lo-Fi synthscapes.
A bit like Boards of Canada, or like running an analog modeling synth through an old VHS tape to get a very lush and wobbly lo-fi sound. Phonec fans can rejoice. Psychic Modulation has announced Phonec3 for January 2026, and you can pre-order it now at a special price.
Like its predecessors, Phonec3 is a subtractive virtual-analog Synthesizer focused on retro lo-fi sounds. According to Psychic Modulation, they rebuilt Phonec3 from the ground up to make it compatible with newer systems, such as Apple Silicon chips.
Phonec3 incorporates many familiar features from Phonec2, along with new additions. The new GUI is immediately noticeable in the teaser; it appears cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than Phonec2.
For example, the mixer is no longer available, but you can now mix the oscillators right in the OSC section. The core still consists of two oscillators, a sub-oscillator, and a noise source, including sync, PWM, X-wave, and more.
The developer states that the oscillators have been improved and now include, among other features, new waveforms. I hope the unique logic mix parameter between OSC1 and OSC2 is still available, enabling per-voice distortion and audio-rate interactions.
Then, Phonec3 features a revamped filter section with various modes and built-in overdrive. Phonec2 featured a 2-stage lowpass filter with eight modes, an acid filter, a post-highpass filter, and filter saturation.
The UI also indicates that the filter now includes three additional flavor ingredients: feedback, melt, and clip. Features that allow you to incorporate the lo-fi, dirty character into the filter.
Psychic Modulation also promises a modulation boost for Phonec3. On the UI teaser, you can see three multi-wave LFOs, the beloved HFO (high-frequency oscillator), three advanced ADSR envelopes, and more.
Several small details that are not yet fully known have been added, making the modulation more versatile. Like Phonec2, it also features an arpeggiator and pitch/mod sequencers.
These also offer more features on the menu than the previous version, including scale locking for instant melodic harmony. Choose between chromatic and scaled modes, and the pitch steps will snap into harmony.
This scale-locking feature will also be available on the pitch wheel with the quantizer. Of course, the beloved and key feature of Phonec, the melt feature, is again onboard.
The developer says it has received improvements and undergone rework. It's a unique feature that lets you lo-fi the sound engine with drifting, detuning, and malfunction artifacts.
Phonec3 also features a multi-FX section with an EQ, a lush chorus, and echo with a ping-pong option. Important note: MPE, which is part of P2, will not be available in Phonec3 from version 1.0. This will be added in an update.
Psychic Modulation does not yet offer a demo or sound demo of Phonec3 because the plugin is in the final phase of development.
With the switch from Intel to Apple Silicon, developers had to adapt their plugins. For some, it was a breeze; for others, the entire framework had to be rewritten. The latter was the case with Absynth and also with Phonec2.
It's great to see that a new version of Phonec is coming soon, and we will be able to use it again on modern computers with added functionality and hopefully even more Lo-Fi goodness.
Psychic Modulation Phonec3 will be available in January 2026. You can pre-order it now for $59 instead of $89 with the code PHONEC3PREORDER at checkout.
Existing Phonec2 owners should receive an upgrade offer via email. If not, please get in touch with the developer. Phonec3 will run as a VST/AU plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) + Windows.
More information here: Psychic Modulation
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Often-incoherent podcaster Candace Owens fired back at Erika Kirk as the widow finally addressed the conspiracy theories surrounding Charlie Kirk's death and Turning Point USA, claiming the widow “missed the mark” and accused her of using “the exact same emotional strategy deployed by BLM.”
“It is a positively ABSURD notion that you cannot critique a 150 million dollar organization because the CEO says they are like a family, and are grieving,” Owens railed on X.
“It is the exact same emotional strategy deployed by BLM in the wake of George Floyd's death, when I called out their shady financial dealings.”
Erika Kirk has been publicly pushing back for the first time on rampant conspiracy theories flying around the internet from conservative activists about her husband's assassination — among them Owens, once a close friend of Charlie's.
In the weeks after Kirk was murdered, Owens suggested Kirk was “betrayed,” accused the federal government of lying about the investigation, and said that Israel may have been involved in Kirk's death.
She's repeatedly gone after Erika, who was named CEO of Turning Point USA — the massive conservative activist organization co-founded by Charlie.
Owens later attacked Erika on her podcast for not addressing the rumors publicly as the new CEO of the company, but as a mourning widow.
“It completely missed the mark for me. I am sorry. It just has. But the good news is that she is now un-murking the water in terms of her intentions with this massive political organization,” Owens said.
Owens shared a clip of Erika Kirk saying that she understands the conspiracy theories about her husband stem from people wanting to find an answer to “something that happened that was so evil.”
Kirk said she wants justice but doesn't have time to address the theories. She added that she's speaking out because she's reached a “breaking point” because they've started to involve her immediate family or the family she's found at TPUSA.
“This is righteous anger because this is not OK, this is not healthy. This is a mind virus,” she said.
Owens said Kirk's comments are why “Turning Point USA looks so suspicious,” adding at one point: “You don't just get to be widowed into chairman and CEO.”
“Don't try to, like, ‘mom' the organization and say, ‘Well, Mother's upset because people are coming after her kids and all of the multimillion-dollar subsidiaries,'” she groaned.
“She gave us emotion. She said, ‘I'm a mother. I am a wife.' And we never asked about whether she was a mother or wife. We want to know if she is a CEO and a chairman.”
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Saturday night wrapped up a series of paranormal experiences at the Mackay Mansion in Virginia City. A small business called "Vegas Afterlife" hosted four ticketed events at the historic house for its "Ghosts of Christmas Past" series.
The company's founder, Danielle Nicole, said she's been involved with paranormal activity for quite some time.
"I had my first paranormal experience at the age of eight," Nicole said. "I saw a shadow figure in a hallway during a sleepover at my house growing up, and ever since then, I have been intrigued by it."
Nicole's parents owned a local community magazine, and she would write paranormal articles for the publication. She said a local paranormal group gave her the chance of a lifetime.
"They asked if [my parents and I] wanted to go on a paranormal investigation," she said. "I went on my first paranormal investigation at the age of 12, and I just continued doing it."
Now, Nicole hosts her own tours.
2 News Nevada tagged along for Vegas Afterlife's final night at the Mackay Mansion for the year on Saturday. Nicole said she made contact with a spirit in the lobby while we were there. She said the frequency of contact depends on who's in the group.
"There are some people who come in as skeptics. Sometimes the spirits don't like to try to show activity when there are skeptics in the group," she said.
Regardless of what activity is present on any given night, Nicole said it's all part of her dream.
"If you were to ask me a year ago if I would be doing this for work, I would tell you you're probably really crazy."
Vegas Afterlife's next scheduled event is at Whiskey Pete's Hotel and Casino in Primm on December 27 & 28 and select Saturdays after that. You can find tickets here. Nicole said they're also planning tours at Benson Grist Mill near Salt Lake City and Mount Wilson Ranch in Pioche, NV.
MMJ
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