Business Sentiment
Sentiment Legend:
Negative < 44
Mixed 46-54
Positive > 56
Begum's lawyers argue she was child trafficking victim when she travelled to live under IS in Syria in 2015
The European court of human rights has questioned the UK government over its 2019 decision to remove Shamima Begum's British citizenship.
Lawyers in Europe have asked how Begum's treatment complies with the UK's responsibilities to victims of trafficking.
The intervention has encouraged Begum's lawyers and fuelled Conservative and Reform accusations of meddling by foreign judges and their calls to leave European human rights treaty.
In 2015, as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Begum left her east London home and travelled with two friends to live under territory held by Islamic State (IS). She was “married off” to an IS fighter with whom she had three children, all of whom died in infancy.
In 2019, the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, revoked her citizenship on grounds of national security, in a decision upheld in the court of appeal last year and backed by the current government.
Campaigners and Begum's lawyers argue she was the victim of child trafficking. Begum, now 26, remains stateless in a Syrian refugee camp.
A document published by the European court this month confirms that Begum is challenging Javid's decision under article 4 of the European convention on human rights – a prohibition of slavery and forced labour.
The case was lodged in December 2024, after she was denied the chance to challenge the removal of her British citizenship at the UK's supreme court.
Among four questions posed by judges in Strasbourg to the Home Office, they asked: “Did the secretary of state have a positive obligation, by virtue of article 4 of the convention, to consider whether the applicant had been a victim of trafficking and whether any duties or obligations to her flowed from that fact, before deciding to deprive her of her citizenship?”
Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, which is representing Begum, said the court's communication “presents an unprecedented opportunity” for the UK and Begum to “grapple with the significant considerations raised in her case and ignored, sidestepped or violated up to now by previous UK administrations”.
One of the lawyers, Gareth Peirce, said: “It is impossible to dispute that a 15-year-old British child was in 2014-15 lured, encouraged and deceived for the purposes of sexual exploitation to leave home and travel to [IS-controlled] territory for the known purpose of being given, as a child, to an [IS] fighter to propagate children for the Islamic State.”
She added: “It is equally impossible not to acknowledge the catalogue of failures to protect a child known for weeks beforehand to be at high risk when a close friend had disappeared to Syria in an identical way and via an identical route.
“It has already been long conceded that the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, who took the precipitous decision in 2019 very publicly to deprive Ms Begum of citizenship, had failed entirely to consider the issues of grooming and trafficking of a school child in London and of the state's consequent duties.”
Pierce said the challenge came as the current government had made protections for victims of grooming and trafficking a national priority.
A Home Office spokesperson said any decision made to protect national security would be robustly defended. They added: “The government will always protect the UK and its citizens. That is why Shamima Begum – who posed a national security threat – had her British citizenship revoked and is unable to return to the UK.”
The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, said Begum had “no place” in the UK because of her support for violent extremists. In a post on X, he wrote: “It is deeply concerning the European Court of Human Rights is now looking at using the ECHR to make the UK take her back.”
Also on X, Richard Tice, Reform's deputy leader, wrote: “ECHR can jog on….none of their business …just another reason why we must leave this foreign court.”
The ICE drive would use an ad-targeting technique called “geofencing” to send recruitment ads to users' phone browsers.
Independent journalism at Truthout faces unprecedented authoritarian censorship. If you value progressive media, please make a year-end donation today.
The Trump administration is planning a massive propaganda campaign aimed at recruiting thousands of new federal immigration enforcement officers to carry out its mass deportation agenda.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that it had obtained internal documents revealing that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to spend $100 million over the next year on what the agency describes as a “wartime recruitment” drive.
The propaganda blitz will be targeted at highly specific demographics, including “people who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear,” according to the Post.
The ICE drive would also use an ad-targeting technique called “geofencing” to send recruitment ads to users' phone browsers if they are in the vicinity of certain locations, such as military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses, and gun shows.
The ads being designed for the recruitment drive will be based around current appeals that depict joining ICE as part of a “sacred duty” to “defend the homeland” from “foreign invaders,” the Post reported.
This rhetoric is similar to the language used in a recent ICE job post flagged by University of Wisconsin–Madison sociologist Jess Calarco. The listing asked prospective recruits if they are “ready to defend the homeland” by joining “an elite team dedicated to … securing our nation's safety.”
Calarco noted that the job post “reads like a video game ad,” which she said “is almost certainly by design.”
Sarah Saldaña, a director of ICE under the Obama administration, told the Post that it is worrying to see the Trump administration casting such a wide net for people who lack any experience in law enforcement and who may be eager for what the Post described as “all-out combat.”
The recruitment blitz comes amid new indications that the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign is falling far short of its goals.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent on Wednesday wrote that immigration arrests this year have fallen far short of the goal of 3,000 people per day set by top Trump aide Stephen Miller, and it seems highly unlikely that Miller will realize his dream of deporting 1 million people per year.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, told Sargent that “it's clear that they have not achieved the shock-and-awe campaign of mass deportations that they wanted, and they are still running into quite a lot of obstacles.”
Reichlin-Melnick also predicted that “there will still be millions of people here who are undocumented” after Trump leaves office in 2028, as the administration “will not be able to deport even the majority of undocumented immigrants in four years.”
The Trump administration earlier in the year announced plans to entice new ICE recruits by offering them $50,000 sign-up bonuses and assistance with repaying student loans in a bid to double the agency's head count.
Before midnight tonight, all donations to Truthout will be matched dollar for dollar up to $15,000! Thanks to a generous supporter, your one-time gift today will be matched immediately. As well, your monthly donation will be matched for the whole first year, doubling your impact.
We have just a few hours left to raise $15,000 and receive the full match.
This matching gift comes at a critical time. As Trump attempts to silence dissenting voices and oppositional nonprofits, reader support is our best defense against the right-wing agenda.
Help Truthout confront Trump's fascism in 2026, and have your donation matched now!
Brad Reed is a contributor at Common Dreams.
Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.
All donations to Truthout are currently matched dollar for dollar up to $15,000! Thanks to a generous supporter, your one-time gift today will be matched immediately and your monthly donation will be matched for the whole first year. Take advantage of this match — please give before midnight tonight!
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information about the strike on Tuapse Oil Refinery from sources inside Ukraine's military intelligence.
Ukraine carried out strikes on oil infrastructure inside Russia late on Dec. 30, sources inside Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) told the Kyiv Independent.
The operation targeted Tuapse Oil Refinery in Krasnodar Krai on Russia's Black Sea coast, and struck transport pipelines, a sea terminal and other equipment, the sources said.
Local authorities reported that a dock was damaged alongside equipment at the refinery, adding that five homes were damaged and two people were injured in the attack.
"A fire at one of the docks was promptly extinguished. A fire was also put out at the refinery site in an area of 300 square meters," the Krasnodar Krai Operational Headquarters said in an announcement.
While it was not immediately clear as to what weaponry was used in the reported strikes, Ukraine routinely launches deep strikes against military and industrial facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied territories, primarily relying on domestically developed drones.
Kyiv continues to escalate its campaign against Russian oil and gas infrastructure, a key source of Moscow's revenues helping to fuel its all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Tuapse, located in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, around 75 kilometers northwest of the major city of Sochi, has served as a regular target of Russian attacks. The coastal town is home to the Tuapse Oil Refinery, capable of refining approximately 12 million tons of crude oil per year.
Earlier in the night, Telegram media channels, citing resident reports, also claimed that an oil depot in the Russian-occupied community of Rovenky in Luhansk Oblast was attacked by Ukraine's military.
Photos and videos posted to social media and filmed by local residents appear to show large flames at the facility.
The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify reports of the strikes.
Ukraine has previously struck the Rovenky depot. In October 2024, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed Ukrainian troops in cooperation with the intelligence service (HUR) carried out an attack.
No information was immediately available on the extent of the damage caused.
Earlier this month, Russian oil prices dropped to the lowest level since the outbreak of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
Senior News Editor
News Editor
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, speaking to Reuters, called the footage "laughable."
The operation targeted a large oil depot in Rybinsk, a city 160 miles north of Moscow in Yaroslavl Oblast, the sources said.
The Kyiv Independent's Tim Zadorozhnyy speaks with Meaghan Mobbs, head of the R.T. Weatherman Foundation and the daughter of President Donald Trump's outgoing special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Over 170,000 people are without power after the attack, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on Wednesday morning.
Romania will contribute 50 million euros ($59 million), according to a press release by the Romanian government.
Ukraine's military reportedly struck oil depots in the various Russian and Russian-occupied regions late on Dec. 30, Russian Telegram media channels reported.
The number includes 1,000 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported intercepting 101 of the 127 drones launched by Russia overnight.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Dec. 29 that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence, an allegation Kyiv has denied. "I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it," Trump said.
"Where is their condemnation of the fact that our children are being bombed and people are being killed all this time? I don't hear India, frankly, nor the United Arab Emirates," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 30.
National security advisers from the Coalition of the Willing countries, led by the U.K. and France, have agreed to meet in Ukraine on Jan. 3, according to Zelensky. The meeting will be followed by another meeting among state leaders, planned for Jan. 6 in France.
"Each restoration requires significant time and resources, as the level of damage varies across regions," Deputy Energy Minister Olha Yukhymchuk said.
Muslim voters who backed Zohran Mamdani are now looking for him to follow through on his policy proposals.
As we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation, your support is urgently needed. Please make a year-end gift to Truthout today.
On January 1, New York City's first ever Muslim and South Asian mayor will take office, inheriting the largest police force in the United States while assuming responsibility for a city that's seen a rise in immigration raids and deportations ever since Donald Trump became president over the last year. Zohran Mamdani's victory in November came on the heels of a campaign focused on making the city more affordable. His messaging was clear, consistent, and connected directly to the concerns of New York workers in every community across the city.
The mayoral election saw the highest turnout in more than 50 years, thanks to Mamdani's success with a wide coalition of groups. His campaign brought in new immigrant voters, particularly within South Asian communities, younger millennial and Gen Z voters, and Black voters who flipped from Andrew Cuomo thanks to consistent outreach. The campaign also spoke directly to Muslim voters, many of whom were motivated to cast a ballot because of the surge of Islamophobia, both on a national level and specifically hurled against Mamdani, especially as the election drew closer.
The attacks against Mamdani felt almost like outdated caricatures, reminiscent of a time when Muslim hate was much more bluntly spoken and acceptable across the political aisle. Systemic Islamophobia has long been normalized, but that more candid, virulent brand of hate was brought back into fashion with the rise of Donald Trump. And while the anti-Muslim rhetoric that dominated his 2016 campaign caused real harm, Trump was still generally regarded as extreme and outlandish, especially by Democrats. Now, Democrats, who'd long couched their harmful rhetoric and policies in flowery language and progressive aesthetics, jumped on the bandwagon, suggesting Mamdani's win would make the city unsafe.
What changed? The genocide in Gaza, which illustrated clearly the dehumanization of Muslims and Arabs that was so pervasive across our institutions. Mamdani's unequivocal stance against Israel's genocide and his solidarity with pro-Palestinian student protesters made him inseparable from that very same dehumanization.
Tens of millions of dollars were spent attacking Mamdani, including on attacks that tried to paint him as a Muslim extremist. In one case, a pro-Cuomo group ran a video ad showing Mamdani smiling while the Twin Towers burned in the background. Mamdani was forced by media, in interviews, on talk shows, and from his own opponents, to repeatedly respond to accusations of antisemitism for his criticisms of Israel — allegations that are also rooted in anti-Muslim sentiment, suggesting any Muslim who condemns the genocide in Gaza must harbor hatred against Jews.
Mamdani's response to the wave of Islamophobia directed at him, however, signaled a turning point, not only in the election, but hopefully the future of the city as well. Addressing New York City's roughly 1 million Muslims, Mamdani doubled down on his Muslim-ness and invited the rest of us to do the same. He challenged the casual racism and dehumanization of Muslims that has become so acceptable in this country, to the point that repeatedly questioning a Muslim about Jewish safety has been framed as not only reasonable, but in the public's best interest.
And then he won, in spite of — or perhaps because of — all of the blatant attempts to tear him down.
While Muslims of every generation celebrated Mamdani's win, millennials like myself, who came of age in a post-9/11 New York City, may have felt the significance of his victory the deepest. Members of this generation might have been too young to understand the shifting geopolitics of the time as the country would soon begin an endless war in the Middle East, but they were old enough to know that their place in this country, their sense of belonging, was being questioned. They felt that ostracization when a classmate made a “terrorist” joke, or when a family member was questioned by law enforcement. They heard the stories that swirled around campuses about FBI and New York City Police Department (NYPD) informants in Muslim student organizations. They learned, along with their elders, that the NYPD had been spying on our communities, mosques and campuses, surveilling young Muslims under the guise of public safety.
Many of these Muslim New Yorkers, who grew up in Mamdani's generation, see themselves in him. They share a perspective similar to the one he shared during the campaign: the understanding that being a Muslim New Yorker after 9/11 meant becoming familiar with the anti-Muslim hate and fearmongering that has become embedded in our institutions, along with an urgent desire to make such hate politically toxic.
Political leaders on both sides have historically used anti-Muslim hate to further their own agendas. After 9/11, the anti-Muslim sentiment that became synonymous with the George W. Bush administration, which used the attacks to start an illegal war in Iraq and fuel the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, pushed Muslims to vote for Barack Obama and his promise of change. Obama then left office with a legacy of deporting more immigrants than any other president in U.S. history and carrying out more drone strikes on largely Muslim-majority countries in his first year than his predecessor Bush did in his entire tenure. Donald Trump's Muslim ban, which was enacted in his first week in office, tore families apart. Again, Muslims chose “the lesser of two evils” in the next election. They reluctantly turned out for Obama's former vice president, Joe Biden, who then facilitated and funded a horrific genocide in Gaza that killed more than 70,000 people.
Islamophobia is still being used by politicians to garner support. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for a fourth term, recently designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group, a terrorist organization. In the same state, a Republican running for Congress has made anti-Muslim hate a focal point of her campaign, calling Muslims “terrorists” and promising to expel them from Texas if elected. Far right, anti-immigrant rhetoric like this has only increased under a Trump administration that has made immigrants the target of baseless attacks and often aggressive violence.
At the same time, the success of Mamdani's campaign has already inspired other Muslims to pursue political office. Aber Kawas, a community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, like Mamdani, announced her run for New York State Assembly in Queens in early December after receiving the endorsement from the socialist group. In a post announcing her run, Kawas wrote, “I never planned to run for office, but in the last two years, there has been a massive political shift that has called for all of us to reexamine who should hold power,” citing similar issues around affordability that were the focal point of Mamdani's campaign. If she wins, she would become the first Palestinian to serve in the state's legislature. More importantly, it would add to the number of officials elected on the promise of protecting immigrants and making the city more affordable for its workers.
Of course, identity representation doesn't equal tangible change — there is a laundry list of prior leaders across every level of office who are proof of that. Especially not after more than two years of an ongoing genocide in Gaza funded by our own tax dollars, it's not enough for elected officials to simply come from marginalized identities. They must be willing to upend a status quo in which people struggle to afford even the most basic necessities while their government spends billions of dollars a year to support mass slaughter in Gaza instead.
Muslim voters who backed Mamdani are now looking for him to follow through on his policy proposals, from affordable housing to universal child care to raising the minimum wage — things that will actually make a real difference in their lives.
And they are not naive, either. Mamdani has advocated for reforms to policing, proposing a Department of Community Safety which would limit the role of police in responding to 911 calls concerning mental health and homelessness. But his decision to keep NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams, has left many of his supporters wary of his incoming administration. Under Tisch's leadership, the NYPD amped up its crackdown on low-level offenses and cooperated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target and detain student protesters. Muslims and others are moving with caution, aware of the NYPD's long history of surveilling Black and Brown communities and enacting policies that disproportionately harm our people.
Muslims have been exploited by both parties for so long, used as political pawns to incite fear and garner support for foreign policy objectives. In this fraught political moment, we must remember it is our right to call on our leaders to build the city we want to live in, one where our safety is prioritized and our needs are met. Like any elected official, Mamdani will face scrutiny as mayor over how well he makes good on his promises. His actions can also set the precedent for how Muslims are reflected in policy and governance for years to come. After a campaign in which we finally felt heard, and at a time when the stakes for our communities are so high, he bears a heavy responsibility.
Before midnight tonight, all donations to Truthout will be matched dollar for dollar up to $15,000! Thanks to a generous supporter, your one-time gift today will be matched immediately. As well, your monthly donation will be matched for the whole first year, doubling your impact.
We have just a few hours left to raise $15,000 and receive the full match.
This matching gift comes at a critical time. As Trump attempts to silence dissenting voices and oppositional nonprofits, reader support is our best defense against the right-wing agenda.
Help Truthout confront Trump's fascism in 2026, and have your donation matched now!
This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the following terms:
Nour Saudi is a New York City-based writer and audio journalist. She is currently a producer at Futuro Media, where she leads production on podcast series. She envisions a just and equitable media industry as one that goes beyond representation and identity, and actively and unequivocally calls out the harmful policies being enacted against historically marginalized communities.
Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.
All donations to Truthout are currently matched dollar for dollar up to $15,000! Thanks to a generous supporter, your one-time gift today will be matched immediately and your monthly donation will be matched for the whole first year. Take advantage of this match — please give before midnight tonight!
Reunification ‘is unstoppable', says Chinese president, a day after the conclusion of intense military drills
China's president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to reunify China and Taiwan in his annual New Year's Eve speech in Beijing.
Speaking the day after the conclusion of intense Chinese military drills around Taiwan, Xi said: “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.”
China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island, as part of its territory and has long vowed to annex it, using force if necessary.
US intelligence is increasingly concerned about the advancing capabilities of China's armed forces to launch such an attack if Xi decides the time is right.
On Monday and Tuesday, China's People's Liberation Army launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of main ports and sending its navy, air force, rocket force and coastguard to encircle Taiwan's main island. The drills, called “Justice Mission 2025”, came closer to Taiwan than previous exercises, and involved at least 89 warplanes, the highest tally for more than a year.
The drills were expected by analysts before the year's end but were also connected by Chinese commentators to a recent arms approval by the US government for a record $11bn (£8bn) weapons sales to Taiwan.
Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday evening, Xi said China “embraced the world with open arms” and highlighted several multilateral conferences hosted by Beijing this year, including the Shanghai Cooperation Summit in August, when world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin, India's Narendra Modi and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, gathered in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing.
The broadcast of Xi's speech on Chinese state media was interspersed with several shots of China's largest ever military parade, which was held in September to mark 80 years since the end of the second world war. During the parade, which was viewed as an unbridled display of military force, Xi, Putin and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, stood side by side in Beijing – a geopolitical alignment that has been called the “axis of upheaval”.
Central to Xi's vision of a new world order is the annexation of Taiwan and the support of other countries in recognising Taiwan as part of “One China” ruled by the Chinese Communist party in Beijing, something that the majority of Taiwanese people reject.
In his speech, Xi also highlighted “Taiwan Retrocession Day”, a memorial day created in 2025 to mark the anniversary of the end of Japanese imperial rule in Taiwan in 1945. This year, Taiwan also passed a law to recognise the date, 25 October, as a national holiday. The legacy of the second world war has been a big theme in political rhetoric in China and Taiwan this year. China has emphasised its role in defeating the Japanese in that conflict, something that China feels has been underappreciated in the west. Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-te, gave a punchy speech this year comparing Taiwan to European democracies in the 1930s that faced a threat from Nazi Germany.
Xi's speech also praised China's progress in hi-tech development this year, mentioning kickboxing robots and Tianwen-2, a comet exploration mission that launched in May. He also flagged the global success of Chinese cultural exports, such as the video game Black Myth: Wukong and the animated film Ne Zha 2.
Earlier in the day, Xi addressed a meeting of top Chinese Communist party officials and said that China was on track to meet its 5% GDP growth target.
Romania and Croatia will join a NATO program to purchase U.S. weapons for Ukraine's defense, President Zelensky said in a Telegram post.
"I thank Romania and Croatia for joining PURL (the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) and announcing their first contributions to the program," Zelensky wrote on Dec. 31.
Launched in August 2025, the PURL initiative has raised $4.3 billion for purchasing U.S. military equipment and munitions for Kyiv.
Ukraine has repeatedly stressed the importance and sometimes irreplaceable nature of certain American technologies, such as Patriot systems for intercepting ballistic missile strikes.
Romania will contribute 50 million euros ($59 million), according to a press release by the Romanian government.
"Romania's contribution to PURL will support the achievement of a lasting peace in (Ukraine) by strengthening Ukraine's capabilities," Romanian Foreign Minister Toiu Oana said in a tweet late on Dec. 30.
Croatia will contribute 15 million euros ($18 million), the country's foreign ministry said on Dec. 31.
Romania and Croatia will join 22 other participants in the PURL program, including Canada, Australia, Iceland, Germany, and Montenegro.
We are the news team of the Kyiv Independent. We are here to make sure our readers get quick, essential updates about the events in Ukraine. Feel free to contact us via email with feedback and news alerts.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, speaking to Reuters, called the footage "laughable."
The operation targeted a large oil depot in Rybinsk, a city 160 miles north of Moscow in Yaroslavl Oblast, the sources said.
The Kyiv Independent's Tim Zadorozhnyy speaks with Meaghan Mobbs, head of the R.T. Weatherman Foundation and the daughter of President Donald Trump's outgoing special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Over 170,000 people are without power after the attack, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on Wednesday morning.
Romania will contribute 50 million euros ($59 million), according to a press release by the Romanian government.
Ukraine's military reportedly struck oil depots in the various Russian and Russian-occupied regions late on Dec. 30, Russian Telegram media channels reported.
The number includes 1,000 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported intercepting 101 of the 127 drones launched by Russia overnight.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Dec. 29 that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence, an allegation Kyiv has denied. "I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it," Trump said.
"Where is their condemnation of the fact that our children are being bombed and people are being killed all this time? I don't hear India, frankly, nor the United Arab Emirates," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 30.
National security advisers from the Coalition of the Willing countries, led by the U.K. and France, have agreed to meet in Ukraine on Jan. 3, according to Zelensky. The meeting will be followed by another meeting among state leaders, planned for Jan. 6 in France.
"Each restoration requires significant time and resources, as the level of damage varies across regions," Deputy Energy Minister Olha Yukhymchuk said.
Australia's Predictive Discovery said on Wednesday shareholders of Robex Resources RBX-X approved a US$1.45-billion merger, paving the way to create a mid-tier gold producer in West Africa.
At Robex's special meeting, around 94.54 per cent of votes backed the deal under which Predictive would acquire the Canadian gold miner with Robex shareholders receiving 7.862 fully paid ordinary shares in Predictive for each Robex share.
Post-merger, Robex shareholders would own around 46 per cent of the combined entity.
The tie-up would create a more diversified gold producer in West Africa, combining Predictive's Bankan project with Robex's Kiniero mine, which has recently commenced commissioning activities.
These assets, located just 30 kilometres apart in Guinea, offer significant operational synergies.
The merged entity would have a market capitalization of around US$2.4-billion, as per LSEG data.
Shares of the company fell as much as 5.2 per cent earlier in the session before closing 3.9 per cent down.
Robex shareholders approve $1.45-billion merger with Australia's Predictive Discovery
“Investors sell on uncertainty, not headlines,” said Greg Boland, market strategy consultant at Moomoo Australia, adding that the drop in the share price reflects integration and execution risks, dilution concerns, as well as profit-taking after a strong rally in gold prices.
Predictive, headquartered in Western Australia, was once at the centre of a potential bidding war with fellow miner Perseus Mining circling the firm as well.
Earlier in December, gold miner Perseus PRU-T tabled a takeover offer valuing Predictive at US$1.4-billion, higher than Robex's US$880-million bid earlier in October.
However, on December 11, Perseus dropped its pursuit of Predictive after rival bidder Robex had hiked its offer to US$1.45-billion.
The deal comes at a time of surging gold prices, repeatedly hitting record highs. The bullion has gained over 60 per cent this year and was set to log its best year since 1979.
Report an editorial error
Report a technical issue
Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.
© Copyright 2025 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.
Andrew Saunders, President and CEO
Finland has detained a ship and its crew after a critical undersea telecommunication cable connecting the country to Estonia was damaged Wednesday, Finnish authorities said.
Finnish police said in a statement that the vessel suspected of causing the damage was found with its anchor chain lowered into the sea in Finland's waters, while the damage site itself was in Estonia's waters. The police later named the vessel as the Fitburg, a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines flagged cargo ship.
The Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that all 14 members of the ship's crew have been detained, adding that the crew are citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Incidents like this have become more frequent in recent years, raising suspicions they are the result of sabotage and prompting NATO to launch a project earlier this year specifically aimed at strengthening the protection of critical undersea infrastructure.
According to MarineTraffic, which tracks ship movements, the Fitburg departed the Russian port of St. Petersburg on Tuesday and was headed to Haifa in Israel.
After the damage was reported, Finnish authorities instructed the ship to stop and raise its anchor, and then took control of it, the police said.
Finnish media reported that the ship was seized by special forces police and the coast guard from helicopters.
Finland's President Alexander Stubb said that the government was monitoring the situation closely and that Finland was “prepared for security challenges of various kinds.”
The police said they were investigating the incident as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
The cable that was damaged runs between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the Estonian capital Talinn. While the extend of the damage was not immediately clear, the incident was serious enough to cause faults that were detected by the Finnish telecommunications provider Elisa, which operates the link.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he spoke to his Estonian counterpart Kristen Michal about the situation, adding that the two countries were cooperating on the issue.
Estonia's Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs said in a statement that the country's connections remained sufficiently backed up through other sea and land cables, ensuring the continuity of all services.
The ministry said that a second cable, owned by the Swedish company Arelion, was also damaged.
At least 10 undersea cables have been cut or damaged in the Baltic Sea since 2023. Some officials from Scandinavia, the Baltic states and the European Union have pointed the finger at Russia. They say the incidents appear to be part of what experts say is the Kremlin's hybrid war on the West.
Russia has consistently denied involvement, but some of the ships that have caused damage to the undersea infrastructure in the past were found to have links to Russia.
Last year, a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables were damaged after a Cook Islands-registered vessel dragged its anchor through the seabed for more than 50 miles.
Finnish and European officials said the ship, Eagle-S, was part of Russia's shadow fleet of fuel tankers, and Finland later charged members of its crew. However, a court in Helsinki dismissed the case in October, saying Finland did not have jurisdiction over the issue.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
When Greg Pryer served in the Marine Corps three decades ago and then worked as a New York City police officer who experienced the trauma of September 11, alcohol was his go-to coping mechanism.
After retiring from the NYPD in 2015, his drinking habit only worsened, he said. Without the job, he had no structure or direction, just time, memories and the bottle.
“I went from being a veteran and being in law enforcement, over 20 years of really having an obvious purpose, and retirement somewhat stripped me of my identity,” said Pryer, who retired as a sergeant. “All I had, in a way, was my alcohol to deal with it.”
With liquor running his life, Pryer was arrested in 2019 on weapons and driving while intoxicated charges, and again in 2022 on similar weapons charges, in New York's Suffolk County, on Long Island. He had been in courtrooms plenty of times as a cop. Being in one as a defendant was a difficult reality to accept.
Because of his military service, Pryer was eligible to have his cases transferred to the Suffolk County Veterans Treatment Court. A specialized part of the local court system, vets court helps troubled service members get into drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and mental health counseling in lieu of doing jail time. Veterans who complete their court-monitored treatments can have their sentences reduced, or charges dropped.
“Yes, it'll help out your legal situation, but it's also a chance to work on yourself, whatever that underlying issue that brought you into the legal system to begin with,” Pryer said. “It's really a blessing that the court picked me up.”
For 15 years, hundreds of struggling vets like Pryer have received a lifeline through Suffolk's veterans treatment court, run by those who served just like they did. Today, nearly 750 similar programs are found in 49 states, according to Department of Veterans Affairs data.
Like so many fellow veterans, Pryer was not aware of the treatment court's existence until he wound up in the criminal justice system.
“I had to learn the hard way,” Pryer said.
The country's first specialized court for vets started in 2008 in Buffalo, New York. Two years later, Judge John Toomey, a Vietnam War combat veteran, worked with the Suffolk district attorney's office, the local VA health care system and a small group of volunteers known as the Green Jackets to create the Suffolk County Veterans Treatment Court.
The idea was so new it had no set guidelines or rules, providing Toomey and company freedom to develop their operation from scratch. Toomey, a two-time recipient of the Bronze Star, set a casual tone: He didn't wear a robe on the bench, knew veteran defendants by name, and talked with their families about life at home. He even gave out his phone number.
“You had to put your trust that this is going to work out, and that this (person) is going to do the right thing,” Toomey said.
It worked because the veterans in the program wanted to get better. Toomey said they could have gone through the regular court system, served a few months of jail time and gone right back to what they were doing before their arrest.
101-year-old WWII veteran inspires generations with his service
The court accepts vets arrested for a gamut of crimes, including driving while intoxicated, misdemeanor and felony drug charges, robbery and criminal possession of weapons.
“They made the decision they want to turn their lives around. They're sick of what's going on,” Toomey said. “It gives you an advantage in helping them.”
To ensure accountability, the DA's office developed a screening process to evaluate eligible veterans. A small team of prosecutors who either served in the military or have a deep understanding of veterans' issues review criminal and combat history and other factors to assess whether they're a good fit for the program, according to a spokesperson for the DA's office.
Once they're in the court, veterans participate in rehabilitation programs tailored to their individual needs. Varying in length depending on the charges, they include mental health and addiction counseling administered by the VA, with treatments managed by a VA counselor.
They're also required to make regular court appearances so the judge can monitor their progress and adjust the individual's program as needed.
Toomey left in 2018, and today Judge Pierce F. Cohalan presides.
An Army reservist with a high-and-tight haircut, Cohalan keeps proceedings in the small, gray courtroom informal and personal, routinely asking defendants how he can help them. Like his predecessor, he doesn't wear a robe.
For Cohalan, the program is about progress, not perfection. If participants make mistakes or relapse, they're not kicked out.
Pryer, for example, first entered the program in 2019 following an arrest for criminal possession of a weapon and driving while intoxicated, then re-entered it after he was arrested on similar weapons charges in 2022.
He was sentenced to three years of probation in April after completing veterans court, according to a court system spokesperson.
“A number of participants misstep,” Cohalan said. “We're here to catch them or to pick them up, and to keep them moving forward.”
DHS Secretary Noem questioned about deported US veteran
Navigating sobriety, court appearances, therapy and lawyers can be overwhelming.
A volunteer group of vets uniformed in kelly green bomber jackets is there to help. The Green Jackets, mostly Vietnam vets, mentor and guide defendants through the process. Volunteer Grace Mehl, a 20-year veteran of the Navy, explained how shared experiences in combat or in the court allows participants to trust them, and, ultimately, to succeed.
“The more they can talk to us about their issues, the more they get it off their chest, the more they can start to see answers,” Mehl said.
Melissa, who asked for her last name not to be used, is a great example of how it works.
“When she first came, she was a piece of work. She was just all over the place,” Mehl said.
Two years ago, Melissa had an order of protection against her, wore an ankle monitor, used drugs. Her family wanted nothing to do with her. Melissa called her life “completely just a disaster.”
After she was arrested for violating that protection order, Melissa said, she reluctantly accepted transferring to vets court, but wanted nothing to do with anyone in it. But Mehl and others eased her into the program, gained her trust and supported her as she trudged the road to recovery.
“They just directed me toward where I was supposed to be. And step by step, they opened doors for me,” said Melissa, who served in the Navy in the 1990s.
As of November, Melissa said, she was two years sober and reconnected with her mother, whom she talks with daily.
Camaraderie is key to the success of the Suffolk veterans court, where former service members enact a new mission within the most elemental military tradition: having another soldier's back.
The court boasts a 90% success rate for the hundreds of veteran participants, according to Cohalan.
Frank D'Aversa, a Green Jackets founding member, has been with the court since its inception. Being shunned by World War II and Korean War veterans when he returned from Vietnam propelled him to get involved.
His group operates on a simple conviction: “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another,” D'Aversa said.
Pryer, a D'Aversa mentee who served four years in the Marines, was recently invited to become a Green Jacket. For Pryer, 18 months sober and a two-time graduate of vets court, it's an opportunity to give back the gift he got in the program, to help vets through the system he's seen as both a lawman and a defendant.
“I am honored to do it today,” he said.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
An LCBO staff member removes bottles of U.S. alcohol from the shelves in Toronto in March.Arlyn McAdorey/Reuters
A leading American bourbon maker is being walloped by waning Canadian demand for its products in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's illogical trade war.
Jim Beam announced last week that it is halting production at one of its Kentucky distilleries in 2026. Its Clermont facility is a victim of the White House's short-term thinking on tariffs. Bourbon, of course, needs years of aging before it is ready for sale, making trade tensions a veritable risk.
Naturally, U.S. tariffs sparked a boycott of American products in Canada this year. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, one of the world's largest purchasers of alcohol, for example, responded appropriately by pulling U.S. brands off its shelves. The liquor boards of other provinces followed suit in solidarity.
Those strategic decisions to shun U.S. alcohol, however, still amounted to missed opportunities for many of Canada's small and craft alcohol producers. That's because a slew of interprovincial trade barriers prevent them from seamlessly selling their products to consumers in other provinces.
Ontario changes to alcohol sales could lead to higher prices next year
It is a quintessential example of how persistent provincial protectionism scuttles national goals – even when there is widespread public support for expanding internal trade.
“When American liquor products were pulled from stores' shelves across Canada as a response to U.S. tariffs, it opened shelf space that could – and should – have been filled by Canadian producers,” states a research report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB, a small-business lobby group.
“Instead, rigid interprovincial rules and excessive red tape have left small businesses unable to expand beyond their home provinces, leaving significant growth potential untapped.”
Aptly titled “Bottled Up: Small business barriers to interprovincial alcohol trade,” the report from November argues that U.S. tariffs highlight the need to strengthen our domestic markets.
As of 2021, Canada had an estimated 830 breweries, 508 wineries and 191 distilleries, and domestic products account for more than half of all alcohol sales.
Nonetheless, the industry is facing headwinds.
In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, federal and provincial governments earned $13.5-billion from the sale of alcohol, a decline of 0.5 per cent from the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.
The federal agency, which noted that prices of alcoholic beverages increased by 2.5 per cent, pointed to a “historic drop” in the volume of alcohol sales during that fiscal year (a reduction of 3.8 per cent to 2.98 billion litres).
Canadians bought a lot less beer, wine and spirits. By contrast, there were increased sales of ciders, coolers and cannabis.
Those shifting trends stem, in part, from price sensitivity (Statscan points to a link between higher incomes and increased consumption) and changing consumer preferences. Many young adults, for instance, are teetotallers.
But small producers also face artificial barriers to commercial success because of a patchwork of provincial regulations.
“Canada's alcohol trade landscape is highly fragmented. Each province and territory maintains its own regulatory frameworks, licensing requirements, markup structures, and distribution systems,” the CFIB report states.
“For small producers, this means navigating a patchwork of rules and duplicative paperwork, paying multiple fees, and often waiting months for approval to enter a new province.”
The Canadian Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2017, deliberately excluded alcohol to fortify provincial control. Then, in a show of discord, Alberta boycotted B.C. wine in retaliation for Victoria's efforts to block the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion the following year.
Although all provinces (and one territory) have since signed memoranda of understanding to allow direct-to-consumer alcohol sales by May, 2026, the CFIB is right to be critical of the slow pace of change and the potential for more red tape.
Small producers already face differing provincial rules for labelling, product registration, reporting obligations, markup rates and even laboratory testing.
“For example, a malt-based product approved for sale in Alberta will face additional testing when applying for a listing in B.C., slowing market entry and increasing production costs,” CFIB's report states.
Information gatekeeping by provincial authorities also scuppers expanded sales.
One CFIB member quoted in the report, a representative from an unidentified Ontario distillery, said it best: “Liquor boards aren't there to try and help you, they're there to stop you.”
Ouch.
Internal trade barriers also hurt consumers by stifling competition, inflating prices and limiting choice.
CFIB makes sensible recommendations to dismantle interprovincial trade barriers, including by simplifying licensing and distribution processes.
Paternalism over alcohol sales ought to be a relic of the past. After all, Mr. Trump's tariffs underscore the folly of Canadian provinces waging a trade war against themselves.
Report an editorial error
Report a technical issue
Editorial code of conduct
Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.
© Copyright 2025 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.
Andrew Saunders, President and CEO
Moscow's Defense Ministry has released a map showing the route of the Ukrainian long-range drones that targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence in Novgorod Region early on Monday.
According to Moscow, Kiev launched 91 UAVs at the compound on the night of December 28-29. All of the incoming drones were destroyed before they could reach the residence.
The map released by the Defense Ministry on Wednesday shows the flight path of the UAVs, which were launched from several locations in Ukraine and flew north towards Russia's Novgorod Region through Bryansk, Smolensk and Tver regions.
According to the map, Russian air defenses shot down 49 drones above Bryansk Region, one above Smolensk Region and another 41 above Novgorod Region as they approached Putin's residence.
Later in the day, the Defense Ministry published footage showing the debris of one of the UAVs that had been used in the failed attack.
The ministry said in a statement that it has “presented irrefutable evidence of a terrorist attack planned by the Kiev regime on the Russian President's residence.”
The intentions of the Ukrainian government are confirmed by “fragments of drones shot down in Novgorod region, including those with warheads equipped with special striking elements designed to kill people,” the statement read.
The local eyewitness accounts of those who observed Russian air defenses at work “refute all attempts by Western and anti-Russian media outlets” to argue that there was “no evidence of a terrorist attack by the Kiev regime,” it said.
Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky, who denies the drone raid on Putin's residence took place, is “either unaware of the actual situation or is simply lying as he usually does,” the ministry argued.
The Kremlin noted previously that the drone attack was targeted not only against Putin, but also “against [US] President [Donald] Trump's efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
RT News App
© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2025. All rights reserved.
This website uses cookies. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.
NEW YORK, December 31. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran is currently restoring its production of ballistic missiles.
During a Fox News interview, the Jewish state's leader was asked on how he estimates the Islamic Republic's progress in restoring its ballistic and nuclear programs. "We set them back considerably in both areas, but, you know, they'll try," he fold Fox News in an interview.
Netanyahu claimed that after the Fordow nuclear facility was "obliterated," Tehran may try to restore its nuclear program at "other sites."
"They also are trying to recover their missile, ballistic missile production facility," Netanyahu said, adding that the Iranians "are going back to production."
Overnight into June 13, Israel launched a military operation against Iran. Less than 24 hours later, Tehran retaliated. Nine days later, in the early hours of June 22, US jets targeted three Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, effectively entering the conflict. The following evening, Tehran carried out a missile strike on Al Udeid, the largest US military base in the region, located in Qatar. According to US officials, there were no casualties or significant damage. Trump later announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a complete ceasefire. The truce took effect on June 24.
Democrat Renee Hardman has won a special election for the Iowa state Senate, dashing Republicans' hopes of reclaiming a supermajority in the upper chamber of the state legislature.
The race was called by The Associated Press shortly after the polls closed at 9:00 p.m., with Hardman overwhelmingly defeating Republican challenger Lucas Loftin.
Announcements mark latest twist in the frosty relationship between west African military governments and the US
Mali and Burkina Faso said they would ban US citizens from entering their countries in retaliation for Donald Trump's decision to ban Malian and Burkinabe citizens from entering the US.
The announcements, made on Tuesday in separate statements by the foreign ministers of the two west African countries, marked the latest twist in the frosty relationship between west African military governments and the US.
On 16 December, Trump expanded earlier travel restrictions to 20 more countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are run by juntas and have formed a breakaway association from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States.
“In accordance with the principle of reciprocity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation informs the national and international community that, with immediate effect, the Government of the Republic of Mali will apply the same conditions and requirements to US nationals as those imposed on Malian citizens,” the Malian ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.
Another statement signed by Burkina Faso's minister of foreign affairs, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré, cited similar reasons for the ban on American nationals entering Burkina Faso.
The White House noted persistent attacks by armed groups as one of the reasons for the travel ban.
The expanded ban imposed by the US represents an intensification of Trump's crackdown in the aftermath of the shooting of two national guard members in Washington DC on 26 November.
The Trump administration highlighted the case to justify further tightening controls on immigration.
In announcing the ban earlier this month, which included Mali and Burkina Faso, officials said the restrictions were “necessary to prevent the entry of foreign nationals about whom the United States lacks sufficient information to assess the risks they pose. It is the President's duty to take action to ensure that those seeking to enter our country will not harm the American people.”
Mali and Burkina Faso have struggled to contain armed groups that have spread rapidly in both countries.
The juntas vowed to fight the armed groups after deposing civilian governments over the insecurity that has roiled much of the region.
With Associated Press
MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/. It's too early to say that the Russian-EU dialogue is lost forever, because relations may change under a new European Commission, Vladislav Maslennikov, Director of the Department of European Problems at the Russian Foreign Ministry, has told the Izvestia newspaper.
"I don't think that the Russia-EU dialogue is lost forever. The European Commission is always elected for a particular term. And the current European Commission also has its term, and a new commission will be elected when it expires," the diplomat said.
"I wish the EU finally realize that, in fact, they are the ones to suffer from their policy of sanctions against Russia," he continued. "Sooner or later they will have to review their approach, because Russia will forever remain their neighbor on the [Eurasian] continent.".
Two trains taking tourists to Peru's famed archeological site of Machu Picchu crashed on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring around 30 passengers.
The person killed was a railroad worker, according to Jhonathan Castillo Gonzalez, a captain with the Cuzco police department. He told The Associated Press that the railway suspended services along the rail line connecting Machu Picchu with the nearby city of Cuzco after the accident.
According to the company operating the railway, a train coming from Machu Picchu collided with a train headed there in the early afternoon, near Qoriwayrachina, also an archeological site.
No further details about what had caused the crash were immediately available.
Videos on local media showed train cars with broken windows and dented sides stuck along a rail line hemmed in between a lush forest and a massive rock.
Machu Picchu gets around 1.5 million visitors per year, mostly arriving by train to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes. Known for its perfectly fitting stone bricks, the site was built in the 15th century by the Incas and served as a sanctuary for the nation's emperors.
The number of people visiting Machu Pichu has increased by about 25% over the past decade, but tourism in the area has also been affected by political turmoil and disputes over how the site is managed, with protesters sometimes blocking the railroad that leads to the ancient site.
Machu Picchu can also be reached on foot, with visitors trekking from the small town of Ollantaytambo. The trek takes about four days.
Report an editorial error
Report a technical issue
Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.
© Copyright 2025 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.
Andrew Saunders, President and CEO
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, speaks to reporters before presiding over the annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., May 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, gestures as he plays bridge outside Berkshire-owned Borsheims jewelry store in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, May 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
FILE- In this May 7, 2018, file photo, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett smiles during an interview in Omaha, Neb.. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, opens a bottle of Cherry Coke during a game of bridge outside Berkshire-owned Borsheims jewelry store in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, May 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, puts pen to paper during a game of bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, May 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The advice that legendary investor Warren Buffett offered on investing and life over the years helped earn him legions of followers who eagerly read his annual letters and filled an arena in Omaha every year to listen to him at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meetings.
Buffett's last day as CEO is Wednesday after six decades of building up the Berkshire conglomerate. He'll remain chairman, but Greg Abel will take over leadership.
Here's a collection of some of Buffett's most famous quotes from over the years:
___
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
That's how Buffett summed up his investing approach of buying out-of-favor stocks and companies when they were selling for less than he estimated they were worth.
He also urged investors to stick with industries they understand that fall within their “circle of competence” and offered this classic maxim: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.”
___
“After they first obey all rules, I then want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear the next day on the front page of their local paper to be read by their spouses, children and friends with the reporting done by an informed and critical reporter.
“If they follow this test, they need not fear my other message to them: Lose money for the firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm and I will be ruthless.”
Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.
That's the ethical standard Buffett explained to a Congressional committee in 1991 that he would apply as he cleaned up the Wall Street investment firm Salomon Brothers. He has reiterated the newspaper test many times since over the years.
___
“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”
Many companies might do well when times are good and the economy is growing, but Buffett told investors that a crisis always reveals whether businesses are making sound decisions.
___
“Who you associate with is just enormously important. Don't expect that you'll make every decision right on that. But you are going to have your life progress in the general direction of the people you work with, that you admire, that become your friends.”
Buffett always told young people that they should try to hang out with people who they feel are better than them because that will help improve their lives. He said that's especially true when choosing a spouse, which might be the most important decision in life.
___
“Our unwavering conclusion: never bet against America.”
Buffett has always remained steadfast in his belief in the American capitalist system. He wrote in 2021 that “there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America. Despite some severe interruptions, our country's economic progress has been breathtaking.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com.
Christian Pulisic is not dating Sydney Sweeney, and he wants everyone to know.
The United States Men's National Team superstar has been rumored to be dating the famed actress, but he put those rumors to bed earlier this week.
"Please stop with the made-up stories about my personal life. Need to hold sources accountable it can affect people's lives," Pulisic wrote on his Instagram story earlier this week.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Christian Pulisic denied rumors that he is dating Sydney Sweeney. (Gilbert Flores/)
In another post that highlighted Pulisic's accomplishments, one of which was his reported fling with Sweeney, Pulisic wrote, "Fake news guys let's stop with the silly rumor."
Sweeney, 28, is just one year and six days older than the 27-year-old Pulisic, who was born in 1998 — both were born in mid-September.
But Pulisic has been dating golfer Alexa Melton since at least the summer of 2024. Melton played college golf at USC and competed in the 2024 U.S. Women's Open. She has mostly competed on the women's Epson Tour but not since 2024.
Christian Pulisic kicks the ball during the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024 Group C match at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on June 23, 2024. (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
LOOKING BACK AT THE SPORTS GAMBLING CONTROVERSIES THROUGHOUT 2025, WITH NBA AND MLB INVESTIGATIONS LEADING WAY
Sweeney, meanwhile, has been linked to music manager Scooter Braun, who has worked with Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.
Pulisic will suit up for the Stars and Stripes this summer at the 2026 World Cup, which will be played throughout North America. The final will take place July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, home of the New York Giants and Jets.
It will be Pulisic's second appearance in the World Cup, having also played in 2022 in Qatar. That team advanced to the knockout stage but was eliminated by the Netherlands, who lost to eventual champion Argentina in the round of 16.
The U.S. is the highest-ranked team in its group this summer, joining Australia (26th), Paraguay (39th) and a team to be determined in a playoff.
The USMNT has not had much success in the World Cup. The squad reached the Round of 16 in 2010 and 2014 but failed to qualify for the tournament in 2018. It returned to the Round of 16 three years ago but couldn't advance out of the Copa América group stage on home soil last year.
United States players celebrate a goal by Christian Pulisic (10) against Mexico during the second half of a CONCACAF Nations League semifinals soccer match Thursday, June 15, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The U.S. will open the tournament June 12 in Los Angeles against Paraguay on FOX.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Wednesday that President Donald Trump wants to denaturalize members of Minnesota's Somali community involved in yearslong, billion-dollar fraud schemes.
The scandal, which has already produced dozens of federal indictments in recent weeks, has proven a political godsend for the Trump administration, which is hoping to turn the national conversations away from the economy and back toward immigration heading into the 2026 midterm election cycle.
During a Wednesday morning interview with Fox News, Leavitt said the scandal will be a “top priority” for federal investigators heading into the new year.
“The Department of Justice, as we speak, is continuing to execute search warrants and subpoenas. People will be in handcuffs as a result of the fraud that Governor Walz has allowed to occur there for many, many years,” she said. “We're also not afraid to use denaturalization.”
Leavitt was asked by Fox News to clarify whether Somalis convicted of fraud should “have their citizenship revoked,” to which she responded, “Absolutely.”
“It's something the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State is currently looking at right now. It's something this administration has already done, and we know that there are liberal activist judges across the country who will try to block and tackle this administration from pursuing justice at every turn,” she continued. “But that's not going to stop the president and his entire cabinet by acting on behalf of law abiding, taxpaying citizens in the state of Minnesota and in states across the country who have been ripped off by people who abused our immigration system, came to our country, do not love our country or respect our values, and now have been ripping off and stealing money from law abiding Americans. This administration is not going to tolerate it.”
Denaturalization, the process by which the federal government revokes citizenship status from former immigrants, is extremely rare and can only be pursued through the judicial system. From 1990 through 2017, the federal government opened an average of just 11 denaturalization cases per year, although the number rose to 25 cases per year during Trump's first term in office.
Furthermore, the government cannot revoke the citizenship status of citizens who were born in the United States; it can only revoke the citizenship status of immigrants who later became naturalized U.S. citizens. Roughly 100,000 Somalis currently live in Minnesota, with more than half being born on U.S. soil. Nearly 90% of Somali immigrants living in Minnesota are believed to be naturalized citizens.
In the weeks after the fraud cases made national headlines, the Trump administration has taken several steps to implicate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) in the scandal. Leavitt referred to Walz as “completely incompetent.”
HERE'S HOW DENATURALIZATION WOULD WORK FOR US CITIZENS FROM SOMALIA
Furthermore, the administration has deployed Justice Department and Homeland Security personnel to the state to continue investigations and immigration enforcement actions.
Leavitt said the administration also paused Small Business Administration and Health and Human Services child care funding to the state while the investigations continue.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks at the New Year gathering held by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Yan Yan/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center leads other leaders to attend the New Year gathering held by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his 2026 New Year message in Beijing on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Yan Yan/Xinhua via AP)
A resident uses her smartphone to film a large screen at a shopping mall showing CCTV broadcasting Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering his 2026 New Year message, in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Residents use their smartphones to film a large screen at a shopping mall showing CCTV broadcasting Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering his 2026 New Year message, in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday hailed his country's technological progress in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors while once again insisting his country would annex self-ruled Taiwan.
During his New Year's Eve address broadcast Wednesday evening by state media, Xi praised the country's advancements in key sectors including military tech and space exploration. Images ranging from humanoid robots performing kung fu to new hydropower projects rolled on the screen as he spoke.
“We sought to energize high-quality development through innovation,” Xi said while thanking Chinese people for contributing to the country's economic growth over the past five years.
China plans its economic development over periods of five years and is preparing to discuss its new five-year plan at the upcoming legislative session in March.
The country is set to speed up self-reliance in science and technology as the United States imposes increasingly tight controls on access to semiconductors and other high-tech items.
Xi also praised the country's rising prominence on the world stage by listing high-level political events and exchanges it hosted over the past year.
Regarding Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China considers sovereign territory, Xi reiterated Beijing's annexation intentions.
Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.
“We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship,” he said. “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.”
China this week conducted two days of military drills around Taiwan, launching rockets and sending aircraft and warships in response to a planned arms sale by the U.S. to the island.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te condemned the drills but said his territory would act responsibly by neither escalating the conflict nor provoking disputes.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has spent the last several weeks sprinting towards a deadline.
After publicly committing to filling many of the top posts in his new administration before taking office, Mamdani, 34, is closing 2025 with a still-evolving image of the team that is going to help steer his government and enact an ambitious agenda to tackle the affordability crisis in the nation's largest city.
During the campaign, Mamdani – a former state assemblyman who will make history as New York's youngest mayor in a century when he takes the oath of office at midnight on New Year's Day – battled criticism that he lacked the experience needed to lead the city's massive bureaucracy.
Since his election, Mamdani's transition has continued to try to swat away that criticism even as it has slow-rolled some of its appointments, leading critics and political insiders watching from the sidelines to wonder if the pace of the transition is an indication of what the Mamdani era of government will bring.
A look at Zohran Mamdani's policy ideas as he becomes New York City's mayor
The appointments of newly elected mayors are closely watched affairs, as they provide an early test for a new administration. Mamdani has continued to name new appointees, including as recently as Tuesday afternoon.
Still, several members of the transition granted anonymity to speak freely about confidential proceedings acknowledged the transition has indeed moved slower than previous administrations, in part due to Mamdani's limited network of seasoned government hands and a struggle to appease competing constituencies inside the transition.
“He wants to broaden his coalition,” said one Mamdani transition member granted anonymity to discuss confidential proceedings. “But he also has a lot of very hard left people internally who are less interested in compromising, and that push and pull is really delaying things.”
Another member described the effort as a “careful managing of everyone's political feelings.” And while some have been quick to focus on the delays, members of the transition have also praised some of Mamdani's picks so far, describing them as “sane, sober choices” that should put at ease anyone worried Mamdani would place a “bunch of radical kids” in charge.
“I feel confident about the team we're putting together,” Mamdani said earlier this month when asked about the pace of his appointments. “We are going to be building out a team that New Yorkers will see being the ones who will help to make the decisions that will shape their lives and their ability to afford living in this city.”
Since winning the general election in November, Mamdani hasn't quite stopped running.
He has held a series of quasi-campaign events in the past two months: Rallying alongside independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Starbucks workers on strike, distributing hot chocolate to tenants in the freezing December temperatures to highlight his proposal to freeze stabilized rents, meeting with daycare workers to talk about his universal childcare pitch and traveling to Washington, DC, for an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump.
All the while, his team has been working to fill out key roles in the administration.
New York City's municipal gears turn with the help of more than 300,000 public workers and dozens of agencies, mayoral offices and boards. They're tasked with everything from picking up the more than 10,000 tons of garbage the city produces daily, to leading the city's public hospital system, helping small businesses, and awarding city contracts, to name a few of their collective responsibilities.
So far, Mamdani has named leaders to the city's largest core service agencies – including the New York Police Department, the Fire Department, the Sanitation Department and the city's office of Emergency Management. For the last two posts, Mamdani is relying on holdovers from the administration of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who will stay in their jobs when the new year begins.
Mamdani has also named the city's corporation counsel and his director for the Office of Management and Budget – a key appointment as the city's budget season begins in January. And he has appointed deputy mayors for housing and planning and health and human services, in addition to creating a new office for deputy mayor for economic justice – a nod to Mamdani's affordability agenda.
Still, some big jobs remain open.
Mamdani has yet to announce a commissioner for the Department of Correction, which controls one of the largest jail complexes in the nation. The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and the commissioner for the Administration of Children's Services have also yet to be announced.
And Mamdani hasn't named a transportation commissioner, who would be key in helping implement his “fast and free” bus plan.
Former New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, whose transition had a similar pace of appointments to Mamdani's, announced job appointments through the last day of the year before he took office.
Mamdani is expected to do the same: Sources familiar with the plan tell CNN he is expected to announce a schools chancellor on Wednesday.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to introduce Zohran Mamdani at New Year's Day inauguration
Mamdani jumped into action after election day, appointing a transition committee led by Grace Bonilla, a seasoned non-profit leader who previously served in de Blasio's administration, and Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair under President Joe Biden best known for her work in antitrust and consumer protection.
Days later, Mamdani named Dean Fuleihan as his first deputy mayor. The veteran of state and local government most recently served in the de Blasio administration. Mamdani also named Elle Bisgaard-Church, who ran his primary campaign, as his chief of staff.
The mayor-elect's inner circle is made up of the same core group of people who helped lead his campaign to victory, with Bisgaard-Church leading the effort to form Mamdani's Cabinet and senior aide Morris Katz and Fuleihan helping move the process along.
Mamdani is also relying on Patrick Gaspard, the former ambassador to South Africa and aide to President Barack Obama. Gaspard first met Mamdani when the then-rapper was on a promotional tour for the film “Queen of Katwe,” which was directed by Mira Nair, the mayor-elect's mother.
Gaspard has also acted as a bridge between Mamdani and Obama and has been providing advice on everything from hires to communication strategy.
The transition has not been without controversy: Catherine Da Costa resigned as Mamdani's director of appointments less than 24 hours after she was named to the role after a series of antisemitic social media posts she made more than a decade ago surfaced. Da Costa expressed “deep regret” for the statements and said she felt “a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused.”
Mamdani was forced to acknowledge his team had missed the postings during the vetting. After accepting Da Costa's resignation, he said “clear changes” needed to be made to the vetting process, adding he would not have hired Da Costa if he'd been aware of the posts.
The transition has since brought on an outside legal firm to vet potential hires. Before that, vetting of candidates was led by an internal team and paid lawyers. Now, that team partners with the outside firm, which the transition has so far declined to name.
The work will be paid for by the transition, which has raised $3.7 million dollars from more than 32,000 donors, a majority of whom gave less than $250 dollars, according to the transition.
Mamdani's transition – a group of more than 400 people split into 17 committees dedicated to different policy areas – met a handful of times since the election, kicking off with an all-hands meeting in mid-November.
That gathering was followed by Zoom meetings and smaller committee working groups, giving transition members a chance to discuss inner government workings and submit suggestions for potential hires. After those meetings, participants were asked to submit forms back to the transition team, according to several members of the transition who spoke with CNN, who said they were more an opportunity to submit ideas and the names of job candidates, and less of a chance to weigh in on policy.
Then came the job interviews: Some candidates sat for meetings with members of the transition, sometimes over Zoom and in a handful of cases without a clear idea of which job they were interviewing for, according to two members of the transition who spoke about the process. That led to frustration among government wonks and public servants who wondered if they would need to inform their current employer that they were leaving to work in Mamdani's City Hall.
Indeed, much of the work has taken place in secret. Members of Mamdani's transition were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements and were discouraged from speaking with the press.
Mamdani's allies say the delay in making some appointments is not cause for alarm.
Several pointed out Mamdani and his team have been working under a much shorter timeline than his predecessors: In previous years, the winner of New York's Democratic primary was considered a shoo-in for the general election, allowing them to shift focus to the work of the transition and start vetting dozens of candidates for high-stakes posts.
A reform-minded mayor is taking over New York at a time of progress and stability for the NYPD
But the 2025 race for mayor was hard-fought until the last minute. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mounted an independent general election bid despite his primary loss to Mamdani, and Adams, the incumbent, declined to drop his bid until just days before the election.
“They had to do a job very quickly on something that usually can be spread out over months,” New York state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a member of Mamdani's advisory committee, said of the transition process.
“The north star is finding people who are committed to the job – public servants, first, who can do the job they're being asked to do,” Rivera said. “Zohran has a vision, and he is also smart and humble to know what he doesn't know.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the year in which the latest New York mayoral election took place. It was in 2025.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
People stand at a currency exchange office with a poster reading “Did you exchange your levs for euros?” in Sofia, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
A woman poses as she holds new euro coins with Bulgarian symbols in Sofia in front of Bulgarian National Bank, Saturday Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
People wait in line to buy packages of new Euro coins with Bulgarian symbols at the doorstep of Bulgarian National Bank, in Sofia, Saturday Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
A woman poses as she holds new euro coins with Bulgarian symbols in Sofia in front of Bulgarian National Bank, Saturday Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
A girl poses as she holds new euro coins with Bulgarian symbols in Sofia, Tuesday Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
New Euro coins with Bulgarian symbols reflected in a table seen backdropped by Bulgarian and EU flag, Sofia, Tuesday Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
A woman passes by a graffiti reading “No to the euro” altered to “Yes to the euro” in Sofia, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
The shadow of a person seen next to graffiti reading “No to the euro” altered to “Yes to the euro” in Sofia, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
A woman passes by a billboard displaying Eurozone information campaign in Sofia, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — On New Year's Day, Bulgaria becomes the 21st country to join the euro currency union, furthering its integration into the European Union. But the historic milestone arrives amid political instability and skepticism among ordinary people fueled by fears of price rises.
Supporters of switching to the euro from the old currency, the lev, are praising the move as one of the greatest achievements since the 1989 transition from a Soviet-style economy to democracy and free markets. They hope it will make the country more attractive for investors and strengthen its orientation toward wealthier Western Europe.
But many people are uneasy, in a country where corruption is rife and trust in the authorities is low. One fear is that merchants will round prices up or otherwise use the changeover to worsen inflation, at a time when inflation has rebounded to 3.7%.
An EU Eurobarometer poll from March showed that 53% of 1,017 people surveyed opposed joining the eurozone, while 45% were in favor. A separate Eurobarometer poll, taken between Oct. 9 and Nov. 3 on a similar sample, showed that about half of Bulgarians opposed the single currency while 42% were in favor. The margin of error was about plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the March poll.
The government successfully completed the euro adoption process by beating inflation down to 2.7% earlier this year to comply with EU rules and win approval from EU leaders. But clearing that hurdle was followed by a new chapter of political chaos. The government resigned after less than a year in office amid nationwide anti-corruption protests. This left the country without a regular budget for next year and is hampering plans for long-overdue structural reforms and decisions on use of EU support funds. A new election — the eighth in five years — is expected to be held next spring.
Nevelin Petrov, 64, said he welcomed the euro. “Bulgaria is a full member of the European Union, and its rightful place is alongside the other developed and democratic European nations,” he said. “I am convinced that the adoption of the euro will contribute to the long-term prosperity of our country,” he said.
Others, like Darina Vitova, who runs a pedicure salon in Sofia, said things were moving too fast although she welcomed the change “in principle.”
“The standard of living and incomes in our country are far from those in the richest European countries, while prices here are rising and life for the average person will become more difficult,” she said. She acknowledges that when heading to the beaches in neighboring Greece, it will be more convenient to pay with the same “pocket money” she uses at home.
Bulgaria, with its 6.4 million people, is one of the poorest members of the 27-country European union. The average monthly wage is 1,300 euros ($1,530).
Countries that join the EU commit to the euro, but actually joining can take years and some members are in no hurry. Poland in particular has seen strong economic growth since joining the EU in 2004 without adopting the euro.
Opponents of joining have fed fears that the changes will allegedly lead to more poverty and loss of national identity. Social media has spread disinformation such as false claims that the euro could lead to confiscation of bank accounts. Nationalist and pro-Russian groups exploit these fears.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said that countries have experienced a slight, transient rise in prices of 0.2%-0.4% right after joining. Price rises can be more apparent than real, as cafe and hairdressers may put off printing new menus and price lists ahead of the change, so that increases are only delayed, not caused by the euro.
Anti-euro rallies in May and September were organized by the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party but remained smaller than the mass protests that toppled the government. While the anti-euro protests were supported by older people based on economic anxiety, the mass protests that toppled the government appeared to represent a younger electorate fed up with corruption and eager to integrate with Europe.
Anti-euro disinformation spread by pro-Russian politicians and social media aim “to reduce support for the European Union, NATO and Ukraine,” said Dimitar Keranov, program coordinator for engaging Central Europe at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.
Bulgaria's European integration “is not in Moscow's interest at all, so if it can somehow polarize society and weaken support for the European Union that's what it tries to achieve,” he said.
Euro adoption is another way to combat Russian influence, he said: “The further Bulgaria advances in its European integration, the harder it becomes for Russia to influence the country.”
Petar Ganev, an analyst at the Sofia-based Institute for Market Economics, says that that by stepping down the outgoing government has sent a signal of uncertainty to foreign investors.
“Instead of capitalizing on euro adoption as a strong and positive signal to the international community—investors, debt holders, and those investing in Bulgarian assets and economic activity—we risk sending the opposite message,” Ganev said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Ganev believes that eurozone membership should be regarded as an opportunity, an additional mechanism to address corruption and the rule of law, although it alone cannot resolve Bulgaria's chronic cycle of elections and political fragmentation and instability.
Local economists think that joining the euro will not bring dramatic changes to Bulgaria's economy. That is because the lev has been pegged since 1999 to the euro by law, at a fixed rate of 1 lev for every 51 euro cents.
The lev and the euro will be in dual use for cash payments for the whole month of January, but people will receive only euros in change.
___
McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Valentina Petrova in Sofia contributed to this report
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on the Trump administration's strikes on ISIS targets in Syria following the deaths of three Americans on ‘Special Report.'
U.S. and partner forces killed or captured nearly 25 Islamic State operatives in Syria in the days following a large-scale U.S.-led strike on Dec. 19, according to a new statement from U.S. Central Command, underscoring Washington's assessment that ISIS remains an active and persistent threat inside the country.
CENTCOM said those forces conducted 11 follow-on missions between Dec. 20 and Dec. 29, killing at least seven ISIS members, capturing the remainder and eliminating four ISIS weapons caches. The operations followed Operation Hawkeye Strike, when U.S. and Jordanian forces hit more than 70 ISIS targets across central Syria using over 100 precision munitions, destroying infrastructure and weapons sites linked to the group.
"We will not relent," CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said, adding that U.S. forces remain "steadfast" in working with regional partners to dismantle ISIS networks that pose a threat to U.S. and regional security.
The scope of the follow-on raids highlights a reality U.S. commanders and analysts have been warning about for months: ISIS no longer controls large swaths of territory, but it retains the ability to organize, strike and regenerate inside Syria's fragmented security landscape.
SYRIANS MARK FIRST YEAR SINCE ASSAD'S FALL AS US SIGNALS NEW ERA IN RELATIONS
U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost on May 25, 2021, in northeastern Syria. U.S. forces, part of Task Force WARCLUB operate from combat outposts in the area, coordinating with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in combatting residual ISIS extremists and deterring pro-Iranian militia. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Syria remains divided among competing forces, militias and foreign-backed armed groups, with no single authority exercising full control over large parts of the country. Analysts say that vacuum continues to provide space for ISIS cells to operate quietly, recruit and exploit overstretched local forces.
Analysts note that Syria's security environment remains shaped by former jihadist networks that were never fully demobilized after the war. The country's transitional leadership, including President Ahmed al-Sharaa, emerged from armed Islamist factions that relied heavily on foreign fighters and militias, according to regional security assessments. While those groups are not synonymous with ISIS, experts say the incomplete dismantling of extremist networks has left gaps that ISIS cells continue to exploit.
"ISIS today doesn't need a caliphate to be dangerous," Bill Roggio told Fox News Digital. "We've always been quick to declare terrorist organizations defeated and insignificant, and that couldn't be further from the truth."
Roggio said the group has adapted rather than disappeared, shifting away from holding territory toward smaller, more covert cells capable of carrying out lethal attacks. He pointed to ongoing ISIS activity not only in Syria and Iraq, but also in Afghanistan and other regions, citing United Nations reporting that estimates roughly 2,000 ISIS fighters remain active in Afghanistan alone.
"That's not what a defeated group looks like," Roggio said, noting that ISIS continues to recruit, indoctrinate and inspire attacks even without the visibility it once had.
FROM SYRIA TO SOMALIA, US TROOPS REMAIN DEPLOYED THIS HOLIDAY SEASON UNDER MISSIONS THAT NEVER FORMALLY ENDED
ISIS terrorists in Syria. (Reuters)
One of the most sensitive vulnerabilities remains the network of detention facilities in northeastern Syria holding thousands of ISIS terrorists and supporters. Those prisons are guarded primarily by Kurdish-led forces backed by a small U.S. military presence, estimated at roughly 1,000 troops, according to Reuters.
U.S. and coalition officials have repeatedly warned that any major disruption to prison security could allow hardened ISIS operatives to escape and reconstitute networks across Syria and beyond. Kurdish officials have also raised concerns about funding shortages, manpower strain and pressure from rival militias operating nearby.
While U.S. officials have not publicly linked the recent strikes to prison-related threats, analysts say the broader environment of fragmented control increases the risk of coordinated attacks, insider assistance or prison unrest.
The danger is not theoretical. ISIS has previously staged mass prison break operations in Syria and Iraq, including a 2022 assault on the al-Sinaa prison in Hasakah that required days of fighting to contain.
The U.S. strikes also come amid continued instability inside Syria, where multiple armed actors operate with overlapping authority. Analysts note that clashes among militias, sectarian violence and unresolved command structures have weakened overall security and diverted attention from counterterrorism efforts.
US, SYRIAN TROOPS COME UNDER FIRE WHILE ON PATROL: REPORT
U.S. soldiers attached to the Iowa National Guard sign GBU-31 munitions systems in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Dec. 18, 2025 as the U.S. military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on U.S. personnel, U.S. officials said. (Air Force Photo/Handout via Reuters)
Bombings in neighborhoods of Damascus, including Mezzeh, and unrest in minority areas have further illustrated the gaps ISIS and other extremist groups can exploit, according to regional security assessments and open-source reporting.
"Syria's chaos is the accelerant," Roggio said. "ISIS thrives where no one is fully in charge."
U.S. officials and analysts stress that ISIS activity in Syria is part of a wider pattern rather than an isolated flare-up.
Sources in the Israeli Mossad told Fox News Digital of continued ISIS-linked activity across multiple theaters, including recruitment networks and small-scale attacks designed to test security responses and maintain operational relevance.
In Turkey, security forces recently clashed with Islamic State militants during counterterrorism operations, wounding several officers, according to Reuters on Monday. Turkish authorities said the raids targeted ISIS cells suspected of planning attacks inside the country.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP'S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA'S NEW LEADER
Security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government ride in the back of a vehicle moving along a road in Syria's western city of Latakia on March 9, 2025. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on March 9, amid growing international backlash following the killing of civilians along the country's coast in the worst violence since the overthrow of former president Bashar al-Assad. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
"These are signals, not spikes," Roggio said. "ISIS operates across regions, adapting to pressure and exploiting weak governance wherever it finds it."
The renewed U.S. military action raises difficult questions for policymakers about how long the current containment strategy can hold.
While U.S. officials say the Dec. 19 strikes delivered a significant blow to ISIS infrastructure, they have also acknowledged that counterterrorism operations alone cannot eliminate the underlying conditions that allow the group to persist.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
People wave guns in the air as they gather to celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on Dec. 8 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)
"Just because we want to declare the war against terror over doesn't mean it's over," Roggio said. "The enemy gets a vote."
Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.
Fox News' Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world."
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
Another series of atmospheric river-enhanced storms will soak California as the new year begins, bringing a flood threat and evacuation warnings back to the state just days after a destructive Christmas-week storm.
The midweek storm lacks the extreme ingredients of last week's flooding, but it arrives in a state already pushed to its limits. With soil having little room to absorb additional water, rainfall rates rather than totals will determine where problems emerge.
Southern California, including Los Angeles, is the area of most concern, but the rest of the state will see more rain that could slow down travel.
“Since the ground is so saturated from the super soaking Christmas storm, almost all rainfall will become runoff. This will allow flooding to occur with less rain amounts and rates than is typical,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom prepositioned crews and equipment ahead of the rain to respond to flooding and debris flows in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Evacuation warnings have been issued for the second time in a week in parts of Los Angeles County recently burned by wildfires. The storms present a heightened threat of debris flows and flash flooding in these areas, which are the most incapable of absorbing heavy rain.
The voluntary warnings begin at 11 a.m. PT and are meant to give residents time to prepare with heaviest rain moving in Wednesday night.
Those warnings include the greater Wrightwood area, which was devastated by debris flows and flash flooding on Christmas Eve. Residents had to frantically flee their homes as a torrent of debris rushed through town and encased homes and cars in feet of mud.
No evacuations have been ordered for Wrightwood proper in San Bernardino County, but they are in effect just to its west across the county line in Los Angeles County.
The storm is expected to reach Southern California New Year's Eve, then spread north through much of the state into New Year's Day. Much of Southern California is in a Level 2 of 4 flooding rain threat Wednesday and Thursday, the Weather Prediction Center said.
Coastal and valley areas such as downtown Los Angeles could see 1 to 3 inches of rain, with 2 to 5 inches possible in foothills and mountains.
Light rain began in Southern California Wednesday morning, but the most worrisome downpours arrive around the stroke of midnight and will last through noon on New Year's Day. Rainfall should ease through the afternoon hours.
The timing is bad news for the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade Thursday morning in Pasadena. This is expected to be the first wet Rose Parade since 2006, according to the National Weather Service.
Rain arriving Wednesday night will affect parade-goers camping along the route, with downpours continuing into Thursday morning.
This system is only the first of three in a conga line that could affect the waterlogged state through early next week.
Conditions change late Friday into Saturday as colder air drops snow below major pass levels, including Interstate 80 through Donner Pass.
Over a foot of snow is likely at Sierra Nevada ski resorts, though exact totals remain uncertain and could make mountain travel hazardous.
An avalanche last Friday killed a ski patroller and left another patroller injured at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in the eastern Sierra, according to the resort. It happened after feet of snow buried the mountain range last week.
© 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.
Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.
Democratic candidate Renee Hardman won the Iowa Senate special election on Tuesday, preventing Republicans from regaining two-thirds control of the state's upper chamber.
Hardman defeated Republican candidate Lucas Loftin by nearly 45 percentage points, according to the election results, which showed that more than 95% of the votes were in by late Tuesday.
The special election was for a seat representing parts of Des Moines's suburbs. The seat became vacant after Democratic state Sen. Claire Celsi died of an undisclosed medical condition in October.
Celsi's death reduced the Democratic caucus to 16 seats in the 50-seat Iowa Senate. With Hardman's victory, her party now holds 17 seats, compared to the Republicans' 33.
The Democratic Party previously broke the GOP supermajority in an August special election, but that victory was undermined by Celsi's death two months later.
If Loftin won, Republicans could have easily overrode gubernatorial vetoes, called special sessions, and confirmed Gov. Kim Reynolds's (R-IA) appointees without Democratic support. But given his loss, Iowa Republicans now need at least one Democratic vote to confirm the governor's nominees to state agencies, boards, and commissions.
Tuesday's special election adds to the Democratic Party's winning streak this year. The Democratic National Committee congratulated Hardman on her “historic” win as the first black woman elected to the Iowa Senate.
“Senator-elect Hardman … will be a voice for working Iowans and will fight tooth and nail to make Iowa more affordable,” DNC Chairman Ken Martin said. “Her victory ensures that Iowa Republicans will not have a supermajority in the Iowa Senate, a major check on Republican power that puts billionaires first. With the last special election of the year now decided, one thing is clear: 2025 was the year of Democratic victories and overperformance, and Democrats are on track for big midterm elections.”
IOWA SPECIAL ELECTION PUTS GOP SENATE SUPERMAJORITY BACK IN PLAY
Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, the sole Democrat currently serving in statewide elected office and one of the leading candidates to replace Reynolds next year, also released a hopeful statement ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Congrats to Renee Hardman on her over 40-point victory in SD-16 tonight,” Sand wrote on X. “As the sixth straight Democratic overperformance in special elections since 2024, it's clear Iowans are ready for change as we head into 2026.”
The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday that all child care payments to Minnesota have been frozen in response to the widespread fraud allegations under federal investigation.
The move taken by HHS concerns Somali-run day care centers that are allegedly benefiting from government payments issued by the Administration for Children and Families. The Trump administration alleges the centers in question are stealing money directly from children.
In a video, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill and ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams said they took three direct actions to combat the alleged child care fraud.
We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota.You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade.Today we have taken three actions… pic.twitter.com/VYbyf3WGop
First, the department is now requiring justification and receipt or photo evidence of all ACF payments in Minnesota and the rest of the country.
Secondly, HHS demanded Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) provide a comprehensive audit of the day care centers. O'Neill said the audit will include attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations, and inspections.
Thirdly, HHS launched a dedicated hotline and email address to report suspected child care fraud.
In a subsequent post, O'Neill said the frozen funds will be released “when states prove they are being spent legitimately.”
Walz suggested HHS's actions were politically motivated.
“This is Trump's long game. We've spent years cracking down on fraudsters,” he wrote on X. “It's a serious issue — but this has been his plan all along. He's politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
The Democratic governor maintains his administration has taken steps to crack down on fraud by referring cases to law enforcement and shutting down or auditing certain programs. Despite his efforts, he has faced intense criticism from Minnesota Republicans and the Trump administration on the fraud issue since late November.
Minnesota's day care system recently came under scrutiny following a viral video that shed light on the state's fraud scandal. O'Neill credited independent journalist Nick Shirley for making the video.
Adams said his office provides Minnesota with $185 million in child care funds annually, estimating that 19,000 American children are meant to benefit from that amount of money.
After speaking with the director of Minnesota Child Care Services, Adams said he was not told with “confidence whether those allegations of fraud are isolated or whether there's fraud stretching statewide.”
MINNESOTA OFFICIALS REVEAL PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS INTO CHILD DAY CARE CENTERS UNCOVERED NO ‘FINDINGS OF FRAUD'
Commissioner Tikki Brown of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families revealed that while no fraud has been found at child day care centers in the state so far, her office is investigating the centers again in response to Shirley's video.
“While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously,” Brown said on Monday. “Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process, and in fact, our staff are out in the community today to visit each of these sites again so that we can look into the concerns that were raised in the video.”
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice to turn over internal records tied to its decision to investigate and charge Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, signaling growing judicial skepticism that senior DOJ leadership may have pushed the prosecution while publicly denying involvement.
The order, issued earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw and unsealed on Tuesday, requires prosecutors to produce documents related to the opening of a criminal investigation and the pursuit of charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. The investigation was launched earlier this year while Abrego Garcia was being held at El Salvador's CECOT maximum-security prison.
Crenshaw's ruling sets the stage for a high-stakes evidentiary hearing scheduled for Jan. 28 in Nashville, where the Trump administration will be required to rebut prior findings that the prosecution may have been vindictive. The judge canceled Abrego Garcia's trial date pending the outcome of that hearing.
While stopping short of ordering testimony from senior officials, the judge highlighted internal emails that appear to contradict prosecutors' repeated claims that the charging decision was made locally without outside pressure. Those emails suggest that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and his office were closely looped in as the case progressed.
“These documents show that McGuire did not act alone,” Crenshaw wrote, referring to Robert E. McGuire, the acting U.S. attorney in Nashville. “The government's documents may contradict its prior representations that the decision to prosecute was made locally and that there were no outside influences.”
In an April 30 email, Aakash Singh, a senior official in Blanche's office, told prosecutors that charging Abrego Garcia was a “top priority” for DOJ leadership, according to page five of the unsealed order. McGuire responded that the office wanted the “high command looped in.” In another message weeks later, McGuire said he had heard “anecdotally” that Blanche and then-Principal Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove III wanted charges filed quickly.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys argue the case was brought in retaliation for his success in a separate civil suit in Maryland challenging his deportation. Crenshaw previously ruled in October that Abrego Garcia had established a “reasonable likelihood” of vindictive prosecution, shifting the burden to the government to rebut that conclusion.
The DOJ has pushed back aggressively, asserting attorney-client and work-product privileges and denying any improper motive. Blanche's office has dismissed claims that he played a leading role in the prosecution.
DHS TRASHES ABREGO GARCIA FOR ‘MAKING TIKTOKS' DURING HIS RELEASE
The criminal case is unfolding alongside parallel immigration litigation. A Maryland judge on Dec. 11 ordered Abrego Garcia released from immigration custody and accused DOJ lawyers of misleading the court. That judge has temporarily barred his re-detention, though the administration has signaled it may attempt to rearrest him.
Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador earlier this year despite a 2019 withholding of removal order to his country of origin. This political and legal saga now threatens to expose the inner workings of DOJ decision-making at the highest levels.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday accused a Politico reporter of “inciting violence” against federal authorities in a social media post about the ongoing federal investigation of alleged fraud in Minnesota's day cares.
Josh Gerstein, a senior legal affairs reporter, suggested Minnesotans have the right to stand their ground when federal officers approach their businesses.
“At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws,” he wrote on X late Monday.
At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws
Stand-your-ground laws allow people to use deadly force for self-defense when threatened in public. Gerstein's post suggests that deadly force could be used against ICE officers if they knock on the doors of day care centers.
ICE called out the reporter for making the insinuation.
“You would think a ‘Senior Legal Affairs Reporter' for POLITICO would know better than to tweet something inciting violence against federal agents,” the agency posted on social media.
Gerstein wrote a message in response to ICE less than 10 minutes later: “To observe that something is likely to happen or there's a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening.”
ICE JOINS FBI AGENTS IN INVESTIGATING SUSPECTED MINNESOTA FRAUD SITES
Minnesota does not have a broad stand-your-ground law, but the state does permit the use of deadly force without retreating in a person's home, vehicle, or place of business as long as the person reasonably believes they're in danger of serious bodily harm or death. Typically, a person must retreat first in public places.
The federal government is currently investigating alleged fraud schemes involving Minnesota's social services programs and day care facilities. ICE is collaborating with the FBI to investigate suspected fraud sites in Minnesota. ICE is highly active in Minneapolis and St. Paul, where Somali immigrants are concentrated, as part of an immigration enforcement operation in the blue state.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
LeBron James made his Los Angeles Lakers season debut last night, starting year 23 with a win over the Utah Jazz. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes discuss how impressive this was for LeBron, and how much pressure is on Patrick Mahome.
LeBron James took heat over the weekend after he was seen swinging his hips during the national anthem before the Los Angeles Lakers played the Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers star was accused of practicing his golf swing instead of standing still with either his hand over his heart or with his hands behind his back. Sports pundit Craig Carton called out James for the move during an episode of his podcast on Monday.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) in the first half against the Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Dec. 28, 2025. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images)
"If you wanna disregard your coach, disregard your teammates, being an 11-plus-1 type of guy, do it on your own time. Don't do it during my national anthem," Carton said. "A couple of days ago, Lakers basketball, national anthem, he disrespects the national anthem.
"And while the anthem is being played, your guy, the self-appointed ‘King,' decides that's a good time to work on my golf swing and disrespect the men and women of the military who gave their lives for this country. ‘Let me get a couple of air swings in while the anthem is being played because I don't play good basketball anymore. I gotta work on my golf game.'"
Fox News Digital reached out to James' reps for comment.
NUGGETS STAR NIKOLA JOKIC SUFFERS KNEE INJURY, MISSES ENTIRE SECOND HALF IN LOSS TO MIAMI HEAT
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts after scoring a basket as forward Rui Hachimura, back left, looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Jessie Alcheh/AP Photo)
National anthem controversies first bubbled up during the 2016 season when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee while "The Star-Spangled Banner" played. He said he was protesting racial injustice in the U.S., and took it a step further when he wore socks depicting police officers as pigs and expressed support for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
An anthem controversy sparked up again when James and others took a knee during the song in the NBA bubble after Jacob Blake was shot in a police incident weeks after the death of George Floyd. Blake later admitted he had a knife on him when he was shot.
It didn't appear James was doing an act of protesting before the game against the Kings.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, center, drives to the basket against Sacramento Kings guard Demar Derozan (10) as center Maxime Raynaud (42) watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Jessie Alcheh/AP Photo)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Los Angeles defeated Sacramento, 125-101. James had 24 points and five assists.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and
agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can
opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by
Factset. Powered and implemented by
FactSet Digital Solutions.
Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Refinitiv Lipper.
Depending on where you live, relying on a postmark to prove you mailed your tax return, mail-in ballot, bill payment or any other time-sensitive document by a specific date may no longer work as you expect.
As the U.S. Postal Service continues implementing operational changes in an effort to shore up its finances and modernize its infrastructure, the agency expects an increase in delays between when you mail something and when it is postmarked, according to a public notice in the Federal Register that took effect Dec. 24. A postmark shows the date your mail was processed, and historically has been applied the same day you mail an item.
However, due to limiting pickups at many postal locations and mail now often traveling farther to regional processing centers where the postmark is applied, "the postmark date does not inherently or necessarily align with the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of the mailpiece," the notice reads.
While households increasingly use digital options to file taxes, pay bills and handle other personal business, there are still people who use the Postal Service for time-sensitive mail.
Of the 163.6 million tax returns received by the IRS this year, about 10 million were not filed electronically, according to the agency's latest data. About 29% of voters mailed in their ballots last year, according to USAFacts. And 13% of households paid their bills by mail last year, according to the Postal Service's 2024 Household Diary Study.
"Consumers have always assumed that the post office will postmark their mail on the day they take it to the post office or drop it in a box," said Edgar Dworsky, founder of advocacy site Consumer World and a former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts who focused on consumer protection. "Who would expect it could be several days before it has a postmark on it?"
While the Postal Service said in the notice that it is not changing how it postmarks mail — that has always been done at its processing facilities — the agency has added language to its Domestic Mail Manual to clarify for the public when postmarks are applied.
In 2021, USPS unveiled an initiative called Delivering for America to improve its financial condition, which included increasing postage prices and redesigning its network and processing operations.
Changes to transportation schedules and the consolidation of processing facilities under that initiative mean many post offices that previously sent mail twice a day to a hub now do so only once in the morning, according to new research from the Brookings Institution. Under the new network, roughly 26% of post offices are within 50 miles of their assigned regional center, and another 26% are between 150 and 500 miles away, according to the research.
The upshot is that some mail generally doesn't begin moving through the system until at least the following day, resulting in the postmark not being applied the day you mailed that item. In some cases — i.e., ahead of weekends or holidays — it could take longer than a day for that crucial stamp to be applied.
The importance of ensuring your mail is postmarked in time applies to a range of documents or forms that have deadlines. For example, ballots that are mailed can require a postmark by a specific date to be counted, as can federal and state tax returns and certain legal documents.
If someone wants to ensure "that the postmark aligns with the date of mailing, the customer may take the mailpiece to a post office, station or branch and request a [manual postmark] at the retail counter," according to a statement issued by the Postal Service.
Asking a postal clerk to manually postmark something costs nothing. Or, you can pay $5.30 to send a time-sensitive document via certified mail, which includes a receipt for the sender as well as a return receipt showing when it was delivered and who signed for it. Alternatively, a certificate of mailing, which you keep for your records, costs $2.40 and shows the date you mailed something.
"Waiting in line at the post office is never fun, but you get that proof of timely mailing," said Josh Youngblood, an enrolled agent and founder of The Youngblood Group in Dallas. "The reality is, otherwise, you are at the mercy of whenever that postmark gets applied."
Given the possibility of a delay, you may want to explore electronic filing or payment options when available. Or, give yourself a deadline to mail something important well ahead of the official due date.
Ahead of tax filing season, it's worth taking note of the possible delay. While April 15 is when federal taxes are due, the IRS considers any tax return postmarked on or before April 15 as being filed on time, even if it's not received until days later.
So if you are prone to waiting until the last minute to file taxes and do not do it electronically, you can't assume dropping off your return at the post office or putting it in a mailbox means it will get postmarked that day.
"If I'm mailing something to the IRS, I'm going to go into the post office to the actual person, where they stamp it," Youngblood said.
If your tax return is postmarked late and you owe taxes, you may face penalties and interest. "There is a penalty for filing late, and even a day late is still late," Youngblood said.
For individual tax returns — i.e., your Form 1040 — the penalty for filing a late return is 5% of the tax due for each month or partial month the return is late, capping out at 25%. On top of that, the penalty for paying late is 0.5% of your unpaid balance per month, also capped at 25%. Interest is also charged on unpaid balances, accruing daily at the federal short-term rate plus 3%.
However, if you have filed and paid taxes owed on time over the previous three years, you can request that the penalties be waived, Youngblood said.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
The Department of Justice has 5.2 million pages of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents left to review and it will take weeks longer to complete the effort, multiple outlets reported.
About 400 lawyers are being enlisted from multiple government divisions to pore over those records, The New York Times first reported late Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The review of the staggering number of files will take until at least Jan. 20 to complete, the Times reported. A government document reported by Reuters on Wednesday morning said that the process of reviewing the remaining records will take place between Jan. 5 and Jan. 23.
The updated timeline is likely to draw more criticism from lawmakers who have already accused the Trump administration of flouting a statutory deadline to release its files on Epstein, the notorious late sex offender.
While it was unclear how many total records would be disclosed, the latest reported figure is much larger than previously indicated, and appears to further undermine a July memo claiming the DOJ conducted "an exhaustive review" of its files on Epstein.
Asked for comment, the White House and the DOJ both referred CNBC to an X post from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said lawyers "are working around the clock through the holidays, including Christmas and New Years, to review documents in compliance with federal law."
"It truly is an all-hands-on-deck approach and we're asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the documents that remain," Blanche wrote, adding, "Required redactions to protect victims take time but they will not stop these materials from being released."
President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill in mid-November requiring the government to publicly release unclassified records from its investigations into Epstein by Dec. 19.
The DOJ released thousands of records on that date, but Blanche indicated that more would be doled out over the "next couple weeks."
"I expect several hundred thousand more," Blanche said at the time.
On Christmas Eve, the DOJ revealed that more than a million additional documents potentially related to Epstein had been "uncovered" and that it would take "a few more weeks" to release them.
The document cited by Reuters on Wednesday said that the 400 additional lawyers are being provided by the DOJ's Criminal Division and National Security Division, as well as the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan.
The FBI declined to comment. The other divisions and the Manhattan office did not immediately respond to CNBC's outreach.
Lawyers involved will be expected to review up to 1,000 documents per day over three to five hours, and volunteers are being offered incentives including time off awards and telework options, the document reportedly said.
After releasing its initial batch of files, the DOJ quickly drew accusations of failing to produce the required files and of redacting more information than was legally mandated.
The department said it "is not redacting the names of any politicians" and maintains that it is fully complying with federal law. Democrats have nevertheless signaled they will take legal action against the administration over the alleged violations.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused the administration of carrying out a "cover up to protect Donald Trump," a former friend of Epstein's who has frequently griped about the public focus on the files.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
In this article
Nike shares were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday after insiders picked up the stock near the end of a rough year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who serves as a director at the athletic apparel maker, added around 50,000 Nike shares, an approximately 90% increase in his stake, according to financial data provider Verity.
Fellow board member Robert Holmes Swan added roughly 8,700 shares, per Verity. That marked a 24% expansion to the former eBay and Intel executive's position.
Nike CEO Elliott Hill got about 16,400 shares in a transaction valued at $1 million, Verity found. His personal stake grew by more than 7% as a result.
This buying comes as the Oregon-based company wraps up another tough year in the eyes of investors.
Shares of Nike have tumbled around 19% in 2025, on pace for its fourth straight down year. The stock has shed nearly half of its value over the last three years.
Nike has recently contended with weak sales in China and hits from tariffs, the latest in a string of challenges for the retailer. The company has pitched its turnaround story led by Hill, who took the role last year.
Wall Street appears optimistic that the stock can rebound. The average analyst polled by LSEG has a buy rating and price target suggesting shares can rise about 26% over the next year.
The Morning Squawk newsletter by Alex Harring is your rundown of five things to know before the stock market opens.
Subscribe here to get access today.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
In this article
On Dec. 8, Federal prosecutors in Texas unsealed documents that revealed an investigation into a massive smuggling network that stretched across the U.S. and the world.
Dubbed "Operation Gatekeeper" by the feds, the investigation wasn't focused on drug smuggling or stolen goods but rather an alleged secret, underground network of suppliers for Nvidia's graphic processing units, or GPUs. Such chips are the backbone of the AI race, and can be used for military or civilian purposes.
The government said a hidden smuggling ring was sending chips to China in defiance of American national security export control laws. The smuggling syndicate allegedly involved operatives illegally entering the United States, phony front companies and a secret warehouse shipping operation in New Jersey that was penetrated by at least one undercover agent working on behalf of the U.S. government.
What that federal investigation found showcases the desperate struggle between the United States and China for access to cutting-edge chips that many believe will control the fate of the global economy. The smuggling ring, they said, attempted to export at least $160 million worth of Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs to China between October 2024 and May 2025.
The demand for these chips from China is enormous, and the best supply is still in the United States. Although China is establishing its own local AI chip market, the county remains highly dependent on Nvidia's technology.
"I think more than 60% of the leading AI models in China are currently using Nvidia's hardware," said Ray Wang, an analyst at SemiAnalysis. "Nvidia have [a] systematic advantage ranging from hardware to software. And I think for now, if you combine [those] two factors together, it's still a thing that China is trying to catch up to."
As they gathered facts, the government sent an undercover agent into a warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey. There, the person allegedly witnessed suspects relabeling Nvidia GPUs with branding for a phony company they called "Sandkayan." The shipping and export paperwork, the government said, misclassified the goods as "adapters," "adapter modules" and "contactor controllers."
Operation Gatekeeper culminated in a dramatic scene at the New Jersey warehouse on May 28 as three trucks hired by the conspirators pulled in to pick up the smuggled chips.
In near real time, a user in a text chain allegedly used by the conspirators messaged that one of the truck drivers transporting the goods to the New Jersey warehouse reported that police officers had appeared at the scene and were asking questions about the cargo's destination.
According to the texts, conspirators told the drivers to "just say they don't know anything."
Five minutes later, according to prosecutors, one of the conspirators sent another message to the entire text thread: "Dissolve this group chat. Delete everyone." Soon after that, prosecutors said federal agents swooped in and secured the high-tech equipment, preventing the goods on site from being shipped to China.
The case comes amid a flurry of similar busts regarding unauthorized Nvidia exports in recent months. The think tank Center for a New American Security estimates that between 10,000 and several hundred thousand AI chips were smuggled to China in 2024 alone.
"In today's world, I feel there's so many ways that you can get your hand on Nvidia's chips in all kinds of illegal" ways, Wang said. "You can set up your data center globally, you can have shell companies to purchase Nvidia chips. And it's so hard to for Nvidia to track and do due diligence."
A Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC that the U.S. government's export is rigorous and comprehensive.
"Even sales of older generation products on the secondary market are subject to strict scrutiny and review," the Nvidia spokesperson said. "While millions of controlled GPUs are in service at businesses, homes, and schools, we will continue to work with the government and our customers to ensure that second-hand smuggling does not occur."
But on the same day that federal prosecutors announced their investigation, President Donald Trump made a social media post that could undermine the whole operation.
Trump said on Truth Social that the United States would now allow Nvidia's H200 GPUs — the most powerful GPUs seized by authorities in Operation Gatekeeper — to be exported to China. Trump said those exports would be allowed provided that the the U.S. received a 25% cut of the sales. Trump added that Nvidia's most advanced AI chips, the Blackwell and Rubin GPUs, are still not authorized for export.
Operation Gatekeeper resulted in the arrests of two businessmen and a guilty plea from a Houston man and his company for smuggling the cutting-edge AI technology. But the president's announcement has scrambled the case for U.S. prosectors trying to make the case that smuggling the same chips is a danger to the country's national security. Defense attorneys for the men charged were quick to pounce on the opportunity.
In a court filing the next day, defense attorneys wrote that "the President gave the lie to that claim when he announced that the United States will now allow Nvidia's H200 GPUs—the most powerful GPUs seized by authorities in this case—to be exported to China."
Some experts said they believe smuggling of even Nvidia's highest end AI chips into China will continue.
"I don't believe the smuggling will just stop," Wang said. "It is unclear to me that the new opening of the H200 chips will be enough for Chinese AI demand. The compute demand we are seeing globally has been accelerating, and I believe that should be the case in China as well."
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
China has urged the Netherlands to swiftly correct its "mistakes" over chipmaker Nexperia and restore stability in the global semiconductor industry, in the latest development in a dispute over technology transfer.
In September, the Dutch government invoked a Cold War-era law to effectively take control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chipmaker based in the Netherlands. The unusual move was reportedly made after the U.S. raised security concerns.
In response, China moved to block its products from leaving China, which, in turn, raised the alarm among global automakers as they faced shortages of the chipmaker's components.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for China's Commerce Ministry said that the Netherlands should "immediately correct its mistakes and clear the obstacles to restoring the stability and security of the global semiconductor supply chain."
"What is perplexing is that, faced with the anxiety and unease of the global industry, the Netherlands remains indifferent and stubbornly insists on its own way, showing absolutely no responsible attitude towards the security of the global semiconductor supply chain, and taking no substantive action whatsoever," the spokesperson said in a statement, according to a Google translation.
A spokesperson for the Dutch government was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday morning. Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans has repeatedly defended his decision to intervene in the company over recent weeks.
Nexperia manufactures billions of so-called foundation chips — transistors, diodes and power management components — that are produced in Europe, assembled and tested in China, and then re-exported to customers in Europe and elsewhere.
The low-tech, inexpensive chips are needed in almost every device that uses electricity. In cars, they're used to connect the battery to motors, for lights and sensors, for braking systems, airbag controllers, entertainment systems and electric windows.
Auto industry groups have said that disruptions in the supply chain for Nexperia parts have not yet been fundamentally resolved, meaning that component availability remains uncertain.
Japan's Nissan and German auto supplier Bosch are among the firms to have warned about looming shortages.
Speaking to CNBC last month, a spokesperson for the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), which represents Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz Group and BMW among hundreds of others, warned of elevated risks to supply, "particularly for the first quarter" of 2026.
— CNBC's Annika Kim Constantino contributed to this report.
Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.
© 2025 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.
Data also provided by
Every time Aditi publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Enter your email
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
A major Groq investor said data center development was "speculative" and would put "stress on the system."
Alex Davis, the CEO of Austin-based investment company Disruptive Tech, sounded an alarm about the US data center market in an end-of-year letter to investors on Monday.
He said he was concerned about landlords who were building data centers based on speculation about future demand.
"I am also deeply concerned about the 'speculative' data center market," Davis wrote in his letter. "The 'build it and they will come' strategy is a trap. If you are a hyperscaler, you will own your own data centers."
He said he predicted a "significant financing crisis in 2027-2028 for speculative landlords."
"We want to back the owner/users, not the speculative landlords, and we are quite concerned for their stress on the system," Davis added.
In a similar letter on LinkedIn, Davis also talked about data centers, and said AI has spurred "too many business models with no realistic margin expansion."
"This will not end well," he added on LinkedIn.
Disruptive Tech has backed Groq, an AI hardware startup. In a press release in September in which it announced a $750 million capital raise, Groq said Disruptive Tech had invested nearly $350 million in the company.
The release also said that Disruptive Tech had invested in Airbnb, Spotify, and Slack, as well as AI-forward companies like Shield AI, Palantir, and Databricks.
This funding round took place shortly before Groq signed a $20 billion licensing deal with Nvidia in November.
Davis's comments about data centers come as tech companies are spending billions of dollars on their construction.
A Business Insider investigation into the US's data centers in June showed that at the end of 2024, companies had filed permits for 1,240 existing or planned data centers. This was nearly four times the number of permits in 2010.
These centers, which store, process, and distribute large amounts of data, use massive amounts of land, water, and electricity. Cities give companies tax incentives to build data centers, spurring the rate of their construction.
Jump to
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in December withdrew its previously issued guidance concerning the meaning of the term “actual delivery” in the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) as it applies to digital asset transactions. In a brief statement in the Federal Register, the agency said it was voiding the “in order to reevaluate such guidance in light of further developments during the past 5 years” in the spot market for virtual currencies and derivatives.
Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.
yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.
By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.
Δ
The statement also pointed to the ongoing work of the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets as a reason for withdrawing the earlier guidance.
“After careful review, the Commission believes that the Final VC Actual Delivery Guidance is likely outdated and thus provides limited value to market participants and, further, may conflict with the ongoing work of the Commission necessary to implement the President's Working Group's recommendations,” the statement said.
The CFTC historically has maintained that speculative commodities transactions involving leverage or margin are futures contracts subject to the agency's jurisdiction. But certain transactions are exempt from regulation under the CEA, including those that result in “actual delivery within 28 days.”
However, the agency has long struggled to define the term “actual delivery” and has issued evolving interpretive guidance over the years, according to client bulletin by Benesch on the CFTC's latest move. In 2013, the CFTC issued a “final interpretation” of “actual delivery” in the context of margined, financed or leveraged retail commodity transactions generally. And in 2020, it issued the now-withdrawn “interpretive guidance” setting out the agency's views on determining whether actual delivery has occurred with respect to virtual currencies.
Related: UK Treasury Eying New Rules for Crypto Firms
Benesch speculates that one reason behind the CFTC's withdrawal of the 2020 guidance is to clear the field for a new statutory framework for digital asset markets currently being debated in Congress. Notably, the withdrawal statement did not replace the 2020 guidance, perhaps out of concern that any new guidance could become entrenched before a new statutory regime potentially renders it obsolete.
Whether such new statutory framework is forthcoming in the near term, however, is an open question. Action on digital asset market legislation has stalled in the Senate amid partisan differences. According to Decrypt, some crypto industry insiders now view the legislation as far too complicated and touching on too many politically sensitive issues to pass before Congress effectively grinds to a halt ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Others see less urgency in is passing market-structure legislation in 2026, per Decrypt. They point to key victories for the industry in new regulations issued by CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will be difficult for a new administration to unravel, even in lieu of new legislation.
“As soon as we get a token safe harbor, it's over for market structure,” one crypto policy leader told Decrypt, referring to an SEC exemption for crypto projects expected to roll out in January.
For now, however, uncertainty reigns. The prevailing official guidance on whether digital currency transactions are exempt from futures regulation under the “actual delivery” standard has been voided without being replaced and any legislative path forward on clarifying the rule may be blocked at least until 2027.
Federal Antitrust Suit Targeting Aircraft Engine Sales Practices Is Settled
Dec 31, 2025 by
CPI
CFTC Withdraws Guidance on ‘Actual Delivery' in Crypto Transactions, Leaving Regulatory Void
Dec 31, 2025 by
CPI
Coalition of State AGs Push Back Against FCC Proposal Seeking to Preempt State AI Laws
Dec 31, 2025 by
CPI
Apple Seeks to Overturn £1.5 Billion UK App Store Antitrust Ruling
Dec 31, 2025 by
CPI
Age-Restriction Laws Are Proliferating; So Too Are the Difficult Tradeoffs Policymakers Face
Dec 23, 2025 by
CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – CRESSE Insights
Dec 16, 2025 by
CPI
Learning from Divergence: The Role of Cross-Country Comparisons in the Evaluation of the DMA
Dec 16, 2025 by
Federico Bruni
New Regulatory Tools for the EU Foreign Direct Investment Screening and Foreign Subsidies Regulation
Dec 16, 2025 by
Ioannis Kokkoris
“Suite Dreams”: Market Definition and Complementarity in the Digital Age
Dec 16, 2025 by
Romain Bizet & Matteo Foschi
The Interaction Between Competition Policy and Consumer Protection: Institutional Design, Behavioral Insights, and Emerging Challenges in Digital Markets
Dec 16, 2025 by
Alessandra Tonazzi
NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 12:28 ET — Regular session
Strategy Inc shares fell 1.8% to $152.88 in midday trading on Wednesday, tracking a more than 1% dip in bitcoin.
The software company — formerly MicroStrategy — has become a volatile bitcoin proxy because it holds the token on its balance sheet and regularly raises money to buy more. That structure is back in focus as investors weigh the trade-off between added bitcoin exposure and shareholder dilution. Strategy
A Form 8-K dated Dec. 29 showed Strategy bought 1,229 bitcoins for $108.8 million between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28 at an average price of about $88,568 per coin, funded by selling 663,450 shares through its at-the-market program. The filing put total holdings at 672,497 bitcoins and said roughly $11.7 billion of common stock remained available for sale under the program. SEC
At bitcoin's latest price of about $87,516, that stash would be worth roughly $58.9 billion.
Other crypto-linked stocks were mixed: Coinbase fell 1.2% and Marathon Digital slipped 1.5%, while miner Riot Platforms rose 1.6%.
At-the-market offerings allow a company to sell newly issued shares into the market at prevailing prices, typically in small increments. For investors, the benefit is fresh capital to deploy quickly — and the cost is dilution as the share count rises.
Strategy traded between $152.53 and $157.48 on the day.
Chairman Michael Saylor posted “Back to Orange” on social media ahead of the disclosure, a phrase long associated by followers with fresh bitcoin buying. Barron's
Traders are likely to keep keying off bitcoin's direction into year-end trading and whether Strategy continues tapping equity markets for more purchases. The company is expected to report quarterly results in early February, according to Zacks' earnings calendar. Zacks
For now, the stock's day-to-day path remains tightly tied to bitcoin's swings, with financing headlines adding another layer of volatility.
A dedicated markets reporter, she covers stocks, macroeconomics, and major business developments with a sharp eye for detail and accuracy.
© 2025 All rights reserved.
One investor has leaned into Core Scientific's infrastructure pivot, seemingly betting the market is missing what comes next.
San Francisco-based Valiant Capital Management increased its position in Core Scientific (CORZ 0.20%) by 1.68 million shares in the third quarter, adding an estimated $34.34 million in overall position value, according to a November 14 SEC filing.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated November 14, Valiant Capital Management reported buying 1.68 million additional shares of Core Scientific (CORZ 0.20%) during the third quarter. The post-transaction position totaled 6.48 million shares with a market value of $116.31 million as of September 30. The fund also reported holding call options tied to about 4.21 million shares.
Top holdings after the filing:
As of Wednesday, CORZ shares were priced at $14.65, up about 4% over the past year and underperforming the S&P 500, which is up about 17% in the same period.
Core Scientific, Inc. is a leading provider of blockchain infrastructure and digital asset mining services in North America, operating large-scale data centers and offering both self-mining and hosting solutions.
It's important to note that this stake was built while Core Scientific was rallying sharply, not after the wheels came off. Shares were up roughly 24% in the first three quarters of the year, reflecting growing optimism around infrastructure monetization and the proposed CoreWeave merger. The subsequent 32% slide came later, after that deal was scrapped in late October.That sequencing reframes the move. This was not a reflexive dip buy. It was an endorsement of the strategy before the headline risk reentered the picture.At the time, Core Scientific was starting to be valued less like a pure-play Bitcoin miner and more like a power and compute platform. Third-quarter results reinforced that shift, highlighting growing colocation revenue and the optionality embedded in its large-scale, power-rich data center footprint. The merger's collapse removed a near-term catalyst but did not erase the underlying thesis.Meanwhile, within the portfolio, this remains the most concentrated position, outranking broad market ETFs and industrial holdings alike. That suggests a tolerance for volatility in exchange for a potentially nonlinear payoff.
13F reportable assets under management: The portion of a fund's assets required to be disclosed in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings.AUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed by a fund or investment firm.Colocation services: Renting space and infrastructure in a data center to host clients' computing equipment.Digital asset mining: The process of using computing power to validate blockchain transactions and earn cryptocurrency rewards.Hosting solutions: Services that provide infrastructure and management for clients' computing or mining equipment.Self-mining operations: When a company mines digital assets for its own account rather than on behalf of clients.Dual business model: A company strategy that generates revenue from two distinct but related business activities.Quarter: A three-month period used by companies to report financial performance, often aligning with calendar quarters.Market value: The total value of a holding, calculated as the current share price multiplied by the number of shares owned.TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.Colocation: The practice of housing privately-owned servers and networking equipment in a third-party data center.
Jonathan Ponciano has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Ge Vernova. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
Invest better with The Motley Fool. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool's premium services.
Making the world smarter, happier, and richer.
© 1995 - 2025 The Motley Fool. All rights reserved.
Market data powered by Xignite and Polygon.io.
About The Motley Fool
Our Services
Around the Globe
Free Tools
Affiliates & Friends
Advertisement|Remove ads.
Crypto-linked equities were largely muted in after-hours trading Tuesday, with one clear exception. Shares of iPower Inc. (IPW) climbed after the company disclosed its first purchases of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), marking the launch of a new digital asset treasury strategy announced in June.
The clean energy and tech infrastructure company said it acquired 15.1 Bitcoin at an average price of $87,686.33 and 301.1 Ethereum at an average price of $2,934.67. The total investment comes to around $2.21 million, with Bitcoin accounting for roughly $1.33 million and Ethereum representing about $884,000 of the total.
IPW's stock rose more than 5% in after-hours trade, offsetting a 5.49% decline during the regular session. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the company remained in ‘bearish' territory over the past day amid ‘extremely low' levels of chatter.
The acquisition marks iPower's formal entry into holding cryptocurrencies as part of its balance sheet. Corporate adoption of digital asset treasury strategies has expanded beyond Bitcoin-only approaches in recent quarters, with a growing number of firms opting to hold Ethereum alongside BTC.
The company did not disclose whether additional purchases are planned or how the assets will be managed long term.
According to data on Arkham Intelligence, spotted by Lookonchain, Tom Lee's Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) bought another 32,938 Ethereum and staked another 118,944 ETH on Tuesday night.
BMNR's stock rose 0.29% in after-hours trade after dropping nearly 2.9% in regular trading. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company remained in ‘bearish' territory even as chatter rose to ‘normal' from ‘low' levels.
This comes on the heels of BMNR announcing its total Ethereum (ETH) holdings had reached 4.11 million tokens after adding over 44,000 ETH over the past week. BMNR also disclosed it has staked 408,627 ETH, locking up tokens to validate transactions and earn rewards. The firm expects to launch its Made in America Validator Network staking platform in early 2026 and urged shareholders to vote ahead of its January 15 annual meeting in Las Vegas.
The overall cryptocurrency market rose around 1.2% in the last 24 hours, still holding above the $3 trillion mark. Liquidations across the market were relatively contained at $142 million, according to CoinGlass data. Bitcoin's price rose 2.1% in the last 24 hours to around $88,700, with retail sentiment on Stocktwits trending in ‘bearish' territory over the past day amid ‘normal' levels of chatter.
On the equities side, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) fell 0.17% after-hours after closing the day with a 0.12% loss, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) edged 0.08% lower after closing 0.21% in the red, and the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) was slipped 0.24% after a loss of 0.23% in regular trading. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around QQQ remained in ‘bullish' territory, but chatter rose to ‘normal' from ‘low' levels over the past day.
Read also: Nike Stock Rises After Hours As CEO Elliott Hill Joins Tim Cook in Insider Buying
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.
Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), the company behind Truth Social, said Wednesday it plans to distribute a new digital token to shareholders through a deal with Crypto.com.
The token will be issued using Crypto.com's Cronos blockchain. Trump Media said in a press release that once the program launches, each shareholder would receive one token for every whole share of DJT held.
Token holders may also periodically receive rewards throughout the year, including potential benefits or discounts tied to Trump Media's products, such as Truth Social, the Truth+ streaming service and Truth Predict, the company said.
U.S. president Donald Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media and Technology and has spoken favorable about the crypto industry in 2025, stating in November that he wants the U.S. to become a "bitcoin superpower."
“We look forward to utilizing Crypto.com's blockchain technology and improving regulatory clarity to implement this first-of-its-kind token distribution, reward Trump Media shareholders, and promote fair and transparent markets,” CEO and chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement.
Shares of Trump Media rose in pre-market trading, with DJT up to $12.97, a gain of 3.18%. Crypto.com's native token, CRO, initially jumped 3.8% following the announcement before giving back some of those gains.
Trump Media said additional details about the token distribution are expected to be announced in the new year.
More For You
KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
More For You
Base's creator coin push sparks builder backlash over favoritism concerns
Builders on Base are pushing back against the network's close alignment with Zora, arguing the creator-coin narrative sidelines established projects.
What to know:
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.
Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), the company behind Truth Social, said Wednesday it plans to distribute a new digital token to shareholders through a deal with Crypto.com.
The token will be issued using Crypto.com's Cronos blockchain. Trump Media said in a press release that once the program launches, each shareholder would receive one token for every whole share of DJT held.
Token holders may also periodically receive rewards throughout the year, including potential benefits or discounts tied to Trump Media's products, such as Truth Social, the Truth+ streaming service and Truth Predict, the company said.
U.S. president Donald Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media and Technology and has spoken favorable about the crypto industry in 2025, stating in November that he wants the U.S. to become a "bitcoin superpower."
“We look forward to utilizing Crypto.com's blockchain technology and improving regulatory clarity to implement this first-of-its-kind token distribution, reward Trump Media shareholders, and promote fair and transparent markets,” CEO and chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement.
Shares of Trump Media rose in pre-market trading, with DJT up to $12.97, a gain of 3.18%. Crypto.com's native token, CRO, initially jumped 3.8% following the announcement before giving back some of those gains.
Trump Media said additional details about the token distribution are expected to be announced in the new year.
More For You
KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
More For You
Base's creator coin push sparks builder backlash over favoritism concerns
Builders on Base are pushing back against the network's close alignment with Zora, arguing the creator-coin narrative sidelines established projects.
What to know:
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.
Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), the company behind Truth Social, said Wednesday it plans to distribute a new digital token to shareholders through a deal with Crypto.com.
The token will be issued using Crypto.com's Cronos blockchain. Trump Media said in a press release that once the program launches, each shareholder would receive one token for every whole share of DJT held.
Token holders may also periodically receive rewards throughout the year, including potential benefits or discounts tied to Trump Media's products, such as Truth Social, the Truth+ streaming service and Truth Predict, the company said.
U.S. president Donald Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media and Technology and has spoken favorable about the crypto industry in 2025, stating in November that he wants the U.S. to become a "bitcoin superpower."
“We look forward to utilizing Crypto.com's blockchain technology and improving regulatory clarity to implement this first-of-its-kind token distribution, reward Trump Media shareholders, and promote fair and transparent markets,” CEO and chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement.
Shares of Trump Media rose in pre-market trading, with DJT up to $12.97, a gain of 3.18%. Crypto.com's native token, CRO, initially jumped 3.8% following the announcement before giving back some of those gains.
Trump Media said additional details about the token distribution are expected to be announced in the new year.
More For You
KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
More For You
Coinbase's Base faces builder backlash over creator coin push
Builders on Base are pushing back against the network's close alignment with Zora, arguing the creator-coin narrative sidelines established projects.
What to know:
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.
Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), the company behind Truth Social, said Wednesday it plans to distribute a new digital token to shareholders through a deal with Crypto.com.
The token will be issued using Crypto.com's Cronos blockchain. Trump Media said in a press release that once the program launches, each shareholder would receive one token for every whole share of DJT held.
Token holders may also periodically receive rewards throughout the year, including potential benefits or discounts tied to Trump Media's products, such as Truth Social, the Truth+ streaming service and Truth Predict, the company said.
U.S. president Donald Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media and Technology and has spoken favorable about the crypto industry in 2025, stating in November that he wants the U.S. to become a "bitcoin superpower."
“We look forward to utilizing Crypto.com's blockchain technology and improving regulatory clarity to implement this first-of-its-kind token distribution, reward Trump Media shareholders, and promote fair and transparent markets,” CEO and chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement.
Shares of Trump Media rose in pre-market trading, with DJT up to $12.97, a gain of 3.18%. Crypto.com's native token, CRO, initially jumped 3.8% following the announcement before giving back some of those gains.
Trump Media said additional details about the token distribution are expected to be announced in the new year.
More For You
KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
More For You
Coinbase's Base faces builder backlash over creator coin push
Builders on Base are pushing back against the network's close alignment with Zora, arguing the creator-coin narrative sidelines established projects.
What to know:
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.
Dec. 31, 2025 -- Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT) ("Trump Media"), operator of the social media platform Truth Social, the streaming platform Truth+, and the FinTech brand Truth.Fi, today announced plans to distribute a new digital token to its shareholders in partnership with Crypto.com. The distribution is expected to leverage Crypto.com's cutting-edge technology, including the high performance, interoperable Cronos blockchain designed for speed, scalability, and seamless connectivity between networks.
Trump Media anticipates that, beginning in the near future, each ultimate beneficial owner will be eligible to receive one of the new digital tokens per whole share of DJT, with various rewards being made available to token holders periodically throughout the year. Such rewards may include benefits or discounts tied to Trump Media products such as Truth Social, Truth+, and Truth Predict.
Trump Media's CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said: “We look forward to utilizing Crypto.com's blockchain technology and improving regulatory clarity to implement this first-of-its kind token distribution, reward Trump Media shareholders, and promote fair and transparent markets.”
Additional details regarding the planned distribution will be forthcoming in the new year.
Disclaimer Regarding Digital Tokens
It is anticipated that the digital tokens distributed to Trump Media shareholders will not in and of themselves represent an ownership interest in Trump Media or any other entity, nor should token holders expect rewards to include profits from the essential managerial efforts of others. It is further anticipated that the tokens may not be transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash, and that only ultimate beneficial owners (not borrowers) of DJT shares as of the specified record date(s) will be eligible to receive digital tokens. Trump Media reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change, modify or terminate this distribution or any of the terms and conditions relating to the distribution at any time, with or without prior notice.
No Offer or Solicitation
This communication and the information contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not a proxy statement or solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization with respect to any securities, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange any securities, or any commodity or instrument or related derivative, nor shall there be any sale of any such securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, sale or exchange would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the Securities Act or an exemption therefrom. Investors should consult with their counsel as to the applicable requirements for a purchaser to avail itself of any exemption under the Securities Act.
Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the plans, strategies, and prospects, both business and financial, of Trump Media. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events, including expected potential merger & acquisition activity, the rollout of products and features, our Bitcoin treasury strategy, the future plans, timing and potential success of the streaming services and the launch and success of our financial services and FinTech platform. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, and expectations reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or realize these plans, intentions, or expectations. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Generally, statements that are not historical facts, including statements concerning possible or assumed future actions, business strategies, events, or results of operations, are forward-looking statements. These statements may be preceded by, followed by, or include the words "believes," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "forecasts," "may," "will," "should," "seeks," "plans," "scheduled," "anticipates," "soon," "goal," "intends," or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations that we describe in our forward-looking statements. There may be events in the future that we are not accurately able to predict, or over which we have no control.
About Trump Media
The mission of Trump Media is to end Big Tech's assault on free speech by opening up the Internet and giving people their voices back. Trump Media operates Truth Social, a social media platform established as a safe harbor for free expression amid increasingly harsh censorship by Big Tech corporations, as well as Truth+, a TV streaming platform focusing on family-friendly live TV channels and on-demand content. Trump Media is also launching Truth.Fi, a financial services and FinTech brand incorporating America First investment vehicles.
Investor Relations Contact
Shannon Devine (MZ Group | Managing Director - MZ North America) Email: [email protected]
Media Contact
[email protected]
Get your step-by-step guide to setting upan account with Crypto.com
By clicking the Submit button you acknowledge having read the Privacy Notice of Crypto.com where we explain how we use and protect your personal data.
Foris DAX MT Limited is a limited liability company incorporated in Malta with Company registration number C 88392 and registered office at Level 7, Spinola Park, Triq Mikiel Ang Borg, SPK 1000, St. Julians, Malta, trading under the name Crypto.com, duly authorized by the Malta Financial Services Authority as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider pursuant to Regulation 2023/1114 on Markets in Crypto-Assets as implemented in Malta by the Markets in Crypto Assets Act. Foris DAX MT Limited is authorized to provide the following services: 1. Exchange of crypto-assets for funds; 2. Exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets; 3. Reception and transmission of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients; 4. Execution of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients; 5. Transfer services for crypto-assets on behalf of clients; and 6. Custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients.The Cash Account is provided by Foris MT Limited. The Crypto.com Visa Card is issued and promoted by Foris MT Limited pursuant to its Visa Principal Member (Issuing) license. Foris MT Limited is a limited liability company incorporated in Malta with company registration number C 90348 and registered office at Level 7, Spinola Park, Triq Mikiel Ang Borg, SPK 1000, St. Julians, Malta, duly authorized by the Malta Financial Services Authority as a Financial Institutions licensed to issue electronic money under the 3rd Schedule to the Financial Institutions Act (Electronic Money Institutions).Any other product or service offered and advertised on this webpage or the Crypto.com App is provided by other group companies and does not fall within the Foris DAX MT Limited or Foris MT Limited regulated services.Trading or holding crypto-assets carries risks and may not be suitable for all. Please note that past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Carefully consider whether investing in crypto-assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition and risk tolerance. You can find more information on the risks involved with trading or holding crypto-assets here.Contact: chat.crypto.com | Office: Level 7, Spinola Park, Triq Mikiel Ang Borg, St Julians SPK 1000 Malta.
The Cash Account is provided by Foris MT Limited. The Crypto.com Visa Card is issued and promoted by Foris MT Limited pursuant to its Visa Principal Member (Issuing) license. Foris MT Limited is a limited liability company incorporated in Malta with company registration number C 90348 and registered office at Level 7, Spinola Park, Triq Mikiel Ang Borg, SPK 1000, St. Julians, Malta, duly authorized by the Malta Financial Services Authority as a Financial Institutions licensed to issue electronic money under the 3rd Schedule to the Financial Institutions Act (Electronic Money Institutions).
Any other product or service offered and advertised on this webpage or the Crypto.com App is provided by other group companies and does not fall within the Foris DAX MT Limited or Foris MT Limited regulated services.
Trading or holding crypto-assets carries risks and may not be suitable for all. Please note that past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Carefully consider whether investing in crypto-assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition and risk tolerance. You can find more information on the risks involved with trading or holding crypto-assets here.
News
Reviews
Learn
Color mode
Select Language
By Cora
Published: December 31, 2025|Last updated: December 31, 2025
Share
Share
China has taken a decisive step in reshaping its central bank digital currency strategy, transforming the digital yuan from a non-yielding form of cash into an interest-bearing financial instrument. The move immediately sparked a surge of investor interest, with roughly $188 million flowing into digital yuan–linked stocks following the announcement.
On Monday, December 29, the People's Bank of China announced that starting January 1, 2026, commercial banks will begin paying interest on digital yuan (e-CNY) wallet balances. Under the new framework, e-CNY holdings will be treated more like bank deposits rather than simple digital cash in circulation.
Previously, the digital yuan functioned as a cash equivalent, generating no yield and limiting its appeal as a store of value. The policy shift represents a structural upgrade to the CBDC's role within China's financial system.
Markets reacted swiftly. According to trading data, Chinese investors poured approximately $188 million into digital yuan–related A-share stocks following the announcement.
One of the biggest beneficiaries was Lakala Payment, a major third-party payments provider involved in digital yuan infrastructure. Lakala reportedly captured around 30% of the total inflows, with its shares jumping more than 12% as investors positioned for increased CBDC adoption.
Other fintech and payment companies tied to digital yuan settlement, wallet services, and banking upgrades also saw heightened trading activity.
Deposit and get a 50% trading bonus
Start Trading
Deposit and get a 50% trading bonus
The introduction of interest fundamentally changes the incentives around holding e-CNY. Until now, users had little reason to keep balances in digital yuan wallets compared to platforms like Alipay or WeChat Pay, which offer access to yield-generating money market products.
By allowing interest on e-CNY balances, the PBOC is closing that gap, encouraging users to hold digital yuan rather than immediately converting or spending it. This also signals a deeper shift in classification: the digital yuan is moving away from pure M0-style cash toward a form of deposit-like money, potentially usable within bank reserve and lending frameworks.
Beyond domestic adoption, the change positions China's CBDC as one of the most economically integrated digital currencies issued by a major central bank. Interest-bearing functionality brings the digital yuan closer to the core of monetary policy transmission, something most CBDCs globally have so far avoided.
With the new rules taking effect on January 1, 2026, investors are already treating this as the beginning of a “Digital RMB 2.0” phase, one where infrastructure providers, not just consumers, stand to benefit the most.
As global central banks continue experimenting with digital currencies, China's move underscores a key lesson: adoption follows incentives, and yield may be the strongest one yet.
The content provided in this article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Any actions you take based on the information provided are solely at your own risk. We are not responsible for any financial losses, damages, or consequences resulting from your use of this content. Always conduct your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Read more
Learn how to trade with clarity, not confusion
Trading education is not financial advice, and offers no guaranteed outcomes. Please visit the website for full terms and conditions
Tags
Tornado Cash Sanctions Fight Ends in Coin Center Withdrawal
July 7, 2025
SEC Delays Solana ETF Moves from Fidelity
July 7, 2025
Cora
My name is Cora. With a background in finance and crypto, I'm passionate about digging beyond the headlines to uncover the why behind market-moving events. I enjoy exploring how blockchain, Web3 and crypto innovation are shaping the world we live in.
By Alexandros
July 7, 2025 | 8 Mins read
By Alexandros
July 7, 2025 | 8 Mins read
By Alexandros
July 8, 2025 | 8 Mins read
Unlock Up to $1,000 Reward
Unlock Up to $1,000 Reward
10% Bonus + Secret Rewards
10% Bonus + Secret Rewards
Get 50% More to Trade Futures
Get 50% More to Trade Futures
Learn how to trade with clarity, not confusion
Trading education is not financial advice, and offers no guaranteed outcomes. Please visit the website for full terms and conditions
Bitcoinsensus provides you with everything you need to understand the markets, build smarter strategies, and stay ahead in the world of crypto.
All the latest and most important Bitcoin news.
Stay updated on trends and developments in the altcoin space.
The latest insights and policies shaping the crypto market.
Master trading strategies and technical analysis for serious results.
Discover how decentralized finance is reshaping the crypto world.
Stay informed with expert forecasts and market trend analyses.
Explores Web3, blockchain, and their impact on global markets, policies, and regulations.
Covers Bitcoin, altcoins, and the forces shaping crypto's future — making complex ideas simple and relevant.
A seasoned trader analyzing price action, market trends, and the macro forces behind Bitcoin and altcoins.
@ 2025 Bitcoinsensus - All rights Reserved
Neo blockchain co-founders fight over finances and control. Source: Pexels
Key Takeaways
The Neo blockchain, often referred to as the “Chinese Ethereum” due to its smart contract capabilities and focus on digital assets, has been rocked by a public feud between its co-founders, Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang.
This dispute centers on financial transparency, control over the project's treasury, and allegations of governance hijacking.
Earn Crypto with These Top Mining Apps
Sponsored
Disclosure
We sometimes use affiliate links in our content, when clicking on those we might receive a commission at no extra cost to you. By using this website you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
Mining Rig Rentals
promotions
Earn a commission on your referral's transactions.
Coins
6
Claim Offer
Hashing24
promotions
Earn 3-10% on referral purchases
Coins
Claim Offer
Binance Pool
promotions
Sign up, verify, deposit 100 USDT, get 100 USDT bonus
Coins
5
Claim Offer
As of Dec. 31, the co-founders had exchanged pointed allegations on X, with each believing the other was to blame for opacity and potential resource waste.
Neo co-founder Erik Zhang accused Da Hongfei of failing to disclose Neo Foundation finances and urged a complete, verifiable report.
He said Hongfei will step back from Neo mainnet work, effective Jan. 1, 2026, to focus on NeoX and SpoonOS.
Hongfei replied that Zhang controls most NEO funds and consensus power, stating that one person should not run the project. He had long pushed for moving NEO/GAS to NF multisig wallets, but Zhang had repeatedly delayed the transfer.
“Before today, I avoided raising this publicly to protect community confidence and to give space for an orderly resolution. That silence was born of the hope that he would honor his promise. That restraint has now been misinterpreted. I should have done this earlier.”
This has sparked concerns about Neo's future stability, particularly considering its history of pivots from Antshares to Neo, as well as migrations such as N3.
The controversy between the two founders of the popular blockchain network highlights deeper issues in decentralized project management, where personal control over funds can undermine community trust.
The latest spat between the two co-founders stems from a protracted historical conflict of oversight.
Zhang alleged that Hongfei approached him privately, before 2025, claiming that joint oversight was inefficient and suggesting that one of the founders step down.
The co-founder allegedly agreed to withdraw, believing it would benefit Neo.
Zhang realized that Hongfei was working on AEON, a new blockchain project with its own coin that might potentially utilize Neo's resources.
This motivated Zhang to return and question what he regarded as a conflict of interest.
According to Zhang, a phone call agreement was reached, where Hongfei would disclose financial reports and shift focus to side projects, such as NeoX, a cross-chain bridge, and SpoonOS, an operating system layer for Neo.
Erik posts publicly on Dec. 31, accusing Da of failing to honor the agreement. He demands the immediate disclosure of NF assets and expenditures, stating that Da will no longer handle Neo mainnet matters as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Da responds, countering that Erik controls the “super majority” of NEO/GAS in personal custody, refusing to transfer to multisig wallets despite promises. Da pledges a full 2025 financial report in Q1 2026 and vows to pursue treasury transfer through “all available remedies.
Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang established Antshares in 2014, which was later rebranded to Neo in 2017 amid China's blockchain boom. Da Hongfei, who is sometimes referred to as the public face, has prioritized company development, collaborations, and ecosystem expansion.
The current spat revolves around the NF's treasury—estimated to include significant NEO/GAS holdings and allegations that one founder has monopolized access, leading to a “black box” of unaccounted expenditures.
Community sentiment reflects displeasure with both parties for undermining confidence. Users and analysts describe it as a “governance breakdown” and a “trainwreck,” seeking rapid disclosures to restore credibility.
Some note danger signals, such as blocked access to reports, which mimic bigger blockchain governance flaws encountered in projects like Mantra DAO.
Top Picks for Ethereum
Best Exchanges for Ethereum
Get A Great Offer When You Join These Exchanges
Buy Ethereum Fast & Easy
How To Buy Ethereum With a Credit Card Now
Best Online Casinos for Ethereum
See Our Picks for the Best Crypto Gambling Sites
Rates & Charts
News
Analysis
Economic Calendar
Cryptos
Video
Education
Brokers
Trade Now ad
Bitwise filed for 11 crypto Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, with the aim to offer exposure to Aave (AAVE), Zcash (ZEC), Ethena (ENA), and other altcoins. Despite the shift in institutional interest from Bitcoin (BTC) to altcoins, Bitcoin's dominance remains around 60%, suggesting the chances of an altcoin season are low.
Bitwise, a crypto asset management fund, filed for 11 new crypto ETFs with the US SEC on Tuesday, expanding its offering to include niche altcoins such as Aave, Uniswap, Zcash, Canton, Ethena, Hyperliquid, Near Protocol, Starknet, Sui, Bittensor, and Tron. While the ticker code and fees are yet to be determined, the effective date is expected to be March 16, 2026, if approved by the SEC.
Bitwise will invest 60% of the funds directly in the targeted altcoins, and the remaining funds will be directed to other crypto-focused Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) and, possibly, to the derivatives market.
Bitcoin dominance, the share of BTC market capitalization of the total crypto market, is at 59.70% at press time on Wednesday. This indicates that Bitcoin dominates the entire crypto market, outpacing the altcoins.
Ethereum's struggle to gain strength against Bitcoin remains a headwind to an altcoin season. At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at 0.03358 BTC, stabilizing above 0.03000 BTC after a decline from mid-August to early November. At the same time, CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index at 19 indicates a Bitcoin Season, aligning with the BTC-dominant market sentiment.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization excluding Bitcoin (TOTAL2), at $1.19 trillion, approaches the apex of a descending triangle pattern on the daily chart — the November 21 low at $1.13 trillion as the base, with a resistance trendline connecting the highs of November 10 and December 9.
Typically, such patterns extend the decline, but the recovery in the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 45 on the same chart reflects an underlying increase in buying pressure.
If TOTAL2 exceeds the overhead trendline near $1.22 trillion, it could reverse the bearish trend and target the R1 Pivot Point at $1.98 trillion.
In short, Bitcoin continues to dominate the crypto market, and the status quo could persist into early 2026.
Author
Vishal Dixit
FXStreet
Vishal Dixit holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Wilson College but found his true calling in the world of crypto.
Orange Juice Newsletter brings you expert driven insights - not headlines. Every day on your inbox.
By subscribing you agree to our Terms and conditions.
Vishal Dixit
Vishal Dixit
Vishal Dixit
Vishal Dixit
Michael Ebiekutan
Michael Ebiekutan
Year 2025 was volatile, as crypto often is. Among positive catalysts were favourable regulatory changes in the U.S., rise of Digital Asset Treasuries (DAT), adoption of AI and tokenization of Real-World-Assets (RWA).
Russia's largest bank Sberbank launched the country's first Bitcoin-backed corporate loan to miner Intelion Data. The pilot deal uses cryptocurrency as collateral through Sberbank's proprietary Rutoken custody solution.
Bitcoin (BTC) trades above $88,000 at press time on Tuesday, following a rejection at $90,000 the previous day. Institutional support remains mixed amid steady outflow from US spot BTC Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Strategy Inc.'s acquisition of 1,229 BTC last week.
Lighter's LIT token has not yet begun open trading, but the market has already drawn a sharp line around its valuation after Tuesday's airdrop.
A free newsletter highlighting key market trends to help traders stay a step ahead. Daily insights on the most relevant trading topics, compiled by our experts in an easy-to-read format so you never miss an important move.
Bitcoin (BTC) continues de trade within the recent consolidation phase, hovering around $92,000 at the time of writing on Friday, as investors digest the Federal Reserve's (Fed) cautious December rate cut and its implications for risk assets.
About Us
FXStreet
Legals
About Us
FXStreet
Legals
Information on these pages contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Markets and instruments profiled on this page are for informational purposes only and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy or sell in these assets. You should do your own thorough research before making any investment decisions. FXStreet does not in any way guarantee that this information is free from mistakes, errors, or material misstatements. It also does not guarantee that this information is of a timely nature. Investing in Open Markets involves a great deal of risk, including the loss of all or a portion of your investment, as well as emotional distress. All risks, losses and costs associated with investing, including total loss of principal, are your responsibility. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FXStreet nor its advertisers. The author will not be held responsible for information that is found at the end of links posted on this page.
If not otherwise explicitly mentioned in the body of the article, at the time of writing, the author has no position in any stock mentioned in this article and no business relationship with any company mentioned. The author has not received compensation for writing this article, other than from FXStreet.
FXStreet and the author do not provide personalized recommendations. The author makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of this information. FXStreet and the author will not be liable for any errors, omissions or any losses, injuries or damages arising from this information and its display or use. Errors and omissions excepted.
The author and FXStreet are not registered investment advisors and nothing in this article is intended to be investment advice.
Oops, something went wrong
Key Takeaways
Tom Lee attributed Ethereum's late-December price weakness to automated trading activity and year-end tax losses.
Despite the downturn, BitMine continued accumulating Ethereum, adding 44,463 ETH.
Analysts warn Ethereum remains vulnerable to further downside.
BitMine's Tom Lee said “bots” and year-end tax-related selling were driving Ethereum's recent price weakness, even as the firm added another 44,463 ETH tokens.
In a post on X, Lee said market conditions in the final days of December are typically distorted as institutional investors step away for the holidays, as Ethereum continues to trade below $3,000.
Despite the price slump, BitMine said it continued to accumulate Ethereum into the end of the year.
The company said in a statement that it added 44,463 ETH over the past week, taking advantage of year-end selling pressure.
As of Dec. 28, BitMine held about 4.11 million ETH valued at $2,948 per token, representing roughly 3.4% of Ethereum's circulating supply.
“Market activity tends to slow as we enter the final holiday weeks of a calendar year,” Lee said.
Adding: “Year-end tax-loss related selling is pushing down crypto and crypto equity prices, and this effect tends to be the greatest from Dec. 26 to Dec. 30, so we are navigating markets with this in mind.”
BitMine said its total crypto holdings, cash, and strategic investments now amount to $13.2 billion, making it the largest Ethereum treasury in the world.
In a post promoting the latest buy, Lee said the late-December pullback was consistent with seasonal trading patterns.
“Typically, in these last holiday trading days, many institutional investors have stepped away from markets,” Lee said.
That dynamic, he said, leaves markets more heavily influenced by automated trading systems and year-end tax-loss selling.
“As a result, trading is dominated by bots and other automated strategies, along with tax-loss related selling.
Ethereum was trading below $2,971 on Wednesday, up almost 5% in the last 30 days.
However, analysts say near-term risks remain skewed to the downside.
Victor Olanrewaju, an analyst at CCN, said Ethereum remains vulnerable to declines, pointing to rising exchange reserves as a key concern.
“Despite the uncertainty surrounding Bitcoin's recent on-chain movements, Ethereum's price still appears exposed to additional downside risk,” Olanrewaju said.
Data from CryptoQuant shows Ethereum's exchange reserves have climbed to their highest level in more than a month.
If the trend continues, Olanrewaju said, Ether could slide toward the $2,500 level.
The post Tom Lee Claims ‘Bots' To Blame For Ethereum Price Fall as BitMine Buys More ETH Under $3,000 appeared first on ccn.com.
XMR Price Prediction in 2026, 2027 – 2030 and Beyond
Trust Wallet Hit by Mystery Hack as Losses Top $6M
PI Coin Price Prediction in 2025, 2026 – 2030 and Beyond
Binance Lists KGST And Enables Trading Bots Services
Corporate Giants Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum Amid Selling Risks
SUI Price Prediction in 2025, 2026 – 2030 and Beyond
Trump Coin Prediction in 2025, 2026 – 2030 and Beyond
Meme Coins and AI Rewrite Crypto's Playbook in 2025
LUNC and LUNA Climb as Market Awaits Do Kwon Sentencing
Historic Bitcoin Supply Shock Post-FOMC Lows
What is Lighter? Ending the Era of the “Black Box” Centralized Exchange
What Are Stablecoins? A Beginner's Guide
What Is A Hardware Wallet: Unlocking The Basics
How to Buy Shiba Inu (SHIB) Safely in 2025
What Is Bitcoin Halving? Complete Guide ( 2025 Update)
How to Buy Solana (SOL): Easy Guide for Beginners
What Is Chainlink? A 2025 Guide to Blockchain Innovation
How to Make NFTs: A Comprehensive Guide in 2025
What Is a Crypto Exchange? Ultimate Guide in 2025
What Is The Metaverse? Definition & How It Works
Binance Exchange Review 2025: Fees, Security & Features Explained
MEXC Exchange Review 2025: Fees, Security & Trading Features
22 Best Crypto Signals Telegram Channels for Trading in 2025
Bitget Review 2025: Is It a Safe and Legit Crypto Exchange?
OKX Review 2025: Pros, Cons, Fees and Key Features Explained
Crypto.com Review 2025: Security, Fees, Features, and Pros & Cons
Gate.io Review 2025: Is it Safe and Legit for Crypto Trading?
MEXC Referral Code 2025: “mexc-NFTP” ($10,000 Bonus & 50% OFF Fees)
Binance Referral Code 2025: “BINANCENFTP” (100 USDT Sign-up Bonus)
OKX Referral Code December 2025: 98973395 – $10,000 Bonus
BingX Referral Code 2025: “WYMSQVR5” (6,000+ USDT Welcome Bonus)
Bitget Referral Code 2025: NFTPlazas1 ($6,200 USDT Sign-up Bonus)
Bybit Referral Code & Link: NFTP | 30,050 USDT Bonus 2025
Crypto.com Referral Code 2025: “nftevening” (50$ Worth Welcome Bonus)
Coinbase Referral Code 2025: Steps to Earn $200 in BTC Welcome Bonus
KuCoin Referral Code 2025: “NFTPLAZAS” (11,000 USDT Welcome Bonus)
Gate.io Referral Code December 2025: “VLEWAV0NVQ” (10,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus)
WEEX Referral Code 2025: “cglw” (30,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus)
By NFTPlazas
Key Takeaways
Lighter does not run on general-purpose L2s; instead, it utilizes a custom ZK Rollup architecture optimized specifically for high frequency trading (HFT).
Replaces the capital inefficient AMM model with a central limit order book, delivering a Binance like experience in a decentralized environment.
Uses ZK SNARKs to cryptographically prove that every order matches the Price Time Priority rule, completely eliminating exchange manipulation.
For over a decade, the crypto market has been dominated by a paradox: We trade decentralized assets on centralized platforms (CEXs) that operate as “Black Boxes.” Users deposit funds, place orders, and blindly trust that the exchange will match them fairly. However, history from Mt. Gox to FTX has repeatedly proven that “Don't trust, Verify” is the only true standard.
First generation DEXs (like Uniswap) solved the custody problem but failed on performance and slippage. Enter Lighter (Lighter.xyz). Backed by industry giants like a16z and Paradigm, Lighter promises to end the “Black Box” era by bringing Nasdaq level speed to Ethereum grade security.
Lighter is a Decentralized Perpetual Futures Exchange (PerpDEX) that utilizes a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) model. Unlike typical DEXs running on general purpose Layer 2s (such as Arbitrum or Optimism) where financial transactions must compete for bandwidth with gaming or NFTs, Lighter is built on a distinct ZK Architecture. It functions as a Layer 2 “tailor made” for finance, capable of processing tens of thousands of transactions per second with near zero costs.
To grasp the essence of Lighter, one must look at the limitations of current infrastructure. General purpose Layer 2s like Arbitrum or Optimism operate like public highways where financial transactions must share bandwidth with everything from NFT minting to gaming. This creates latency and costs that are prohibitive for Market Makers who need to update quotes thousands of times per second.
However, to fully grasp Lighter's significance, we must view it not merely as an exchange, but as an infrastructure evolution: an App specific Rollup.
Lighter opts for a Custom ZK Architecture, stripping away the overhead of a general purpose blockchain to dedicate 100% of its computational resources solely to order matching. Technically, it operates as a high performance Compute Engine atop Ethereum. It delivers the deep liquidity AMMs lack, backed by the mathematical certainty of ZK proofs.
What is Lighter? – Source: Lighter
In essence, Lighter bridges Web2 performance (off chain matching) with Web3 guarantees (on chain settlement), transforming transparency from an optional feature into an enforced technical primitive.
Read more: A Full Research of the Rise of Chainlink – NFTPlzas
To realize the vision of a high performance yet decentralized order book, the Lighter team engineered Lighter Core based on four immutable principles:
In computer science, building a Verifiable Compute Engine always involves trade offs. Lighter Core rejected two common approaches in favor of the most challenging, yet optimal, path:
Lighter's Choice: Succinct Proofs (ZK Proofs). Although historically costly and complex to develop, ZK allows for both vertical and horizontal scaling without compromising security. It decouples “execution” (fast, off chain) from “verification” (secure, on-chain).
Lighter Core is not just a smart contract; it is an orchestrated assembly of components:
Lighter Core Architecture – Source: Lighter
This feature defines true ownership. In a worst case scenario, such as the Sequencer being compromised or attempting to censor your withdrawal, Lighter Core triggers the Escape Hatch mode.
The protocol allows users to submit a Priority Request directly on Ethereum. If the Sequencer fails to process this request within a predefined timeframe, the Smart Contract freezes the entire exchange. In this state, users can leverage the compressed Data Blobs previously published on Ethereum to reconstruct their account state and withdraw full asset value directly on chain, independent of the Lighter team or off chain coordination.
If Lighter Core is the “engine,” then the Order Book Tree is its most sophisticated “transmission.” To understand how Lighter operates smoothly while other ZK DEXs struggle with latency, we must dissect its data structure.
In traditional computer science, to match orders based on “Price Time Priority,” Matching Engines (like Binance's) typically use Linked Lists. But in the Zero Knowledge world, Linked Lists are a disaster. Why?
To prove an order is in the correct position within a linked list, the ZK Circuit must compute the Hash of the entire list. The complexity is linear: O(N).
The Consequence, the deeper the order book, the higher the computational cost and the slower the speed. This is why early DEXs defaulted to AMMs instead of Order Books.
The Lighter team didn't force a square peg into a round hole. They engineered the Order Book Tree, a hybrid structure combining a Merkle Tree and a Prefix Tree.
The genius lies in how they Encode Priority. Instead of using Timestamps which are susceptible to manipulation or desynchronization in decentralized networks, Lighter uses a Nonce. The Index of an order in the tree is hard coded.
An order with a better price and a lower Nonce (arrived earlier) automatically falls into the priority position within the tree without requiring any expensive sorting algorithms.
Thanks to this structure, every operation, insert, Cancel, or Match reduces complexity to O(Log N). Whether the order book has 10 orders or 10 million, the processing speed and ZK proof generation cost remain virtually constant. This is the key to unlocking High Frequency Trading (HFT) on chain.
Sample Order Book Tree internal node construction – Source: Lighter
Sample Order Book Tree internal node construction
Another fascinating detail found is the use of “Smart Internal Nodes.Standard Merkle Trees only store Hashes. And lighter Trees store Aggregate Data like AskSizeSum or BidQuoteSum directly within the branch nodes.
By operating in a Stateless mode, the Prover bypasses the need to store massive amounts of order data, relying instead on ‘Path Witnesses' to verify execution against the State Root.
This is where the architecture shines. It transforms market integrity from a CEO's promise into a hard mathematical constraint. If a Sequencer tries to jump the queue or extract MEV, the underlying hash calculation fails, causing Ethereum to reject the proof immediately. In essence, the code enforces what regulators cannot.
If the Order Book Tree serves as the structural skeleton, the ZK Engine is the operational core enabling the system to achieve optimal cost efficiency. An analysis of Lighter's architecture reveals a divergent approach from the industry trend: instead of utilizing general purpose zkEVMs, the project has opted to build an App specific ZK infrastructure.
A significant challenge for current Layer 2 scaling solutions is the “technical debt” incurred from attempting to simulate the entire Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This often necessitates redundant opcodes that are unnecessary for specific financial tasks.
Lighter addresses this by engineering Custom Arithmetic Circuits from scratch.
Lighter's ability to offer zero trading fees for Retail Users does not stem from short-term subsidy strategies, but from the structural advantage of Multi Layer Aggregation.
Custom Circuits & Multi Layer Aggregation – Source: Lighter
The verification process operates as a data compression assembly line:
The economic consequence is that the Marginal Cost to verify an additional transaction on the network approaches zero. This creates a sustainable competitive advantage regarding operational costs.
Regarding security, Lighter's architecture establishes a rigid link between Off chain and On-chain data via Public Inputs (Commitments).
When the Prover generates a proof, the system mandates a commitment to a public input containing: the new State Root Hash, a summary of the Data Blob.
By enforcing a strict check between the Proof and the Commitment, the system cryptographically binds the public Blob data to the execution logic. This guarantees that the information users rely on for the Escape Hatch is identical to the verified input, effectively neutralizing any risk of Data Availability attacks.
Complex infrastructure projects like Lighter require substantial R&D resources. Therefore, analyzing the partner roster and cash flow model is a critical metric for assessing the project's long term viability.
Lighter's capital structure features participation from Tier 1 venture capital firms, including a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Paradigm, Founders Fund, alongside angel investors from Robinhood and Coinbase.
Strategic Backing – Source: Lighter
Lighter implements a clear fee segmentation strategy:
The “Robin Hood” Business Model – Source: Lighter
According to the official allocation data, the total supply of Lighter is capped at 1,000,000,000 LIT (1 Billion tokens). The distribution architecture establishes a precise 50/50 equilibrium between internal stakeholders and the external community.
Tokenomic – Source: Lighter
Token Allocation
Binance Referral Code
Get $100 USDT Welcome Bonus
-20% Trading Fees
Code Valid: December 2025
Following the TGE event, LIT is now listed and liquid on major centralized exchanges. Below is the standard procedure to acquire LIT:
LIT is currently tradable on platforms including: BingX, MEXC, Gate.io, and BitMart. Note: Check the 24h Volume on CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap to select the exchange with the deepest liquidity to minimize slippage.
Once the purchase is complete, you have two options:
What is Lighter?
Lighter is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange (DEX) operating on a specialized App specific ZK Rollup. Unlike traditional DEXs, Lighter offers the low latency matching and seamless experience of a CEX, while guaranteeing absolute transparency via mathematical proofs (ZK proofs) and offering strictly zero trading fees for retail users.
Is Lighter truly safer than CEXs like Binance or Bybit?
Structurally, yes. On a CEX, you surrender asset control to the exchange (Custodial). On Lighter, you maintain Self custody. Assets reside in Ethereum Smart Contracts, not in Lighter's corporate wallets. Notably, the Escape Hatch mechanism allows you to withdraw funds even if the Lighter website goes down or the team disappears, as long as Ethereum remains operational.
Are there hidden terms behind the “Zero Fees” for retail?
According to current documentation, there are no hidden trading fees. However, users must still pay a nominal Gas fee (typically a few cents) to Deposit or Withdraw assets between Layer 1 and Layer 2. Trading fees are cross subsidized by revenue generated from institutional clients (HFTs).
Does Lighter have a Token? What about Airdrop potential?
Yes, Lighter officially launched its governance token, LIT (Lighter Infrastructure Token), in late December 2025. 25% of the total supply was distributed directly to the wallets of early participants (specifically those in Season 1 and Season 2 of the Points program). Notably, there is no “Claim” process required; tokens were airdropped directly to eligible addresses to mitigate phishing risks. A total of 50% of the supply is reserved for the community and ecosystem. Following the initial airdrop, the remaining allocation will fund future liquidity incentives and subsequent trading “Seasons.”
What do I need to start trading on Lighter?
You need a standard Web3 wallet (such as MetaMask, Rabby, or WalletConnect) and collateral (typically USDC) on the Ethereum Mainnet. Since Lighter is a Layer 2, you will need to perform a “Deposit” action to bridge USDC into Lighter's smart contract before placing orders.
Disclaimer
NFTPlazas provides trusted news and insights on Web3. The views expressed on this site do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in cryptocurrency or digital assets, please conduct your own thorough research. All transfers and transactions are carried out at your own risk, and any resulting losses are solely your responsibility. NFTPlazas does not endorse the buying or selling of cryptocurrencies or digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please also note that NFTPlazas may participate in affiliate marketing programs.
Learn
Learn
Analysis
Exchange
Learn
Exchange
Learn
Exchange
Exchange
Referral Code
Learn
Learn
NFTPlazas is a trusted source for news and insights on Web3. We simplify complex blockchain topics into clear, insightful stories that keep our global community informed and inspired.
Sign Up on MEXC
Fundscoin
Coingapestaff
Highlights
Amid the rising competition in the global digital finance space, the United States is facing an increasing risk of losing its hold. Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, has shared this stark warning as China emerges as a strong rival.
Notably, Coinbase's Faryar Shirzad sounded an alarm on the potential consequences of the prevailing uncertainty surrounding stablecoin regulations in the US. He warned that China's latest CBDC initiatives have bolstered the country's push for dominance in the digital finance space, effectively sidelining the US.
Coinbase's chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, took to X to share concerns about the rising competition from China in the digital finance economy. He stated that the US lawmakers are giving China and other global rivals a strategic advantage by limiting rewards on US-based stablecoins. He added in the X post,
“Tokenization is the future and the GENIUS Act was a visionary move by POTUS and Congress to ensure US dollar stablecoins issued under US rules would be the primary settlement instrument of the future.”
Although the GENIUS Act has been signed into law, the bill currently prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest. It only allows third-party rewards, which marks a point of focus in the ongoing Senate negotiations surrounding the market structure legislation. While banks and financial institutions argue against these rewards, citing risks, crypto exchanges and platforms advocate the reward system. They claim that limiting stablecoin rewards may hamper innovation.
Significantly, the Coinbase executive's warning comes in response to China's latest decision to pay interest on its CBDC, the digital yuan. Taking effect on January 1, 2026, the People's Bank of China is allowing commercial banks to pay interest on e-CNY holdings under a new framework.
As noted by PBOC Deputy Governor Lu Lei, under the new framework, China's digital yuan will perform as a “digital deposit currency/.” The move is part of the country's growing efforts to boost the e-CNY's adoption worldwide.
However, the Coinbase executive sees this as a significant threat to the US's dominance in the global digital finance space. He believes that addressing the concerns surrounding the GENIUS Act and stablecoin rewards has now become a matter of urgency. He noted, “If this issue is mishandled in Senate negotiations on the market structure bill, it could hand our global rivals a big assist in giving non-US stablecoins and CBDCs a critical competitive advantage at the worst possible time.”
Tap here to Add CoinGape as a Trusted Source
Why Trust CoinGape
CoinGape has covered the cryptocurrency industry since 2017, aiming to provide informative insights
Read more…
to our readers. Our journal analysts bring years of experience in market analysis and blockchain technology to ensure factual accuracy and balanced reporting. By following our Editorial Policy,
our writers verify every source, fact-check each story, rely on reputable sources, and attribute quotes and media correctly. We also follow a
rigorous Review Methodology when evaluating exchanges and tools. From emerging
blockchain projects and coin launches to industry events and technical developments, we cover
all facets of the digital asset space with unwavering commitment to timely, relevant information.
Premium Partners
Follow CoinGape
Monthly Page Views
Monthly Active Users
Social Media Followers
Newsletter Subscribers
5-minute daily crypto updates to your inbox
Follow us
News
Popular
Featured
About
Did cameras finally spot the ocean's most elusive monster?
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
Humans spend nearly their entire lives on land, but the Earth we call home is really a water world. With 71 percent of the Earth's surface covered by water, this expansive ecosystem has been difficult to study, and many animals of the deep ocean remain a complete mystery. One of the most spellbinding of these animals is the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). When full-grown, this creature is about as long as a bus and weighs nearly 1,100 pounds.
Believed to live in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, this immense cephalopod—the largest invertebrate species on the planet— has never been observed in its natural habitat. Scientists only get a good look at these animals when trawlers accidentally catch them in their nets. But a new kind of oceanographic study seems to have struck gold last year when international research team and non-profit called Kolossal appeared to have stumbled across a juvenile colossal squid during one of its four trips to Antarctica from December 2022 to March 2023.
The team used a novel approach for imaging the ocean—outfitting a polar tourism vessel called the Ocean Endeavor with a deep-sea camera. Thankfully, the research team released the footage, which the website IFLScience promptly posted to YouTube.
“Antarctica is experiencing rapid and complex change, and it is critical to have a better understanding of these changes for the region's ocean ecosystems,” the Kolossal team wrote in a paper detailing the method in 2024. “The costs and logistical challenges to operate scientific research vessels prohibits the scaling of crucial science and discovery in the region. Yet, the tourism industry in Antarctica is growing rapidly, and collaboration between tourism companies and researchers provides important access to the region.”
While leveraging tourism for marine exploration is a logistical win-win, finding verified footage of a colossal squid is as hard as ever. Even the short clip of the above specimen isn't confirmed, as the video could be capturing an adult glass squid Galiteuthis glacialis or perhaps even a species completely unknown to science. The video is being peer-reviewed by experts, but it's unlikely that scientists will ever know for sure. But because footage of any squid species in the Southern Ocean is rare, the footage is a huge victory for marine biologists studying these famously elusive animals regardless of its contents.
“The two known Cranchiidae taxa seen in the Antarctic are Galiteuthis glacialis and Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni,” Aaron Evans, who is peer reviewing the footage, told IFLScience. “The squid seen here could belong to different life stages of either of those taxa—and is an exciting example of wild cranchiid behavior, as I cannot think of existing video footage of either of those squid in their natural environment.”
Although the team's stated goal is to capture footage of an adult colossal squid in its natural environment, according to IFLScience, the camera filmed nearly 80 species. Among them were giant volcano sponges, Antarctic sunflower stars, and many other marine invertebrates.
For now, the world's largest invertebrate species frustratingly remains one of the animal kingdom's largest mysteries. But as marine biologists team up with tourism vessels to explore the oceans, some of the our water planet's biggest questions could slowly be answered.
Find Answers
Get The Facts
Learn The Truth
What Are They?
Start Your Build
Transform Your Perception
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
Gravity Proves We Live in a Simulation, Scientist Says
Humans May Be Able to Grow New Teeth in 4 Years
This “Battery In a Rock” Changes the Energy Game
Archaeologists Find 7,000-Year-Old Treasures
A New Alloy Is Defying the Limits of Metal
Olmec ‘Portal to the Underworld' Returns to Mexico
Scientists Made Glue So Strong, It Can Tow A Car
This Creature Breaks a Major Rule of Biology
Is This the True Nature of the Star of Bethlehem?
‘Rebooting' Your Eye Could Cure Vision Loss
You Can Supercharge Your Memory With This Method
This Novel Brain Model Could Mimic a True Brain
A Part of Hearst Digital Media
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.
©2025 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
December 31, 2025
1 min read
Colliding Spiral Galaxies Captured in Sparkling Detail
Astronomers combined data from NASA's JWST and Chandra X-ray Observatory to create a stunning new image of two merging spiral galaxies
By Claire Cameron edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Join Our Community of Science Lovers!
Two space telescopes really are better than one. This month NASA released a new image that combines observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory of two spiral galaxies on a cosmic collision course.
The two space telescopes have very different trajectories—giving them each a heady vantage point on the universe. JWST orbits the sun and observes the cosmos in infrared light, whereas Chandra, which orbits Earth, is sensitive to the x-ray spectrum. The newly released image combines their observations into one, revealing the galaxies IC 2163 (the left-hand galaxy) and NGC 2207 (on the right) in a new light.
The pair are located some 120 million light-years from Earth. The larger galaxy, NGC 2207, is slowly stretching and stripping the smaller of the pair. Together they are joined in a slow, gravitational dance that will, billions of years from now, end in their merger into a single galaxy. In the image, mid-infrared data from JWST shows dust and other cooler matter in white, gray and red, while x-ray data from Chandra shows high-energy areas, including regions of intense star formation, in blue.
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
When galaxies merge, they can trigger explosive bursts of star formation, and astronomers are keen to observe these collisions to understand how galaxies evolve over time.
Claire Cameron is the Breaking News Chief at Scientific American. Originally from Scotland, she moved to New York in 2012. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Slate, Inc. Magazine, Nautilus, Semafor, and elsewhere.
If you enjoyed this article, I'd like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I've been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you'll support us in that mission.
Thank you,
David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American
Subscribe to Scientific American to learn and share the most exciting discoveries, innovations and ideas shaping our world today.
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
© 2025 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF SPRINGER NATURE AMERICA, INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Nature Machine Intelligence
(2025)Cite this article
A preprint version of the article is available at bioRxiv.
Single-cell large language models (scLLMs) capture essential biological insights from vast single-cell atlases but struggle in out-of-context applications, where zero-shot predictions can be unreliable. To address this, here we introduce a single-cell parameter-efficient fine-tuning (scPEFT) framework that integrates learnable, low-dimensional adapters into scLLMs. By freezing the backbone model and updating only the adapter parameters, scPEFT efficiently adapts to specific tasks using limited custom data. This approach mitigates catastrophic forgetting, reduces parameter tuning by over 96% and decreases GPU memory usage by more than half, thus substantially enhancing the accessibility of scLLMs for resource-constrained researchers. When validated across diverse datasets, scPEFT outperformed zero-shot models and traditional fine-tuning in disease-specific, cross-species and undercharacterized cell population tasks. Its attention-mechanism analysis identified COVID-related genes associated with specific cell states and uncovered unique blood cell subpopulations, demonstrating the capacity of scPEFT for condition-specific interpretations. These findings position scPEFT as an efficient solution for enhancing the utility of scLLMs in general single-cell analyses.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
All datasets used in this study are publicly available. The NSCLC, BMMC and CD34+, Mouse, Mouse-10x/smart-seq, and macaque datasets can be accessed under numbers GSE179994, GSE139369, GSE115746, GSE185862 and GSE142585 of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), respectively. The MS dataset is available at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa/sc/experiments/E-HCAD-35. The COVID-19 dataset can be accessed via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16922467.v1 (ref. 42). The C. elegans dataset is available from Calico Research at https://c.elegans.aging.atlas.research.calicolabs.com/. The processed Lung atlas can be downloaded as a h5ad file from https://cellxgene.cziscience.com/collections/edb893ee-4066-4128-9aec-5eb2b03f8287. The Bivalent promoters, long-range transcription factor and NOTCH1 network datasets were preprocessed and published by Geneformer in its Hugging Face repository at https://huggingface.co/datasets/ctheodoris/Genecorpus-30M/tree/main/example_input_files/gene_classification. The Adamson, Norman, Replogle_k562 and Replogle_rpe1 datasets can be extracted and preprocessed using GEAR's PerData class load function by specifying the data_name argument as ‘norman', ‘adamson', ‘replogle_k562_essential' and ‘replogle_rpe1_essential', respectively. The PBMC 10K dataset can be extracted via scvi's CLI: scvi.data.pbmc_dataset(). The Prirhinal cortex and COVID-BATCH datasets are available via GitHub at https://github.com/bowang-lab/scGPT/tree/main/data. All processed datasets can be accessed via GitHub at https://github.com/coffee19850519/scPEFT and via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30763886 (ref. 43).
The source code is freely available via GitHub at https://github.com/coffee19850519/scPEFT and via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17781912 (ref. 44) with the MIT licence.
Paik, D. T. et al. Single-cell RNA sequencing in cardiovascular development, disease and medicine. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. 17, 457–473 (2020).
Article
Google Scholar
Zhang, Y. & Zhang, Z. The history and advances in cancer immunotherapy: understanding the characteristics of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and their therapeutic implications. Cell. Mol. Immunol. 17, 807–821 (2020).
Article
Google Scholar
Li, X. et al. Deep learning enables accurate clustering with batch effect removal in single-cell RNA-seq analysis. Nat. Commun. 11, 2338 (2020).
Article
Google Scholar
Yang, F. et al. scBERT as a large-scale pretrained deep language model for cell type annotation of single-cell RNA-seq data. Nat. Mach. Intell. 4, 852–866 (2022).
Article
Google Scholar
Theodoris, C. V. et al. Transfer learning enables predictions in network biology. Nature 618, 616–624 (2023).
Cui, H. et al. scGPT: toward building a foundation model for single-cell multi-omics using generative AI. Nat. Methods 21, 1470–1480 (2024).
Hao, M. et al. Large-scale foundation model on single-cell transcriptomics. Nat. Methods 21, 1481–1491 (2024).
Heimberg, G. et al. A cell atlas foundation model for scalable search of similar human cells. Nature 638, 1085–1094 (2025).
Yang, X. et al. GeneCompass: deciphering universal gene regulatory mechanisms with a knowledge-informed cross-species foundation model. Cell Res. 34, 830–845 (2024).
Fischer, F. et al. scTab: scaling cross-tissue single-cell annotation models. Nat. Commun. 15, 6611 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Ma, Q. et al. Harnessing the deep learning power of foundation models in single-cell omics. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 25, 593–594 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Kedzierska, K. Z. et al. Zero-shot evaluation reveals limitations of single-cell foundation models. Genome Biol. 26, 101 (2025).
Article
Google Scholar
Boiarsky, R. et al. Deeper evaluation of a single-cell foundation model. Nat. Mach. Intell. 6, 1443–1446 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Chen, H. et al. Quantized multi-task learning for context-specific representations of gene network dynamics. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.16.608180 (2024).
Becht, E. et al. Dimensionality reduction for visualizing single-cell data using UMAP. Nat. Biotechnol. 37, 38–44 (2019).
Aran, D. et al. Reference-based analysis of lung single-cell sequencing reveals a transitional profibrotic macrophage. Nat. Immunol. 20, 163–172 (2019).
Article
Google Scholar
Hao, Y. et al. Dictionary learning for integrative, multimodal and scalable single-cell analysis. Nat. Biotechnol. 42, 293–304 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Liu, B. et al. Temporal single-cell tracing reveals clonal revival and expansion of precursor exhausted T cells during anti-PD-1 therapy in lung cancer. Nat. Cancer 3, 108–112 (2022).
Article
Google Scholar
Chang, H. et al. C/EBPδ drives interactions between human MAIT cells and endothelial cells that are important for extravasation. eLife 7, e32532 (2018).
Article
Google Scholar
Park, D. et al. Differences in the molecular signatures of mucosal-associated invariant T cells and conventional T cells. Sci. Rep. 9, 7094 (2019).
Article
Google Scholar
Teng, X. et al. SIGIRR deficiency contributes to CD4 T cell abnormalities by facilitating the IL1/C/EBPβ/TNF-α signaling axis in rheumatoid arthritis. Mol. Med. 28, 135 (2022).
Article
Google Scholar
Yang, R. et al. Distinct epigenetic features of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells in colorectal cancer patients revealed by genome-wide DNA methylation analysis. Genome Biol. 21, 2 (2020).
Article
Google Scholar
Hodge, R. D. et al. Conserved cell types with divergent features in human versus mouse cortex. Nature 573, 61–68 (2019).
Article
Google Scholar
Yao, Z. et al. A taxonomy of transcriptomic cell types across the isocortex and hippocampal formation. Cell 184, 3222–3241 (2021).
Article
Google Scholar
Traag, V. A., Waltman, L. & Van Eck, N. J. From Louvain to Leiden: guaranteeing well-connected communities. Sci. Rep. 9, 5233 (2019).
Article
Google Scholar
Subramanian, A. et al. Gene set enrichment analysis: a knowledge-based approach for interpreting genome-wide expression profiles. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 15545–15550 (2005).
Article
Google Scholar
Lopez, R. et al. Deep generative modeling for single-cell transcriptomics. Nat. Methods 15, 1053–1058 (2018).
Article
Google Scholar
Hie, B. L. et al. Scanorama: integrating large and diverse single-cell transcriptomic datasets. Nat. Protoc. 19, 2283–2297 (2024).
Roohani, Y., Huang, K. & Leskovec, J. Predicting transcriptional outcomes of novel multigene perturbations with GEARS. Nat. Biotechnol. 42, 927–935 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Ahlmann-Eltze, C., Huber, W. & Anders, S. Deep-learning-based gene perturbation effect prediction does not yet outperform simple linear baselines. Nat. Methods 22, 1657–1661 (2025).
Article
Google Scholar
Hong, L. et al. Fast, sensitive detection of protein homologs using deep dense retrieval. Nat. Biotechnol. 43, 983–995 (2025).
Article
Google Scholar
Adduri, A. K. et al. Predicting cellular responses to perturbation across diverse contexts with State. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.26.661135 (2025).
Lin, Z. et al. Evolutionary-scale prediction of atomic-level protein structure with a language model. Science 379, 1123–1130 (2023).
Article
MathSciNet
Google Scholar
Kirillov, A. et al. Segment anything. In Proc. IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision 4015–4026 (IEEE, 2023).
Vaswani, A. et al. Attention is all you need. In Proc. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, Vol. 30 (eds Guyon, I. et al.) (Curran Associates, 2017).
Kingma, D. P. & Ba, J. Adam: a method for stochastic optimization. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1412.6980 (2017).
CZI Cell Science Program et al. CZ CELLxGENE Discover: a single-cell data platform for scalable exploration, analysis and modeling of aggregated data. Nucleic Acids Res. 53, D886–D900 (2024).
Franzén, O., Gan, L.-M. & Björkegren, J. L. M. PanglaoDB: a web server for exploration of mouse and human single-cell RNA sequencing data. Database 2019, baz046 (2019).
Li, X. L. & Liang, P. Prefix-tuning: optimizing continuous prompts for generation. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2101.00190 (2021).
Hu, E. J. et al. LoRA: Low-rank adaptation of large language models. In The 10th International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR, 2022).
O'Leary, N. A. et al. Exploring and retrieving sequence and metadata for species across the tree of life with NCBI datasets. Sci. Data 11, 732 (2024).
Article
Google Scholar
Li, W. COVID-19 dataset. Figshare (2020).
He, F. Processed datasets used in scPEFT study. Figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.30763886 (2025).
He, F. Codebase for scPEFT: harnessing the power of single-cell large language models with parameter-efficient fine-tuning (v1.0.0). Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17781912 (2025).
Download references
We thank M. Zhao for technical support. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH; R35GM126985). Q.M. is supported in part by the NIH (R01GM152585, P01CA278732, P01AI177687, U54AG075931 and R01DK138504) and by the Pelotonia Institute of Immuno-Oncology.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
Fei He, Ruixin Fei, Yang Yu, Xinyu Zhang, Xianyu Wang, Mingyue Gao, Li Su, Yibo Chen, Jinpu Li, Baichuan Jin & Dong Xu
Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Jordan E. Krull, Hao Cheng, Yuzhou Chang, Anjun Ma & Qin Ma
Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Jordan E. Krull, Hao Cheng, Yuzhou Chang, Anjun Ma & Qin Ma
Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
Li Su, Yibo Chen, Jinpu Li & Dong Xu
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
D.X. and F.H. conceived the study. F.H. and J.E.K. collected the datasets and designed the case studies. F.H., R.F., Y.Y., X.Z. and M.G. designed the algorithmic framework, analysed the data, visualized the experimental results and developed the software. X.W., H.C., L.S. and Y.Y. performed the experiments and contributed analytical tools. F.H., J.E.K., R.F. and X.Z. wrote the paper. D.X. and Q.M. revised and improved the paper. Y. Chen, J.L., Y. Chang and A.M. analysed and visualized the experimental results. D.X. and Q.M. supervised the study. All authors approved the final version of the paper.
Correspondence to
Qin Ma or Dong Xu.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Machine Intelligence thanks Qi Liu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The violin plots benchmark native, finetuned scGPT, and scPEFT using scGPT pre-trained weights from whole human data, pan-cancer data, and lung-specific data. Statistical significance between scPEFT and other models was assessed using a paired two-sided Student's t-test across the five-fold validation results (n = 5 independent validation tests). On each box, the central mark indicates the median, and the bottom and top edges of the box indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles. The whiskers extend to the most extreme data points without outliers, and the outliers are plotted individually as circles.
a-d, Confusion matrices for native, finetuned scLLMs, and scPEFT with (a) scBERT, (b) Geneformer, (c) scFoundation and (d) scGPT as respective backbones. Each cell reflects the percentage of instances from the row-defined cell type that are predicted as the column-defined cell type. High values along the diagonal indicate accurate predictions, while off-diagonal values represent misclassifications. The results exhibit the superior performance of scPEFT, particularly in identifying rare cell types (proportion < 5%). Notably, CD4+ enriched proliferation T cells were accurately identified by native scLLMs but misclassified by finetuned models, demonstrating an instance of catastrophic forgetting. This issue was not observed by scPEFT and was marked by the red boxes. e, Bar plot depicting the proportion of each cell type in the dataset.
a-d, Confusion matrices for native, finetuned scLLMs, and scPEFT with (a) scBERT, (b) Geneformer, (c) scFoundation and (d) scGPT as respective backbones. Notably, multiple cell types were accurately identified by native scLLMs but misclassified by their finetuned models, demonstrating clear instances of catastrophic forgetting. This issue was not observed by scPEFT and was marked by the red boxes. e, Bar plot depicting the proportion of each cell type in the dataset.
a-d, Confusion matrices for native, finetuned scLLMs, and scPEFT with (a) scBERT, (b) Geneformer, (c) scFoundation and (d) scGPT as respective backbones. Notably, the excitatory neuron cells at cortex layer 2-3 were accurately identified by native scGPT but misclassified by its finetuned model, demonstrating an instance of catastrophic forgetting. This issue was not observed by scPEFT and was marked by the red boxes. e, Bar plot depicting the proportion of each cell type in the dataset.
Histograms of differential attention scores were derived from (a) native, (b) finetuned scGPT, and (c) scPEFT models, respectively, in analysis of COVID-related cell-state-specific genes in Memory CD8+ T cells versus Naïve Memory CD8+ T cells. Histograms were generated for the top, middle, and last Transformer layers in these models. Red crosses mark the bins where genes of interest (CCL5, GZMK, and CST7) were located.
The COVID-related cell-state-specific genes were analyzed in the comparisons of (a) Memory CD8+ T cells versus Naïve Memory CD8+ T cells, and (b) Effector Memory CD8+ T cells versus Memory CD8+ T cells, respectively. Volcano plots of Differential Gene Expression (DEG) analysis are colored by differential attention scores from native scGPT, finetuned scGPT, and scPEFT trained on the COVID dataset. The top attention genes of interest were highlighted with their names. Dot size reflects the genes' adjusted p-values from DEG. Statistical significance was determined using the two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test with Benjamini-Yekutieli false discovery rate control. n = 1950 and 973 cells were used for the test cases, respectively.
n = 5 independent validation tests were conducted. On each box, the central mark indicates the median, and the bottom and top edges of the box indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles. The whiskers extend to the most extreme data points without outliers, and the outliers are plotted individually as circles.
a-g, UMAP visualizations of corrected cell embeddings, color-coded by cell type and batch, for scPEFT (using Encoder adapter, Token adapter, LoRA, and Prefix adapter), finetuned scGPT, scVI, and Scanorama. h, Comparative table of batch correction performance across these methods.
a-g, UMAP visualizations of corrected cell embeddings, color-coded by cell type and batch, for scPEFT (using Encoder adapter, Token adapter, LoRA, and Prefix adapter), finetuned scGPT, scVI, and Scanorama. h, Comparative table of batch correction performance across these methods.
a-g, UMAP visualizations of corrected cell embeddings, color-coded by cell type and batch, for scPEFT (using Encoder adapter, Token adapter, LoRA, and Prefix adapter), finetuned scGPT, scVI, and Scanorama. h, Comparative table of batch correction performance across these methods.
Supplementary Notes 1–13, Tables 1–7 and Figs. 1–25.
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
Reprints and permissions
He, F., Fei, R., Krull, J.E. et al. Harnessing the power of single-cell large language models with parameter-efficient fine-tuning using scPEFT.
Nat Mach Intell (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-025-01170-z
Download citation
Received: 25 February 2025
Accepted: 04 December 2025
Published: 31 December 2025
Version of record: 31 December 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-025-01170-z
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
Advertisement
Nature Machine Intelligence
(Nat Mach Intell)
ISSN 2522-5839 (online)
© 2025 Springer Nature Limited
Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.
Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Sing Sing Way is an infectious-disease paediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Med-ical Center, Ohio.
Search author on:
PubMed
Google Scholar
People carry populations of cells from their biological relatives. Credit: Getty
Hidden Guests: Migrating Cells and How the New Science of Microchimerism is Redefining Human Identity Lise Barnéoud, transl. Bronwyn Haslam Greystone Books (2025)
The chimaera of Greek mythology was “an evil creature with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail”, notes journalist Lise Barnéoud in Hidden Guests. Humans are also chimaeras — thanks to the presence of cells that are not our own inside our bodies.
Could baby's first bacteria take root before birth?
Could baby's first bacteria take root before birth?
Mothers carry cells that came from their biological children, passed across the placenta when the baby was in the womb. Likewise, children carry cells that were transferred to them in utero from their mothers — some of which might even be from the child's maternal grandmothers, older siblings or twin.
These ‘microchimeric' cells have been found in every organ that has been studied so far. But they are also rare — much rarer, for example, than the trillions of microorganisms that reside in our guts, on our skin and in many other organs. We carry only one microchimeric cell for every 10,000 to 1 million of our own cells.
In Hidden Guests, the author invites readers to learn about the pioneering “microchimerists” — scientists who discovered these fascinating shared cells. She also challenges us to consider the broader implications for health and science, and the philosophy of the fact that we are all chimaeras.
Microchimeric cells were, we learn, discovered through a series of accidental observations. In the late 1800s, pathologist Georg Schmorl described ‘giant cells' in the lungs of people who had died from eclampsia — a life-threatening inflammatory condition that can occur during pregnancy. These giant cells resembled the cells of the placenta, leading Schmorl to suggest that fetal cells passing into the bloodstream of mothers was the norm, rather than the exception.
The probiotic home: where microbes are welcome guests
The probiotic home: where microbes are welcome guests
Then, in 1969, a team studying immunity in pregnant people detected white blood cells that contained the Y chromosome in the blood of individuals who would eventually give birth to boys1. For more than two decades, it was presumed that these microchimeric cells were a temporary feature of pregnancy. It wasn't until 1993 that geneticist Diana Bianchi found cells with Y chromosomes in women who had given birth to sons between one and 27 years earlier2.
This finding overturned the dogma that children inherit genes from their parents and never the other way around — these transferred fetal cells move through the family tree, travelling ‘backwards in time' from children to their mothers. Bianchi and others would go on to show that these cells have remarkable regenerative properties — promoting wound healing in mothers by transforming into blood vessels or skin cells.
Microchimerism also calls into question a central tenet of immunology: that the immune system works by classifying cells in a binary fashion, as ‘self' or ‘non-self'. Under this simplistic model, microchimeric cells should trigger an immune response and be rejected by the body — but they do not. Barnéoud challenges readers to consider whether forcing microchimerism-related discrepancies to fit into existing immunological rules is appropriate, instead of allowing these cells to influence new immunological rules.
At around the same time that Bianchi was making her groundbreaking discovery, rheumatologist Lee Nelson also found Y-chromosome-containing cells in people who had previously given birth to sons3. Nelson was studying autoimmune diseases, which disproportionately affect middle-aged women, and at the time were thought to be caused by hormone imbalances.
Cells pass from mother to baby, and vice versa, across the placenta.Credit: Jeffrey Davis/Getty
or
Nature 649, 21-22 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-04102-4
Walknowska, J., Conte, F. A. & Grumbach, M. M. Lancet 293, 1119–1122 (1969).
Article
Google Scholar
Bianchi, D. W., Zickwolf, G. K., Weil, G. K. & Sylvester, S. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 93, 705–708 (1996).
Article
PubMed
Google Scholar
Nelson, J. L. et al. Lancet 351, 559–562 (1998).
Article
PubMed
Google Scholar
Burlingham, W. J. et al. Transplantation 59, 1147–1155 (1995).
Article
PubMed
Google Scholar
Burlingham, W. J. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 339, 1657–1664 (1998).
Article
PubMed
Google Scholar
Download references
The author declares no competing interests.
These immune cells won Nobel fame — can they solve autoimmune disease?
The probiotic home: where microbes are welcome guests
The cutting-edge medical approaches that could transform ageing
Could baby's first bacteria take root before birth?
Is bird flu the next pandemic? The science so far
Spotlight 17 DEC 25
Annual flu vaccines are far from ideal — this is why
Spotlight 17 DEC 25
The quest to hatch a bird-flu vaccine
Spotlight 17 DEC 25
Human assembloids recapitulate periportal liver tissue in vitro
Article 17 DEC 25
Spatiotemporal cellular map of the developing human reproductive tract
Article 17 DEC 25
Restoring youth to old immune cells: mRNA therapy turns back the clock
News 17 DEC 25
Ready or not, the digital afterlife is here
Outlook 15 SEP 25
Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows
News Feature 30 JUL 25
Physicists should revel in the diversity of ways to understand quantum mechanics
Editorial 30 JUL 25
Part of the DFG-funded Research Training Group ‘GRK 2989: Targeting Cellular Interfaces in Reperfused Acute Myocardial Infarction (TCI repAMI)'
Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen (DE)
Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V.
The Westlake Fellowship provides funding for global talent to study PhD programs in 9 areas of science, engineering, and technology.
Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN)
Westlake University Office of Academic Affairs
Seeking exceptional Senior/Junior PIs, Postdocs, and Core Specialists globally year-round
Hangzhou, China
Hangzhou Institute of Medicine Chinese Academy of Sciences (HIMCAS)
Seeking scientists in pathobiology, immunology, vaccinology, epidemiology, drug discovery, focusing on microbial infections and inflammations.
Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN)
Center for Infectious Disease Research, Westlake University
PIs & Postdocs for cancer, immunology, neuroscience, stem cell, cardiovascular and related fields
Haikou, Hainan (CN)
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hainan Medical University
These immune cells won Nobel fame — can they solve autoimmune disease?
The probiotic home: where microbes are welcome guests
The cutting-edge medical approaches that could transform ageing
Could baby's first bacteria take root before birth?
An essential round-up of science news, opinion and analysis, delivered to your inbox every weekday.
Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.
Nature
(Nature)
ISSN 1476-4687 (online)
ISSN 0028-0836 (print)
© 2025 Springer Nature Limited
Cables and pipelines in the Gulf of Finland have been damaged four times in less than 1.5 years.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
At around 5 a.m. local time, an undersea telecommunications cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged for the fourth time in roughly 1.5 years. Finnish special forces have taken control of the cargo ship Fitburg, detained its 14-member crew, and revealed that they were citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. Authorities are currently investigating whether the vessel's movement and anchoring caused the incident, reports Postimees. Despite the damage, the owner of the cable claims connectivity remains intact due to extensive network redundancy.
Elisa, a leading telecom provider in Estonia and Finland and the cable's owner, alerted authorities under standard incident protocols at around 5 a.m. Although the fault was located inside Estonia's exclusive economic zone, the ship crossed into Finnish waters shortly afterward, which allowed Finnish authorities to detain the vessel and open a criminal case. When the ship was detained, its anchor chain was in the sea, the report notes.
Officials emphasize that the communications infrastructure between Estonia and neighboring countries is very redundant: Estonia is connected abroad via 12 international cables, so the loss of individual links does not translate into systemic outages.
“We could talk about a critical situation only if just one cable were still operational, but at the moment we have a significant margin,” said Liisa Pakosta, Estonia's justice and digital affairs minister. “It is also worth noting that such breakdowns are usually not even reported, because they occur fairly often. One of the cables runs between Läänemaa and Hiiumaa — it is not part of these 12 and is a local cable. But communications on Hiiumaa are also functioning.”
Automatic Identification System (AIS) records from MarineTraffic indicate that near the route of Elisa's submarine cable, Fitburg slowed from 8.9 to 7.3 knots, with a multi-minute data gap suggesting speed may have dropped even further. This naturally causes suspicions that the vessel's anchor hit the cable when the AIS was disabled.The ship in question is the Fitburg, a 132.2-meter general cargo vessel built in 2001. The vessel is currently owned by Turkey-based Fitburg Shipping Co Ltd (which happens to be a single-vessel company) and the ship sails under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as of August 1, 2025. Safety management and commercial operations of the vessel are handled by Istanbul-based Sarfo Denizcilik ve Ticaret A.Ş and Albros Shipping & Trading Co. For now, the actual beneficiaries of Fitburg Shipping Co Ltd and Albros are unknown. Meanwhile, there is a growing list of evidence that Albros manages vessels that carry cargo of Russia origin.This new cable damage episode adds to an already long list of similar incidents in the Gulf of Finland in recent quarters. In just 1.5 years, cables and pipelines in the Gulf of Finland were damaged three other times: On October 8, 2023 the Balticconnector gas pipeline, along with multiple telco cables between Estonia and Finland were damaged. On November 17, 2024, three undersea communications cables between Sweden and Lithuania were broken. And on December 28, 2024 the EstLink 2 power cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged. More broadly, there was about a half-dozen incidents involving damage of underwater cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea in recent years.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom's Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
Latest
AI
Amazon
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Fundraising
Gadgets
Gaming
Google
Government & Policy
Hardware
Instagram
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
Staff
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Newsletters
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Tade Oyerinde and Teddy Solomon know a few things about building communities that last.
Afterall, Oyerinde is the founder and chancellor of the online school Campus, while Solomon is the co-founder behind the college social app Fizz.
The two spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt this year, breaking down the strategies that helped them scale their companies while retaining consumer interest.
Campus offers associate degrees in areas like information technology and business administration. It also offers certificates in specialities like cosmetology and phlebotomy. There are more than 3,000 students enrolled in Campus, and it employs more than 100 professors on at least a part-time basis, Oyerinde says.
Oyerinde said Campus decided to launch à la carte courses since employers, in particular, have been asking for classes that can teach their employees individual skills like vibe coding.
He's realized that a lot of people are looking to upskill and believes that in the future, everyone will have some sort of membership or subscription service that helps them develop new skills.
“Everyone in this room, not just two-year degree-seeking people, will be able to go to Campus and learn with us,” he told the audience. “Live, online classes, taught by amazing people.”
Oyerinde makes use of the Pell Grant to help keep the school affordable for most people. He also has a team of billionaires on his company's cap table — like OpenAI's Sam Altman and Discord's Jason Citroen — meaning he doesn't feel much pressure to focus on profits above all else, he said.
“They don't need the money,” he continued. “What they really want is to fundamentally shape the way that education works in this country for the better.”
Fizz, meanwhile, operates on more than 200 college campuses and at one point operated in high schools across the country. It has raised more than $40 million with investors including Owl Ventures and NEA.
Since launching in 2021, Solomon said the company had adopted features like a peer-to-peer marketplace that's listed more than 100,000 items, and a video element so people can write more than text posts.
Now, the company is looking to build a product called Global Fizz to expand the product beyond the U.S. Solomon spoke more about that on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, where he mapped out the future of the company.
Solomon told the audience that the company is looking at ways to monetize, focusing on ads in particular. “We've already worked with companies like Perplexity,” he said.
“There are subscription models that have worked well with apps, but right now we're focused on our ads business, and we're focused on building a great product that keeps our users around and makes them happy.”
After all, he said, “The users are everything.”
Topics
Senior Reporter, Venture
Dominic-Madori Davis is a senior venture capital and startup reporter at TechCrunch. She is based in New York City.
You can contact or verify outreach from Dominic by emailing dominic.davis@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at +1 646 831-7565 on Signal.
Plan ahead for the 2026 StrictlyVC events. Hear straight-from-the-source candid insights in on-stage fireside sessions and meet the builders and backers shaping the industry. Join the waitlist to get first access to the lowest-priced tickets and important updates.
The phone is dead. Long live . . . what exactly?
Meta just bought Manus, an AI startup everyone has been talking about
You've been targeted by government spyware. Now what?
Sauron, the high-end home security startup for ‘super premium' customers, plucks a new CEO out of Sonos
The Google Pixel Watch 4 made me like smartwatches again
NY Governor Hochul signs bill requiring warning labels on ‘addictive' social media
How reality crushed Ÿnsect, the French startup that had raised over $600M for insect farming
© 2025 TechCrunch Media LLC.
What you get is an iterator over the dataset that samples based on how far you are in the training.0: https://github.com/omarkamali/curriculus
0: https://github.com/omarkamali/curriculus
reply
reply
reply
This seems really similar to the motivations around masked language modeling. By providing increasingly-masked targets over time, a smooth difficulty curve can be established. Randomly masking X% of the tokens/bytes is trivial to implement. MLM can take a small corpus and turn it into an astronomically large one.
reply
e.g. DeepCubeA 2019 (!) paper to solve Rubik cube.Start with solved state and teach the network successively harder states. This is so "obvious" and "unhelpful in real domains" that perhaps they havent heard of this paper.
Start with solved state and teach the network successively harder states. This is so "obvious" and "unhelpful in real domains" that perhaps they havent heard of this paper.
reply
reply
reply
If you sat down to solve a problem you've never seen before you wouldn't even know what a valid “later state” looking like.
reply
The happy Tetris bug is also a neat example of how “bad” inputs can act like curriculum or data augmentation. Corrupted observations forced the policy to be robust to chaos early, which then paid off when the game actually got hard. That feels very similar to tricks in other domains where we deliberately randomize or mask parts of the input. It makes me wonder how many surprisingly strong RL systems in the wild are really powered by accidental curricula that nobody has fully noticed or formalized yet.
reply
reply
reply
Greasemonkey / Tampermonkey / User Scripts withArray.from( document.querySelectorAll(".submission>.title") ).filter( e => e.innerText.includes("AI") ).map( e => e.parentElement.style.opacity = .1)
Array.from( document.querySelectorAll(".submission>.title") ).filter( e => e.innerText.includes("AI") ).map( e => e.parentElement.style.opacity = .1)
reply
reply
reply
One small step for chips, one giant leap for a lack of impurities.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
A team from Cardiff, Wales, is experimenting with the feasibility of building semiconductors in space, and its most recent success is another step forward towards its goal. According to the BBC, Space Forge's microwave-sized furnace has been switched on in space and has reached 1,000°C (1,832°F) — one of the most important parts of the manufacturing process that the company needs to validate in space.
“This is so important because it's one of the core ingredients that we need for our in-space manufacturing process,” Payload Operations Lead Veronica Vera told the BBC. “So being able to demonstrate this is amazing.” Semiconductor manufacturing is a costly and labor-intensive endeavor on Earth, and while putting it in orbit might seem far more complicated, making chips in space offers some theoretical advantages. For example, microgravity conditions would help the atoms in semiconductors line up perfectly, while the lack of an atmosphere would also reduce the chance of contaminants affecting the wafer.
These two things would help reduce imperfections in the final wafer output, resulting in a much more efficient fab. “The work that we're doing now is allowing us to create semiconductors up to 4,000 times purer in space than we can currently make here today,” Space Forge CEO Josh Western told the publication. “This sort of semiconductor would go on to be in the 5G tower in which you get your mobile phone signal, it's going to be in the car charger you plug an EV into, it's going to be in the latest planes.”
Space Forge launched its first satellite in June 2025, hitching a ride on the SpaceX Transporter-14 rideshare mission. However, it still took the company several months before it finally succeeded in turning on its furnace, showing how complicated this project can get. Nevertheless, this advancement is quite promising, with Space Forge planning to build a bigger space factory with the capacity to output 10,000 chips. Aside from that, it also needs to work on a way to bring the finished products back to the surface. Other companies are also experimenting with orbital fabs, with U.S. startup Besxar planning to send “Fabships” into space on Falcon 9 booster rockets.
Putting semiconductor manufacturing in space could help reduce the massive amounts of power and water that these processes require from our resources while also outputting more wafers with fewer impurities. However, we also have to consider the huge environmental impact of launching multiple rockets per day just to deliver the raw materials and pick up the finished products from orbit.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He's been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he's been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
I want to know rank and file salaries as opposed to stock options
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
This article feels more like paid publicity than it does journalism
reply
reply
reply
reply
They had had tender events (where you can sell your private stock super easily)
reply
https://fortune.com/2024/12/17/hundreds-openai-employees-10-...
reply
reply
reply
reply
If there are enough opportunities to offload stock on the secondary market (which seems to be the case of them), then it's not fiction.
reply
If not, I am to assume this isn't true, and that they are functionally non liquid possible assets at the discretion of OpenAI to sell
reply
> OpenAI has finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a record $500 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the transaction.https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/02/openai-share-sale-500-billio...
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/02/openai-share-sale-500-billio...
reply
Until traditional RSUs that once they are vested you can sell them, with few exceptions
reply
reply
https://openai.com/careers/research-engineer-research-scient...
reply
When I see this technology improve and free the lives of those whose salary is akin to slavery, then I might reconsider.Context: I've been reading about the Mondragon Corporation, and it seems a much better model than this maximum extraction economy we are building. I'll submit a story for it, although I discovered it through a HN book recommendation (Kim Stanley Robinson).
Context: I've been reading about the Mondragon Corporation, and it seems a much better model than this maximum extraction economy we are building. I'll submit a story for it, although I discovered it through a HN book recommendation (Kim Stanley Robinson).
reply
The way Altman and others want AI to develop, this is what they're working toward too
reply
reply
Maybe a wild round of mergers & acquisitions, combined with regulatory capture and some monopoly will be what settles everything. Probably with a crash in the middle of it all.
reply
reply
At least the revenue is large enough to cover the payroll. That's a good milestone.Not really a fan of Altman, but I don't mind the competition he brings to the landscape.
Not really a fan of Altman, but I don't mind the competition he brings to the landscape.
reply
reply
reply
The excellence is there.
reply
But, one thing has been consistent for the past 3 years: After every release from all the serious competitors, the hype can go either way.As far as the hype cycles go, OpenAI is oscillating between "Best model ever" and "What a letdown, it's over" at least twice a year.The competition is fierce, and a never-ending marathon of all the players getting ahead just a bit. No clear long-term winner.
As far as the hype cycles go, OpenAI is oscillating between "Best model ever" and "What a letdown, it's over" at least twice a year.The competition is fierce, and a never-ending marathon of all the players getting ahead just a bit. No clear long-term winner.
The competition is fierce, and a never-ending marathon of all the players getting ahead just a bit. No clear long-term winner.
reply
OpenAI has no real moat. Anthropic is focusing on developers as a clear target, and Gemini has the backing of Google.I don't see OpenAI winning the AI race with marginally better models and arguably a nicer UI/UX (ymmv, but I do like the ChatGPT app experience).That said, my usage decreases month over month.
I don't see OpenAI winning the AI race with marginally better models and arguably a nicer UI/UX (ymmv, but I do like the ChatGPT app experience).That said, my usage decreases month over month.
That said, my usage decreases month over month.
reply
reply
Anyone know if that's true? I only heard it second hand.
reply
reply
reply
reply
It usually ends in blood and tears, for both employees and investors.BUT: the SOTA has been greatly advanced, which matters a great deal more than the destiny of a particular corporation or the social status of sam-i-am.So, overall: good news.
BUT: the SOTA has been greatly advanced, which matters a great deal more than the destiny of a particular corporation or the social status of sam-i-am.So, overall: good news.
So, overall: good news.
reply
reply
reply
https://www.levels.fyi/blog/openai-compensation.htmlMight change how you evaluate the value here.
Might change how you evaluate the value here.
reply
reply
When you work at BigCorp for an extended period of time, your salary often ends up being majority by RSU as the vest rolls start to stack up
reply
Anyone that works for startups knows that it's not really “compensation” until it's cash in your bank account. Until then it's just a theoretical number on paper, which tends to end up being worth a lot less than originally advertised/hoped.I've lost track of the number of times that someone's startup got acquired for (insert what sounds like a big number) and everyone is like “wow the employees must all be rich” only to find out later that after preferred cap tables and other terms the employees got very little.A lot could happen here, but history says “watch this space” on this stock-based comp. Some options on the secondary markets but that only works as long as OpenAI can convince more people to dump money on the burning pile of cash they have going at the moment.
I've lost track of the number of times that someone's startup got acquired for (insert what sounds like a big number) and everyone is like “wow the employees must all be rich” only to find out later that after preferred cap tables and other terms the employees got very little.A lot could happen here, but history says “watch this space” on this stock-based comp. Some options on the secondary markets but that only works as long as OpenAI can convince more people to dump money on the burning pile of cash they have going at the moment.
A lot could happen here, but history says “watch this space” on this stock-based comp. Some options on the secondary markets but that only works as long as OpenAI can convince more people to dump money on the burning pile of cash they have going at the moment.
reply
reply
The user experience is nearly the same as cash if you have an ounce of interest in having cash
reply
reply
reply
reply
reply
Tensors FTW in Rubin, Feynman, and beyond.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
This month, Nvidia rolled out what might be one of the most important updates for its CUDA GPU software stack in years. The new CUDA 13.1 release introduces the CUDA Tile programming path, which elevates kernel development above the single-instruction, multiple-thread (SIMT) execution model, and aligns it with the tensor-heavy execution model of Blackwell-class processors and their successors.
By shifting to structured data blocks, or tiles, Nvidia is changing how developers design GPU workloads, setting the stage for next-generation architectures that will incorporate more specialized compute accelerators and therefore depend less on thread-level parallelism.
Before proceeding, it is worth clarifying that the fundamental difference between the traditional CUDA programming model and the new CUDA Tile is not in capabilities, but in what programmers control. In the original CUDA model, programming is based on SIMT (single-instruction, multiple-thread) execution. The developer explicitly decomposes the problem into threads and thread blocks, chooses grid and block dimensions, manages synchronization, and carefully designs memory access patterns to match the GPU's architecture. Performance depends heavily on low-level decisions such as warp usage, shared-memory tiling, register usage, and the explicit use of tensor-core instructions or libraries. In short, the programmer controls how the computation is executed on the hardware.
CUDA Tile shifts programming to a tile-centric abstraction. The developer describes computations in terms of operations on tiles — structured blocks of data such as submatrices — without specifying threads, warps, or execution order. Then the compiler and runtime automatically map those tile operations onto threads, tensor cores, tensor memory accelerators (TMA), and the GPU memory hierarchy. This means the programmer focuses on what computation should happen to the data, while CUDA determines how it runs efficiently on the hardware, which ensures performance scalability across GPU generations, starting with Blackwell and extending to future architectures.
But why introduce such significant changes at the CUDA level? There are several motives behind the move: drastic architectural changes in GPUs, and the way modern GPU workloads operate. Firstly, AI, simulation, and technical computing no longer revolve around scalar operations: they rely on dense tensor math. Secondly, Nvidia's recent hardware has also followed the same trajectory, integrating tensor cores and TMAs as core architectural enhancements. Thirdly, both tensor cores and TMAs differ significantly between architectures.
From Turing (the first GPU architecture to incorporate tensor units as assisting units) to Blackwell (where tensors became the primary compute engines), Nvidia has repeatedly reworked how tensor engines are scheduled, how data is staged and moved, and how much of the execution pipeline is managed by warps and threads versus dedicated hardware. With Turing, tensors were used to execute warp-issued matrix instructions, but with Blackwell, things shifted to tile-native execution pipelines with autonomous memory engines, fundamentally reducing the role of traditional SIMT controls.
As a result, as tensor hardware has been scaling aggressively, the lack of uniformity across generations has made low-level tuning on warp and thread levels impractical, so Nvidia had to elevate CUDA toward higher-level abstractions that describe intent at the tile level, rather than at the thread level, leaving all the optimizations to compilers and runtimes. One bonus to this approach is that it can extract performance gains across virtually all workloads throughout the active life cycle of its GPU architectures.
Note that it does not abandon SIMT paths with NVVM/LLVM and PTX altogether; when developers need them, they can write appropriate kernels. However, when they need to use tensor cores, they must write tile kernels.
At the center of this new CUDA Tile stack sits CUDA Tile IR, a virtual instruction set that plays the same role for tile workloads that parallel thread execution (PTX) plays for SIMT kernels. In the traditional CUDA stack, PTX serves as a portable abstraction for thread-oriented programs that ensures that SIMT kernels persist across GPU generations. CUDA Tile IR is designed to provide that same long-term stability for tile-based computations: it defines tile blocks, their relationships, operations that transform them, but hides execution details that can change from one GPU family to another.
This virtual ISA also becomes the target for compilers, frameworks, and domain-specific languages that want to exploit tile-level semantics. Tool builders who previously generated PTX for SIMT can now create parallel backends that emit Tile IR for tensor-oriented workloads. The runtime takes Tile IR as input and assigns work to hardware pipelines, tensor engines, and memory systems in a way that maximizes performance without exposing device-level variability to the programmer.
In addition to Tile IR itself, CUDA 13.1 introduces another key component to bring CUDA Tile to life: cuTile Python, a domain-specific language that allows developers to author array- and tile-oriented kernels directly in Python.
For now, development efforts are focused primarily on AI-centric algorithms, but Nvidia plans to expand functionality, features, and performance over time, as well as to introduce a C++ implementation in upcoming releases. Tile programming itself is certainly not limited to artificial intelligence and is designed as a general-purpose abstraction. As Nvidia's CUDA Tile evolves, it can be applied to a wide range of applications, including scientific simulations (on architectures that support the required precision), signal and image/video processing, and many HPC workloads that decompose problems into block-based computations.
In its initial release, CUDA Tile support is limited to Blackwell-class GPUs with compute capabilities 10.x and 12.x, but future releases will bring support for 'more architectures' though it is unclear whether we are talking previous-generation Hopper or next-generation Rubin.
With CUDA Tile, Nvidia is reorganizing the CUDA software model around tensor-based execution patterns that dominate modern workloads. Traditional CUDA Tile will coexist with the proven SIMT model, as not all workloads use tensor math extensively, though the vector of industry development is more or less clear, so Nvidia's focus will follow it.
Nvidia's CUDA Tile IR provides abstraction that enables architectural stability needed for future generations of tensor-focused hardware, while cuTile Python (and similar languages), as well as enhanced tools, offer practical paths for developers to transition from SIMT-heavy workflows.
Combined with expanded partitioning features, math-library optimizations, and improved debugging tools, CUDA 13.1 marks a major milestone in Nvidia's long-term strategy: abstracting away hardware complexity and enabling seamless performance scalability across each GPU generation.
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom's Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
On its face, it's a fast-growing chipmaker capitalizing on a strong market. The truth is more complex.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
China's largest domestic memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), is preparing for a major IPO in Shanghai, aiming to raise roughly $4.2 billion USD to expand production and fund next-generation DRAM development. On its face, it's a straightforward business story: a fast-growing chipmaker capitalizing on a strong market. Viewed through the lens of today's global RAM shortage, the move is more interesting and more complicated.
As reported by the South China Morning Post, news of the IPO hasn't come out of the blue; it isn't the first time we've heard about this, but this time the announcement is official, and CXMT's timing isn't accidental. The company nearly doubled its revenue year-over-year in 2025 and expects to swing back into profitability, largely thanks to a rebound in DRAM pricing. That rebound, in turn, is being driven by an unusually strong mix of demand from AI infrastructure, cloud providers, and device manufacturers, all competing for a finite supply of memory chips. In other words, CXMT is going public during one of the most memory-hungry periods the industry has ever seen.
CXMT isn't a household name outside China, but it's not a small player. By production volume, it's now the world's fourth-largest DRAM manufacturer, supplying memory for everything from smartphones and PCs to servers used by major Chinese tech firms. The company's IPO pitch is straightforward: expand wafer capacity, modernize fabrication lines, and invest in future DRAM technologies. In theory, that should be good news for the global memory market. More fabs, more output, more competition — all things that usually help stabilize prices.
To some extent, that's true; if CXMT can satisfy a larger share of China's domestic demand, that potentially reduces pressure on the rest of the market. Every server or laptop built with locally sourced memory is one less unit competing for supply from market leaders Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.
The complication is timing. Memory manufacturing doesn't scale quickly; new fabs take years to build and qualify, and even upgrades to existing lines take time to produce usable output. The money CXMT is raising now won't translate into meaningful global supply increases overnight. At the same time, demand isn't standing still. AI workloads continue to soak up enormous amounts of memory, and not just high-end HBM but also conventional DRAM for servers, storage systems, and supporting infrastructure. Large customers are increasingly locking in long-term supply contracts, which reduces the amount of memory that ever reaches the open market.
That means CXMT's expansion may help stabilize things in the medium term, but it's unlikely to provide immediate relief for PC builders or consumers wondering why DDR5 prices are still elevated. It's also worth noting what CXMT is not doing: the company isn't racing to flood the market with ultra-cheap consumer RAM. Like every other major memory manufacturer, it's prioritizing higher-margin products and long-term customers. That's just how the economics work now.
In fact, it's possible that CXMT's expansion could make things worse in the near term; after all, as companies like CXMT ramp up, they compete for the same fabrication equipment, materials, and engineering talent as Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix. That competition can actually tighten supply elsewhere, especially for legacy memory nodes that consumer hardware still relies on. The result is what we're already seeing: higher prices, longer lead times, and fewer options at the low end of the market.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Another wrinkle is the question of how quickly CXMT can realistically advance its manufacturing technology. South Korean prosecutors have indicted multiple former Samsung employees over allegations that proprietary DRAM process technology was leaked to CXMT — claims Samsung has said are tied to CXMT's recent progress at advanced nodes like 10nm. The situation highlights how difficult and resource-intensive cutting-edge memory development really is. Whether through legitimate R&D or contested technology transfer, moving the needle on modern DRAM production is slow, expensive, and heavily constrained, which means even aggressive expansion plans don't guarantee rapid gains in usable supply.
Still, that doesn't make the IPO meaningless. In the longer run, additional capacity is still additional capacity. If CXMT succeeds in scaling production efficiently, it could eventually help absorb some of the demand growth that's currently pushing prices upward. It also adds another serious player to a market that's been dominated by three companies for years, which is generally healthy for competition.
The main point to consider is that CXMT's IPO isn't a sign that the RAM shortage is about to end, but it's also not proof that things will get worse. It's better understood as part of a slow rebalancing of the memory industry as it adapts to a world where AI, cloud computing, and high-density systems are the norm.
For PC builders and hardware enthusiasts, the takeaway is mixed: relief is unlikely in the immediate future, but the long-term supply picture is at least moving in the right direction. Whether that translates into cheaper RAM on store shelves depends on how quickly global production can catch up to an industry that's suddenly very, very hungry for memory.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Zak is a freelance contributor to Tom's Hardware with decades of PC benchmarking experience who has also written for HotHardware and The Tech Report. A modern-day Renaissance man, he may not be an expert on anything, but he knows just a little about nearly everything.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
Reading time 3 minutes
Roughly 1,000 light-years away from Earth, a gigantic disk of gas and dust is swirling around a young star and giving rise to new planets. Not only is it the largest planet-forming disk astronomers have ever found, its behavior is different than any seen before.
The disk spans nearly 400 billion miles (640 billion kilometers)—that's about 40 times wider than our entire solar system. While it was first identified in 2016, astronomers have now used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to capture the first image of this planetary nursery in visible light. The new images revealed an unusually chaotic environment, with wisps of material stretching farther above and below the disk than expected. Strangely, these extended filaments are concentrated on just one side of the disk.
The team published its findings on December 23 in The Astrophysical Journal, including a nickname for the baffling space object: “Dracula's Chivito,” a nod to the heritage of two of the researchers, one from Transylvania (home of Dracula) and one from Uruguay (home of the chivito, an iconic beefsteak sandwich). When viewed edge-on, the planet-forming disk resembles a sandwich, with a dark central lane flanked by white top and bottom layers of gas and dust.
“The level of detail we're seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging, and these new Hubble images show that planet nurseries can be much more active and chaotic than we expected,” Kristina Monsch, study lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA), a collaboration between Stanford University and the Smithsonian, said in a NASA statement.
“We're seeing this disk nearly edge-on and its wispy upper layers and asymmetric features are especially striking,” she added.
All planets form from disks of gas and dust encircling young stars. Astronomers have long believed that these protoplanetary disks were relatively orderly, serene environments where planets gradually coalesce over millions of years. Recent studies have challenged that assumption, pointing to greater complexity and diversity among these systems. Hubble's new image of Dracula's Chivito adds to this growing body of evidence.
“We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” co-author Joshua Bennett Lovell, also an astronomer at the CfA, said in the statement. “Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets—processes that we don't yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”
The fact that Dracula's Chivito's extended filaments only appear on one side suggests that dynamic processes—like gas and dust falling into the disc, or other interactions with the space outside it—are shaping the celestial sandwich.
The disk obscures the young star (or stars) within it, but the researchers believe it could harbor either a single massive, hot star or a binary pair. The disk itself contains 10 to 30 times more mass than Jupiter, meaning there's enough material to form multiple gas giant planets. As such, Dracula's Chivito is basically a scaled-up model of what our solar system looked like 4.6 billion years ago.
“In theory, [Dracula's Chivito] could host a vast planetary system,” Monsch said. “While planet formation may differ in such massive environments, the underlying processes are likely similar. Right now, we have more questions than answers, but these new images are a starting point for understanding how planets form over time and in different environments.”
Dracula's Chivito is therefore a natural laboratory for studying planet formation, says Monsch. Hubble and other space telescopes, such as NASA's James Webb, will continue observing this unique disk to uncover what's shaping its bizarre structure.
Explore more on these topics
Share this story
Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more.
Gadgets gifts are the best gifts to get friends and family.
The space agency requested plans for a UAS detection system at its primary rocket launch site.
“One way or another, we're going to make sure Johnson Space Center gets its historic spacecraft right where it belongs.”
Mark your calendars.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research not only investigates weather on Earth, but also in space.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC.
All rights reserved.
Beijing accuses the Netherlands of remaining indifferent and stubbornly insisting on its own way.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the Netherlands should “immediately correct its mistakes and clear the obstacles to restoring the stability and security of the global semiconductor supply chain.” Beijing said this in relation to the ongoing Nexperia crisis, in which the Dutch government seized control of the chipmaker from its Chinese parent, Wingtech, allegedly to safeguard “crucial technical knowledge.” However, this move has resulted in a component shortage for the automotive industry, reports CNBC, especially as the company supplies approximately 70% of the global market for automotive chips.
Although Nexperia does not manufacture cutting-edge semiconductors like TSMC, it still makes the cheap, low-tech chips that all modern cars use. These range from chips for managing advanced battery and engine systems to those needed for lights, sensors, and electric window controls.
Because of this drama, autom manufacturers have braced for the resulting disruptions, with both Japanese and German auto manufacturers bracing for its impact as far back as October 2025. True enough, Honda has had to temporarily shut down five plants across Japan and China due to the chip shortage, with these assembly sites reverting to reduced output when they return online.
There have been conflicting reasons for the government takeover aside from the supposed illegal technology transfer. One report says that the Wingtech CEO misappropriated $200 million in Nexperia funds to rescue his own company, while there have also been suggestions that the U.S. was behind the move as it put Wingtech in its “Entity List” in December 2024, with the expanded “Affiliates Rule” putting Nexperia at risk of being included in the U.S. blacklist, especially as the Chinese company owns a 75% stake on the Dutch company.
While there have been attempts to resolve the issue, it seems that the Netherlands and China offices of the automotive chipmaker have yet to resolve anything. At the moment, Nexperia Netherlands has suspended wafer shipments to its China factory, so even though Beijing has already allowed the Dongguan plant to resume exports to automakers on a case-by-case basis, it's currently facing a significant gap in wafer supply. This has led to Nexperia China seeking new wafer suppliers to replace those that were supposed to come from the Netherlands, but it will likely take six months or more before it can qualify a new vendor.
In the meantime, automakers would have no choice but to reduce output and find alternative sources for their chip needs. This issue highlights the pitfalls of relying on just a few suppliers for the majority of our chip supply, with a disruption in just one of them having a ripple effect across the globe.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He's been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he's been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
Great, now I want one too.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.
Anyone who's watched more than a couple futuristic movies has probably witnessed a scene in which one of the characters pulls out a particularly compact computer so they can quickly hack into something. Youtuber High Tech Low Life (HTLL) saw them, too, and inspired by John Connor hacking an ATM with an Atari Portfolio in Terminator 2, he decided to roll his own cyberdeck.
A glance at the video frame below might make you think that HTLL just bought some fancy phone case and tweaked it. In reality, though, it wasn't as much of a project as it was a whole enterprise. He wanted to roll a computer, a decently-sized keyboard, a boombox, a huge battery, and an extension hub into his design, all with a carrying handle.
He accomplished that with aplomb, adding a phone holder with a magnetic USB-C port, a three-port USB hub, a 10,000 mAh battery, a wireless keyboard with an integrated touchpad (detachable, too!), and a Bluetooth amplifier plus a pair of 2-inch, 5W speakers. The call on the keyboard was key to the construct, as choosing a competent clicker of convenient caliber would dictate the overall dimensions of the case.
HTLL ended up going with a keyboard from Rii, but since that model only came with 2.4 GHz connectivity with a dongle, he was then compelled to add a USB hub. Next, he opted among different speaker sizes and chose the 2-inch as the Goldilocks one, as the smaller drivers didn't have the oomph he desired.
As any 3D printing enthusiast reading this will likely predict, designing the phone holder was one of the two hardest parts of the project. Despite having tons of hardware, he was ironically bereft of a 3D scanner. That made designing the holder a many-print affair, as finding the sweet spot between the holder being loose enough to fit the phone and tight enough to hold it in place was tricky. Figuring out just the right depth to fit the magnetic USB-C connector was a challenge, too.
The step of designing a competent hinge was equally tricky. 3D printing a hinge is easy enough, but HTLL wanted one that was both made of metal and was adjustable like laptop hinges are via a screw. He recommends ThinkPad hinges for your own DIY projects.
After some screws, washers, and foldable feet that turned out unnecessary, the project was complete. When folded, with the side carrying handle, the deck is reminiscent of 80s multi-cassette cases, except it's about half the volume. The next step could be adding a VR headset to it, and pretend you're Case from Neuromancer on his Ono-Sendai deck.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.
Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
What happens here matters everywhere
GeekWire chronicles the Pacific Northwest startup scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter, and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and VC directory.
by Todd Bishop on Dec 30, 2025 at 6:37 pmDecember 30, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Seattle cryptocurrency company Coinme said it reached an agreement with Washington state regulators to pause the temporary cease-and-desist order issued against it last month, clearing the way for the company to resume operations in the state.
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions had ordered Coinme to stop transmitting money for customers, alleging the startup improperly claimed as its own income more than $8 million owed to consumers from unredeemed crypto vouchers.
Coinme said the order was stayed after it provided detailed financial records and operational information to regulators that clarified key details about its business practices. As a result, the company said, it will be able to “continue serving customers in Washington State while addressing any remaining concerns.”
The state agency had been seeking to revoke Coinme's money transmitter license, impose a $300,000 fine, and ban CEO Neil Bergquist from the industry for 10 years.
The agreement, laid out in a Dec. 23 consent order, requires Coinme to segregate Washington customer assets into dedicated accounts within 14 days, and move cash or cash equivalents tied to outstanding Washington kiosk transactions into a segregated account within 30 days.
The order also requires the company to provide monthly compliance updates to regulators. The underlying charges remain unresolved and could still be litigated, according to the order.
“Our commitment to customer protection and regulatory compliance remains our top priority,” Bergquist said in a statement, noting that Coinme has had a collaborative relationship with the agency dating back to the company's founding in 2014.
Coinme operates what it calls the nation's largest cash-to-crypto network through partnerships with MoneyGram and Coinstar. The company had called the original charges an accounting dispute over a discontinued voucher product.
Track all of GeekWire's in-depth startup coverage: Sign up for the weekly startup email newsletter; check out the funding tracker and VC directory; and follow our startup news headlines.
Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline
Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Let us know.
Crypto ATM startup Coinme hit with cease-and-desist order in Washington state
Crypto startup Coinme alleges Coinstar misused trade secrets for competing product at kiosks
Washington state AI task force lays out blueprint for regulation, suggests grant program for startups
As Trump targets state AI laws, a new Seattle startup sees opportunity
Catch every headline in your inbox
A recent study published in Engineering has unveiled a novel approach to generating functional organoids from human adult adipose tissue. This method, which bypasses traditional stem cell isolation and genetic manipulation, offers a more straightforward and scalable pathway for creating organoids that can be used in regenerative medicine and disease modeling.
The research, led by a team from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the Shanghai Institute for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, demonstrates the potential of human adult adipose tissue to differentiate into organoids representing all three germ layers - mesoderm, endoderm, and ectoderm - without the need for single-cell processing. By employing a specialized suspension culture system, the team developed reaggregated microfat (RMF) tissues that could differentiate into various functional organoids.One of the key findings of the study is the generation of humanized bone marrow organoids from RMF tissues. These organoids were able to support human hematopoiesis in immunodeficient mice, mimicking the structural and functional complexity of native human bone marrow. The researchers found that RMF pellets, when implanted into mice, underwent endochondral ossification, forming ossicles that contained both endosteal and perivascular niches. These ossicles supported the engraftment and differentiation of human hematopoietic stem cells, demonstrating their potential as a model for studying human hematopoiesis.In addition to bone marrow organoids, the study also explored the differentiation of RMF tissues into insulin-producing islet organoids. Using a refined four-stage protocol, the researchers guided RMF cells through definitive endoderm, pancreatic progenitor, endocrine progenitor, and β-cell stages. The resulting islet organoids were capable of secreting insulin in response to glucose stimulation, with a significant increase in insulin secretion under high-glucose conditions. When transplanted into diabetic mice, these organoids rapidly vascularized and reversed hyperglycemia, maintaining normal blood glucose levels for the duration of the study.The researchers also demonstrated the ectodermal differentiation potential of RMF tissues by generating neural-like tissues. RMF pellets were induced to form neurospheres, which then differentiated into neuronal and neuroglial lineages. The cells expressed markers for neural stem cells, mature neurons, and glial cells, indicating the successful conversion of adipose tissue into neural-like tissues.This study highlights the versatility and potential of human adult adipose tissue as a source for organoid generation. By avoiding complex cell isolation and genetic manipulation, the RMF-based strategy offers a more practical and clinically relevant approach to creating functional organoids. The findings suggest that adipose tissue could serve as a valuable resource for developing therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine, particularly for conditions such as diabetes and hematological disorders.The research underscores the importance of exploring alternative sources for organoid generation, especially those that can be easily accessed and processed. As the field of regenerative medicine continues to advance, the ability to generate functional organoids from readily available tissues like adipose tissue could pave the way for more efficient and accessible treatments.
Frontiers Journals
Huang, R.-L., et al. (2025). Direct Differentiation of Human Adult Adipose Tissue into Multilineage Functional Organoids. Engineering. doi: 10.1016/j.eng.2025.06.031. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809925003595?via%3Dihub
Posted in: Cell Biology | Medical Science News | Medical Research News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
A recent study published in Engineering has shed new light on the role of the protein NSUN2 in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. The research, conducted by a team from Harbin Medical University, reveals that NSUN2, a member of the NOL1/NOP2/Sun domain family, significantly contributes to pathological cardiac hypertrophy by activating the LARP1-GATA4 axis, potentially offering a novel therapeutic target for heart failure.
The study began with the observation that NSUN2 expression levels were significantly elevated in both human hearts with heart failure (HF) and in mouse hearts subjected to hypertrophy induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and angiotensin II (Ang II) treatment. This finding prompted the researchers to investigate the specific function of NSUN2 in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Through a series of experiments involving cardiomyocyte-specific knockout and overexpression of NSUN2, the team discovered that NSUN2 plays a crucial role in regulating cardiac function and structure.In their experiments, the researchers found that cardiomyocyte-specific knockout of NSUN2 attenuated the reduced cardiac ejection fraction (EF) and fractional shortening (FS) observed in TAC-treated mice, while also reducing heart weight to tibial length (HW/TL) ratios. Conversely, cardiac-specific overexpression of NSUN2 led to pronounced cardiac remodeling, characterized by increased hypertrophic growth, cardiac fibrosis, and a significant decline in EF and FS. These results highlight the detrimental effects of NSUN2 overexpression on cardiac function and structure.Mechanistically, the study revealed that NSUN2 induces 5-methylcytosine (m5C) modification of La-related protein 1 (LARP1), thereby enhancing its mRNA stability. This process is mediated by Y-box binding protein 1 (YBX1). The stabilized LARP1 then interacts with GATA binding protein 4 (GATA4) mRNA, preventing its degradation and ultimately promoting a pro-hypertrophic phenotype. To validate this pathway, the researchers conducted RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays and found that LARP1 directly binds to GATA4 mRNA, protecting it from degradation.Further supporting this mechanism, the researchers demonstrated that silencing LARP1 partially attenuated TAC-induced cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Similarly, in mice with NSUN2 overexpression, knockdown of LARP1 significantly reduced the hypertrophic response, as evidenced by decreased expression of hypertrophic markers such as ANP and BNP. These findings underscore the importance of the NSUN2/LARP1/GATA4 axis in mediating cardiac hypertrophy.The study also explored the broader implications of NSUN2 regulation in cardiac health. By analyzing RNA sequencing data, the researchers identified numerous genes with altered expression in response to NSUN2 activity, many of which are involved in pathways related to cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. This comprehensive analysis provides a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying NSUN2's effects on cardiac function.The research published in Engineering offers valuable insights into the role of NSUN2 in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. By elucidating the NSUN2/LARP1/GATA4 axis, the study not only advances our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of these conditions but also highlights NSUN2 as a potential therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of heart failure. Future research may focus on exploring the therapeutic potential of targeting NSUN2 and its downstream pathways to mitigate cardiac hypertrophy and improve cardiac function.
Frontiers Journals
Liu, Y., et al. (2025). NSUN2 Promotes Cardiac Hypertrophy by Activating LARP1–GATA4 Axis. Engineering. doi: 10.1016/j.eng.2025.05.016. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809925003479?via%3Dihub
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Researchers from Kyushu University have developed an innovative computational method, called ddHodge, that can reconstruct the complex dynamics of how cells decide their fate. As reported in Nature Communications, this approach paves the way for a deeper understanding of the biological processes involved in development, regeneration, and disease.
Understanding how a developing cell chooses its destiny, such as differentiating into a nerve cell or a muscle cell, is a central challenge in biology and medicine. To study these mechanisms, scientists often rely on single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq)-a technology that reveals which genes are active within individual cells. While powerful, scRNA-seq is destructive, meaning that it can only provide one-time snapshots of cells, but not the evolution of their states over time.
Computational methods like RNA velocity have begun to tackle this limitation by inferring both the immediate future direction of a cell and the "speed" at which it advances toward it. However, a cell's state is defined by innumerable genes, placing it in a complex, high-dimensional space. As current techniques cannot accurately represent this full space, they compress it into far fewer dimensions, inevitably losing important information about the data geometry. As a result, it is impossible to consistently assess the stability of a cell state-that is, one cannot distinguish a highly plastic, unstable cell at a branching point from one that is deeply committed and stable.
Against this backdrop, Associate Professor Kazumitsu Maehara from Kyushu University's Faculty of Medical Sciences and Professor Yasuyuki Ohkawa from Kyushu University's Medical Institute of Bioregulation have developed ddHodge, a geometry-preserving method that can more accurately reconstruct cell state dynamics.
My background is in statistical science, and during my graduate training, I was exposed to HodgeRank, a method used in ranking problems such as PageRank. When I later moved into life-science research, I realized that the same mathematical idea could help interpret the complex, high-dimensional transitions in single-cell data."
Kazumitsu Maehara, Associate Professor, Kyushu University's Faculty of Medical Sciences
Their technique is based on Hodge decomposition, a powerful mathematical theorem, which they used to break down cells' motion across a landscape of possible states into three fundamental and measurable components. The first is the gradient, which is the overall directional flow across the landscape. The residual contains the curl and the harmonic components, which account for cyclical or rotational flows and can thus reveal repeating processes like the cell cycle.
"ddHodge can be viewed as an effort to adapt techniques and concepts developed in modern mathematical sciences, such as differential geometry and numerical computation, to the practical demands of life science data analysis," explains Maehara. The proposed framework utilizes geometric principles to approximate how cell states "move" on a lower-dimensional structure while preserving the shape information embedded in high-dimensional data, which is normally lost in standard methods that rely on dimensionality reduction.
When applying ddHodge to scRNA-seq data from approximately 46,000 mouse embryonic cells, the researchers found that over 88% of the gene expression dynamics during early embryonic development could be explained by the gradient component. This substantiated, with real-world data, the long-standing concept in developmental biology that cells differentiate by moving toward stable states and diverging away from "branching points." Moreover, by focusing on these unstable points, the researchers were able to identify key genes that drive or maintain cell state stability as cells commit to a lineage.
The researchers also evaluated ddHodge's performance using data simulations, revealing that even when given partial or noisy data, ddHodge was able to reliably reconstruct cell state dynamics, with around 100 times more accuracy than other conventional approaches.
Overall, ddHodge provides a reliable way to identify critical biological moments, such as the exact timing and location of cell fate decisions. "ddHodge can quantitatively describe, within a high-dimensional space, in which direction, how fast, and how stably cells change. We expect it to contribute broadly to understanding diverse biological phenomena, including embryonic development, tissue regeneration, and cancer progression," adds Maehara. This tool could support the early detection of cell states relevant to disease states or regeneration, as well as help scientists analyze large-scale datasets used in pharma and biotech discovery pipelines.
Notably, ddHodge has many potential applications beyond biology and medicine. The researchers believe it could be used to provide insights into other complex processes that change over time, including material degradation, climate patterns, and socioeconomic behavior. Thus, ddHodge exemplifies how concepts from modern mathematics can be used to gain insights into processes and systems that would otherwise be obscured in giant high-dimensional datasets.
Kyushu University
Maehara, K. & Ohkawa, Y., et al. (2025). Geometry-preserving vector field reconstruction of high-dimensional cell-state dynamics using ddHodge. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67782-6. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67782-6
Posted in: Cell Biology | Device / Technology News | Medical Science News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
A new research paper was published in Volume 17, Issue 11 of Aging-US on November 26, 2025, titled "Epigenetic aging signatures and age prediction in human skeletal muscle."
In this study, first author Soo-Bin Yang and corresponding author Hwan Young Lee from Seoul National University College of Medicine investigated how DNA methylation patterns in skeletal muscle change with age. Their findings offer a new and highly accurate method for estimating a person's age, with potential applications in forensic science and aging research.
Skeletal muscle is essential for movement, energy balance, and physical strength, functions that become more important to monitor as people age. This study improves our understanding of how muscle tissue changes over time at the molecular level. Unlike previous research, which mainly analyzed living individuals of European descent, this study used postmortem samples from an Asian population.
"We analyzed DNA methylation profiles from 103 pectoralis major muscle samples from autopsies of South Korean individuals (18–85 years) using the Infinium EPIC array."
The researchers analyzed DNA from over 100 pectoralis major muscle samples taken from individuals aged 18 to 85. They identified 20 DNA methylation sites, called CpGs, that were strongly associated with age. These CpGs were found in genes involved in muscle function, stress response, metabolism, and age-related diseases. Using these markers, the team built two machine learning models to predict age: one using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and another using Single Base Extension (SBE). Both models were highly accurate, with average prediction errors between 3.8 and 5.5 years.
The new "epigenetic clocks" outperformed existing age-prediction models designed for other tissue types. However, when applied to cardiac and uterine muscle, these models showed much lower accuracy, reinforcing the need for tissue-specific approaches in molecular age estimation.
Beyond predicting age, the study also provides insight into how DNA methylation may affect muscle aging. Several of the identified CpGs were located in regions that regulate gene expression, being associated with a reduction of it in older muscle samples. Some of the affected genes are associated with sarcopenia, an age-related loss of muscle mass and strength.
Overall, this study introduces two reliable and cost-effective methods to estimate age from skeletal muscle, even when the DNA is partially degraded, making it especially useful in forensic settings. It also offers a path forward for developing future therapies that may slow age-related muscle decline and highlights how skeletal muscle aging can differ depending on population, tissue type, and anatomical location.
Aging-US
Yang, S.-B., et al. (2025). Epigenetic aging signatures and age prediction in human skeletal muscle. Aging. doi: 10.18632/aging.206341. https://www.aging-us.com/article/206341/text
Posted in: Genomics | Medical Science News | Medical Research News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
A recent study published in Engineering has shed light on the potential therapeutic effects of dihydrotanshinone I (DHT), a compound derived from the traditional Chinese herb Salvia miltiorrhiza, on ovarian cancer. The research, conducted by a team from Zhejiang Chinese Medical University and Jiangsu Normal University, reveals that DHT can induce autophagic cell death in ovarian cancer cells by disrupting the sortilin 1 (SORT1)-mediated autophagy-lysosome pathway.
Ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies affecting women, with the highest mortality rate among gynecological cancers. A distinguishing feature of ovarian cancer cells is their reduced autophagic flux compared to normal cells. This suggests that excessive autophagy activation or impaired autophagosome-lysosome fusion could lead to cancer cell death. The study investigated the effects of DHT on ovarian cancer cells, uncovering its mechanism of action through proteomic analysis and in vivo experiments.The researchers found that DHT suppressed ovarian cancer growth by targeting SORT1, a protein involved in the autophagy-lysosome pathway. In vitro experiments demonstrated that DHT promoted the formation of autophagosomes, indicated by the increased expression of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3-II (LC3-II), while inhibiting the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes. This disruption in the autophagic flux led to the accumulation of autophagosomes and ultimately induced autophagic cell death in ovarian cancer cells.To validate these findings, the researchers utilized an orthotopic ovarian cancer model in mice. The results showed that DHT treatment significantly reduced tumor growth and weight, corroborating the in vitro observations. Additionally, DHT was found to decrease SORT1 expression in tumors, further supporting its role in disrupting the autophagy-lysosome pathway.The study also explored the interaction between DHT and SORT1. Co-immunoprecipitation and cellular thermal shift assays revealed that DHT directly targeted SORT1, promoting its ubiquitin-dependent degradation. This degradation of SORT1 led to the release of autophagy-related proteins ATG5 and ATG16L1, which enhanced autophagosome formation and disrupted the autophagic flux.SORT1, encoded by the SORT1 gene, is primarily located on the endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomal membranes, where it is involved in protein transport to lysosomes. Previous studies have shown that SORT1 mediates ovarian cancer progression by enhancing cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. High SORT1 expression has been detected in over 75% of clinical ovarian tumor samples, making it a promising therapeutic target.The findings of this study highlight the potential of DHT as a novel therapeutic agent for ovarian cancer. By targeting SORT1 and disrupting the autophagy-lysosome pathway, DHT induces autophagic cell death, offering a new strategy for the treatment of this deadly disease. Future research may focus on further elucidating the underlying mechanisms and exploring the clinical applications of DHT in ovarian cancer therapy.
Frontiers Journals
Sun, C., et al. (2025). Dihydrotanshinone I Induces Autophagic Cell Death in Ovarian Cancer by Disrupting the SORT1-Mediated Autophagy–Lysosome Pathway. Engineering. doi: 10.1016/j.eng.2025.06.020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809925003182?via%3Dihub
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Women's Health News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Children exposed to high levels of screen time before age two showed changes in brain development that were linked to slower decision-making and increased anxiety by their teenage years, according to new research by Asst Prof Tan Ai Peng and her team from A*STAR Institute for Human Development and Potential (A*STAR IHDP) and National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, using data from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort.
Published in eBioMedicine, the study tracked the same children over more than a decade, with brain imaging at multiple time points, to map a possible biological pathway from infant screen exposure to adolescent mental health. This is the first paper on screen time to incorporate measures spanning over ten years, highlighting the long-lasting consequences of screen time in infancy.
Importantly, the study focuses on infancy, a period when brain development is most rapid and especially sensitive to environmental influences. Furthermore, the amount and type of screen exposure in infancy are largely determined by parental and caregiver awareness and parenting practices, highlighting a critical window for early guidance and intervention.
The researchers followed 168 children from the GUSTO cohort and conducted brain scans at three time points (ages 4.5, 6, and 7.5). This allowed them to track how brain networks developed over time rather than relying on a single snapshot.
Children with higher infant screen time showed an accelerated maturation of brain networks responsible for visual processing and cognitive control. The researchers suggest this may result from the intense sensory stimulation that screens provide. Notably, screen time measured at ages three and four did not show the same effects, underscoring why infancy is a particularly sensitive period.
Accelerated maturation happens when certain brain networks develop too fast, often in response to adversity or other stimuli. During normal development, brain networks gradually become more specialised over time. However, in children with high screen exposure, the networks controlling vision and cognition specialised faster, before they had developed the efficient connections needed for complex thinking. This can limit flexibility and resilience, leaving the child less able to adapt later in life."
Dr. Huang Pei, study's first author
This premature specialization came at a cost: children with these altered brain networks took longer to make decisions during a cognitive task at age 8.5, suggesting reduced cognitive efficiency or flexibility. Those with slower decision-making, in turn, reported higher anxiety symptoms at age 13. These findings suggest that screen exposure in infancy may have effects that extend well beyond early childhood, shaping brain development and behavior years later.
In a related study published in Psychological Medicine in 2024, the same team found that infant screen time is also associated with alterations in brain networks that govern emotional regulation - but that parent-child reading could counteract some of these brain changes.
Among children whose parents read to them frequently at age three, the link between infant screen time and altered brain development was significantly weakened. The researchers suggest that shared reading may provide the kind of enriched, interactive experience that passive screen consumption lacks, including back-and-forth engagement, language exposure, and emotional connection.
"This research gives us a biological explanation for why limiting screen time in the first two years is crucial. But it also highlights the importance of parental engagement, showing that parent-child activities, like reading together, can make a real difference," said Asst Prof Tan Ai Peng, Principal Investigator at A*STAR IHDP, Clinician-Scientist at NUS, and the study's senior author. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the National University Hospital of Singapore, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, and McGill University. The findings provide an evidence base to guide early childhood policies and parenting practices, contributing to Singapore's efforts to maximize human potential from the earliest stages of life.
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Huang, P., et al. (2025). Neurobehavioural links from infant screen time to anxiety. eBioMedicine. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.106093. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(25)00543-2/fulltext
Posted in: Child Health News | Medical Research News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Announcing a new publication for Acta Materia Medica journal. Heart failure (HF) remains a major global health challenge with limited therapeutic options, thus prompting the search for novel cardioprotective agents among traditional Chinese medicines.
In this study, screening of 828 herbal extracts in an oxygen glucose deprivation injury H9c2 cardiomyocyte model led to the identification of Euphorbia neriifolia L. extract (JM04) as a promising candidate. JM04 significantly increased cell viability while decreasing lactate dehydrogenase release and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in both H9c2 and primary cardiomyocytes. In vivo, JM04 ameliorated cardiac function and attenuated myocardial fibrosis in isoproterenol-induced HF mice, as evidenced by echocardiography and histological analysis.
Network pharmacology and mechanistic studies revealed that JM04 modulated the Nrf2/ROS/HIF-1α axis by exerting free radical scavenging activity, activating the Nrf2 antioxidant pathway, restoring mTOR phosphorylation, and enhancing HIF-1α expression, thereby protecting against cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Furthermore, UPLC-MS/MS identified six active components consistent with network pharmacology predictions, thus highlighting its multicomponent and multitarget nature. Collectively, these findings demonstrated that JM04 exerts potent cardioprotective effects through integrated antioxidant and signaling modulation, and support its further development as a candidate botanical drug for HF intervention.
Compuscript Ltd
Lu, T., et al. (2025) Euphorbia neriifolia L. extract attenuates heart failure by modulating the Nrf2/ROS/HIF-1α signaling pathway. Acta Materia Medica. DOI: 10.15212/AMM-2025-0056. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.15212/AMM-2025-0056
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Cognitively activating teaching is recognized as an innovative and effective instructional approach, yet it is still underutilized worldwide. These practices require teachers to design challenging tasks, encourage open-ended reasoning, and engage students in active knowledge construction.
In the study led by Bellibaş from the Department of Public Policy, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, researchers have analyzed data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, covering 48 countries and economies. Using multilevel modeling, the findings show that teacher collaboration is a significant predictor of the use of cognitive activation strategies, even after controlling for teacher characteristics and school contexts. Their work was made available online on June 2, 2025, and was published in Volume 8, Issue 4 of journal ECNU Review of Education in November, 2025.
"Such collective endeavors, through positive interactions, could promote innovative teaching strategies and foster their motivation to transform classroom instruction," state Bellibaş et al.
The study also identifies the moderating role of collective teacher innovativeness, which can be defined as teachers' shared openness to new ideas and their willingness to experiment with new teaching approaches. In schools where innovativeness is high, the positive impact of collaboration on innovative teaching practices becomes notably stronger. Factors such as school size, location, and socio-economic composition also affect the prevalence of cognitively activating practices, raising equity concerns.
The study highlights the importance of fostering both collaboration and an innovative school climate to improve instructional quality globally. Encouraging collaborative professional cultures and fostering school environments that support innovation may lead to more widespread adoption of high-impact teaching strategies.
"Our findings underscore that simply encouraging collaboration is not enough; we must also actively cultivate an innovative school climate where teachers feel empowered to experiment with new ideas, ultimately leading to a more equitable and widespread adoption of high-impact teaching strategies worldwide," emphasize Bellibaş et al.
ECNU Review of Education
Bellibaş, M. Ş., et al. (2025). Would Teachers' Professional Collaboration Promote Cognitively Activating Teaching Practices? The Moderating Role of Collective Innovativeness. ECNU Review of Education. doi: 10.1177/20965311251327234. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20965311251327234
Posted in: Child Health News | Healthcare News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Despite major therapeutic advances, breast cancer remains prone to recurrence, particularly in patients with early-stage disease who appear disease-free after treatment. Follow-up care still relies largely on imaging and serum markers, tools that struggle to detect microscopic disease. Tissue biopsies provide valuable information but are invasive and cannot be repeated frequently, nor can they track tumor evolution over time. As a result, clinicians are often alerted to relapse only after metastases are established. These gaps have driven interest in liquid biopsy technologies that can monitor cancer at the molecular level through a simple blood draw. Based on these challenges, there is a pressing need to develop minimal residual disease (MRD)-based strategies that enable earlier, more precise monitoring of breast cancer recurrence.
In the review published (DOI: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0431)online on November 28, 2025, researchers from the Cancer Hospital of China Medical University and the Cancer Hospital of Dalian University of Technology examine how minimal residual disease detection is reshaping breast cancer management. Published in Cancer Biology & Medicine, the article brings together clinical evidence, technological advances, and biological insights to show how ctDNA-based MRD testing can detect residual disease, anticipate relapse, and guide treatment decisions. The review positions MRD monitoring as a key step toward more adaptive, precision-oriented breast cancer care.
The review outlines two major ctDNA-based MRD detection strategies. Tumor-informed approaches analyze a patient's original tumor to design personalized assays capable of detecting ctDNA at extremely low levels, sometimes down to parts per million. These methods offer high specificity and allow clinicians to follow tumor evolution and emerging resistance. Tumor-agnostic approaches, which rely on fixed gene or methylation panels, trade some sensitivity for speed, standardization, and broader accessibility.
Across multiple clinical studies, ctDNA positivity after surgery consistently signals a dramatically higher risk of recurrence and shorter survival. In many cases, molecular relapse is detected 8 to 15 months before radiographic evidence appears. In the neoadjuvant setting, ctDNA dynamics closely track treatment response: early clearance predicts favorable outcomes, while persistent detection suggests resistance. Importantly, recent trials show that MRD-guided treatment adjustments—such as switching endocrine therapies or intensifying targeted regimens—can significantly extend progression-free survival. Together, these findings support MRD not just as a prognostic marker, but as an active decision-making tool that bridges the gap between standard treatment protocols and individualized care.
According to the authors, MRD detection fundamentally changes how clinicians think about relapse risk. "ctDNA allows us to detect cancer activity that imaging simply cannot capture," they explain. By revealing molecular relapse early, MRD monitoring opens a critical window for intervention, when disease burden is still low. At the same time, the authors stress the importance of careful implementation, noting that assay standardization, optimal thresholds, and appropriate testing intervals must be clearly defined to avoid over- or under-treatment.
Looking ahead, MRD-guided monitoring could redefine post-treatment care in breast cancer. Patients with persistent ctDNA may be candidates for early therapeutic escalation, while those who remain MRD-negative could safely avoid unnecessary toxicity. Beyond clinical practice, MRD offers powerful advantages for drug development and clinical trials by identifying high-risk populations and enabling earlier outcome assessment. As technologies mature and costs decline, ctDNA-based MRD testing is expected to move from specialized settings into routine care, shifting breast cancer management from delayed detection toward timely, precision-driven intervention.
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xu, J., et al. (2025). From residual risk to precision intervention: the evolving role of minimal residual disease in breast cancer management. Cancer Biology & Medicine. doi: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0431. https://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/early/2025/11/28/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0431
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Women's Health News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Diabetic kidney disease affects a growing proportion of people with diabetes and remains the leading cause of end-stage renal disease. Clinically, the condition is marked by persistent proteinuria and a gradual decline in kidney filtration capacity. Current first-line therapies, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, typically slow renal function decline; however, sustained improvement is uncommon, and treatment-related adverse effects may limit long-term use. Increasing evidence suggests that chronic inflammation plays a central role in driving kidney fibrosis and functional loss in diabetes. Based on these challenges, there is a need to explore alternative or complementary treatments that can protect renal function by targeting inflammatory mechanisms.
Researchers from Guang'anmen Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, together with collaborators from multiple traditional Chinese medicine hospitals across China, reported (DOI: 10.1093/pcmedi/pbaf031) on November 14, 2025, in Precision Clinical Medicine the results of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind clinical trial evaluating a traditional Chinese herbal formula for diabetic kidney disease with macroalbuminuria. The 24-week study enrolled 120 patients and compared the therapy with the angiotensin receptor blocker irbesartan, assessing renal outcomes, safety, and symptom improvement. Mechanistic investigations combining proteomics, single-cell transcriptomics, and animal models were conducted to uncover inflammation-related pathways underlying the clinical effects.
The trial showed that both treatments achieved similar reductions in 24-hour urinary protein, a standard marker of kidney damage. However, patients receiving the herbal formulation experienced significantly better preservation of kidney function. Their estimated glomerular filtration rate increased over the treatment period, while it declined in the comparison group, and serum creatinine levels decreased rather than rising. Bayesian statistical analysis further supported a high probability that the herbal therapy provided meaningful renal benefits.
To understand why these differences occurred, the researchers conducted mechanistic studies. Olink inflammation proteomic profiling identified significant reductions in circulating inflammatory mediators, particularly CX3CL1 and MCP-1, following treatment. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing of diabetic mouse kidneys revealed that these molecules are predominantly expressed in endothelial, mesangial, and tubular cells—key players in kidney inflammation and fibrosis. Treatment suppressed their expression in specific cell populations, suggesting a cell-type-resolved anti-inflammatory effect.
Animal experiments reinforced these findings. Mice receiving the herbal therapy showed improved renal biochemical markers and reduced structural damage, including less fibrosis and mesangial expansion. Together, the clinical and experimental results indicate that the therapy may protect kidney function by dampening inflammation-driven injury rather than acting solely through hemodynamic control.
"The most striking aspect of this study is the improvement in kidney function, not just stabilization," said one of the corresponding investigators. "Many existing therapies slow decline, but few demonstrate an actual increase in filtration capacity. By integrating clinical trials with molecular and single-cell analyses, we were able to link these functional benefits to specific inflammatory pathways. This systems-level approach strengthens confidence that the observed effects are biologically meaningful and not simply statistical variation."
If confirmed in longer and larger trials, these findings could expand treatment options for patients with diabetic kidney disease, particularly those who cannot tolerate standard medications or remain at high residual risk. The study highlights inflammation as a viable therapeutic target and suggests that multi-component therapies may exert synergistic effects on complex disease pathways. Beyond this specific formulation, the work provides a framework for integrating traditional medicine with modern clinical trials and omics technologies. Such approaches could accelerate the discovery of complementary therapies aimed at preserving kidney function and improving quality of life for millions of patients worldwide.
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wang, A., et al. (2025). Randomized controlled clinical trial of Shenzhuo Formula in the treatment of macroalbuminuria in diabetic kidney disease and its inflammation-modulating mechanisms. Precision Clinical Medicine. doi: 10.1093/pcmedi/pbaf031. https://academic.oup.com/pcm/article/8/4/pbaf031/8323138
Posted in: Drug Trial News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Two complementary studies reveal how an insufficient supply of energy in macrophages, key immune cells in artery walls, drives the progression of atherosclerosis - and how this knowledge could lead to better diagnostics and future therapies. The University of Eastern Finland was centrally involved in both studies.
Atherosclerosis - the buildup of fatty plaques inside arteries - is the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes worldwide. Although the role of cholesterol in plaque formation has long been a central focus, scientists increasingly recognise that the immune system plays a decisive role in determining whether plaques remain stable or become unstable and thus prone to rupture, which can lead to heart attacks or strokes.
In the two newly published studies, an international team of researchers showed that poor availability of the amino acid glutamine in macrophages can determine the worsening of artery plaques. The researchers also identified new ways to detect dangerous plaques.
Macrophages are the body's clean-up crew. Inside artery plaques, they ingest fats, remove dying cells and help repair damaged tissue. But to perform these protective tasks, macrophages require energy.
In the first study, published in Nature Metabolism, the researchers discovered that macrophages rely heavily on glutamine uptake from their environment to fuel their restorative functions. A specific transporter protein, SLC7A7, acts as a gateway that allows glutamine to enter the cell. When this gateway is blocked, macrophages lose energy and perform poorly, resulting in plaques that are larger and more unstable, which is a known risk factor for heart attacks and strokes in people.
Reduced activity of this pathway was linked to more dangerous plaque features also in human artery samples.
These findings suggest that restoring or supporting macrophage metabolism could one day help stabilise plaques and prevent heart attacks or strokes."
Professor Minna Kaikkonen-Määttä, University of Eastern Finland
The second study, published in Cardiovascular Research, builds on this biological insight and moves toward the clinic. By studying macrophages with advanced single-cell technologies, the researchers identified protein markers such as TREM2, FOLR2 and SLC7A7 that highlight high-risk plaques.
Based on these markers, PET imaging could be used to detect inflammatory plaque activity rather than just the size of the plaques.
The researchers also found that soluble TREM2 in the blood may help distinguish between stable and symptomatic plaques, raising the possibility of a future blood test to identify patients at highest risk.
The research reflects close international collaboration, with the University of Barcelona contributing to both studies, among others. The first study was led by Université Côte d'Azur, while the second was co-led by the University of Turku.
University of Eastern Finland (UEF Viestintä)
Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Intestinal Stem Cells (ISCs) derived from a patient's own cells have garnered significant attention as a new alternative for treating intractable intestinal diseases due to their low risk of rejection. However, clinical application has been limited by safety and regulatory issues arising from conventional culture methods that rely on animal-derived components (xenogeneic components). A KAIST research team has developed an advanced culture technology that stably grows ISCs without animal components while simultaneously enhancing their migration to damaged tissues and regenerative capabilities.
KAIST announced on December 23rd that a joint research team—led by Professor Sung Gap Im from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Dr. Tae Geol Lee from the Nano-Bio Measurement Group at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science and Dr. Mi-Young Son from the Stem Cell Convergence Research Center at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology has developed a polymer-based culture platform that dramatically improves the migration and regeneration of ISCs in a xenogeneic-free environment.
To overcome obstacles in the clinical application of stem cell therapies—such as the risk of virus transmission to patients when using substances derived from mouse fibroblasts or Matrigel—the joint research team developed "PLUS" (Polymer-coated Ultra-stable Surface). This polymer-based culture surface technology functions effectively without any animal-derived materials.
PLUS is a synthetic polymer surface coated via a vapor deposition method. By precisely controlling surface energy and chemical composition, it significantly enhances the adhesion and mass-culture efficiency of ISCs. Notably, it maintains identical culture performance even after being stored at room temperature for three years, securing industrial scalability and storage convenience for stem cell therapeutics.
Through proteomics analysis, the research team identified that the expression of proteins related to cytoskeletal reorganization significantly increased in ISCs cultured on the PLUS environment.
Proteomics Analysis: A method used to simultaneously analyze the types and quantitative changes of all proteins present within a cell or tissue.
Specifically, the team confirmed that increased expression of cytoskeleton-binding and actin-binding proteins leads to a stable restructuring of the internal cellular architecture. This provides the power source for stem cells to move faster and more actively across the substrate.
Real-time observations using holotomography microscopy revealed that ISCs cultured on PLUS exhibited a migration speed approximately twice as fast as those on conventional surfaces. Furthermore, in a damaged tissue model, the cells demonstrated outstanding regenerative performance, repairing more than half of the damage within a single week. This proves that PLUS activates the cytoskeletal activity of stem cells, thereby boosting their practical tissue regeneration capabilities.
The newly developed PLUS culture platform is evaluated as a technology that will significantly enhance the safety, mass production, and clinical feasibility of ISCs derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). By elucidating the mechanism that simultaneously strengthens the survival, migration, and regeneration of stem cells in a xenogeneic-free environment, the team has established a foundation to fundamentally resolve safety, regulatory, and productivity issues in stem cell therapy.
This research provides a synthetic culture platform that eliminates the dependence on xenogeneic components—which has hindered the clinical application of stem cell therapies—while maximizing the migration and regenerative capacity of stem cells. It will serve as a catalyst for a paradigm shift in the field of regenerative medicine."
Professor Sung Gap Im of KAIST
Dr. Seonghyeon Park (KAIST), Sang Yu Sun (KAIST), and Dr. Jin Gyeong Son (KRISS) participated as first authors. The research findings were published online on November 26th in Advanced Materials, the leading academic journal in materials science.
This research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the National Council of Science and Technology Research, KRISS, KRIBB, and the National NanoFab Center.
KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Park, S., et al. (2025). Tailored Xenogeneic‐Free Polymer Surface Promotes Dynamic Migration of Intestinal Stem Cells. Advanced Materials. doi: 10.1002/adma.202513371. https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202513371
Posted in: Cell Biology | Device / Technology News | Medical Science News
Cancel reply to comment
Dr Bryony Henderson
GLP-1 agonists are pivotal in obesity care, promoting weight loss and addressing related health issues, with a focus on personalized, holistic treatment.
Guillaume Bentzinger, Luis Carrillo, Philippe Robin, and Alejandro Bara-Estaún
Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.
Dr. Raj Singh
Learn how digital connectivity and the PathoVerse are improving pathology workflows and accelerating access to expert diagnostics.
News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.
Please note that medical information found
on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship
between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide.
Last Updated: Wednesday 31 Dec 2025
News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025
Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant
Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.
To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account.
Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content.
A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.
Please check the box above to proceed.
Great. Ask your question.
Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses.
Read the full terms.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.
Provide Feedback
Rough Draft Atlanta
Hyperlocal news for metro Atlanta
Rough Draft is a clever, curated, and concise email to help you stay up-to-date.
At the halfway point of the ongoing Random Selection Draw ticketing phase, the FIFA World Cup 2026 is already breaking records with over 150 million ticket requests submitted to date by fans from over 200 countries.
According to a press release, the outcome of the current phase that opened on Dec. 11 means the World Cup is oversubscribed over 30 times based on verified individual credit card numbers submitted with each ticket application.
The demand also represents 3.4 times more than the overall number of spectators who have attended the 964 matches that make up all 22 editions of the competition combined since 1930, the release said.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is set to be the greatest and most inclusive show on the planet, with more than 150 million tickets already requested in only the first 15 days, making this edition 30 times oversubscribed – a true showcase of incredible demand from fans from over 200 countries,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.”
The Random Selection Draw ticketing phase remains open until Jan. 13 at 11:00 a.m., and the timing of a ticket request within this window does not affect the chances of success. Fans can enter the draw and find full details at FIFA.com/tickets. Following the closing of the current phase, a draw will take place, giving all fans equal chances of success.
Those who are unsuccessful will have the opportunity to secure their seats during the subsequent sales phases as additional tickets are made available. The newly introduced Supporter Entry Tier will be available at the fixed price of $60 per ticket for each of the 104 matches, including the final.
The World Cup is estimated to bring around 300,000 visitors to Atlanta in June and July 2026. As one of 16 host cities, Atlanta will host eight World Cup matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, including one semifinal.
Rough Draft Atlanta is the digital home of Reporter Newspapers and Atlanta Intown.
More by Rough Draft
Enter the code sent to your email.
Email address
Enter your password
Sign in by entering the code we sent to , or clicking the magic link in the email.
See our Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get the best of Rough Draft Atlanta directly in your email inbox.
Sending to:
Link
Copy link
Joplin
Pittsburg
Live updates all day, breaking news as it happens and weather every 10 minutes
Resize:
MISSOURI (KOAM) -- The State of Missouri receives a $14.24 million grant to help strengthen security for FIFA World Cup events in Kansas City.
“As we plan with our local partners in Kansas City, we are taking into account every potential threat related to World Cup matches and other FIFA-related events,” said Department of Public Safety Director Mark James. “This includes being prepared for potential threats from hostile actors who utilize technology, including unmanned aircraft systems. The 2026 World Cup is a global event, and we will be fully prepared to detect and respond accordingly.”
According to the Missouri Department of Public Safety, the funding is through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Grant Program.
All 11 states hosting or supporting FIFA World Cup matches in 2026 are receiving the grant.
States can use the grants to strengthen their ability to detect, identify, track, or mitigate drones.
“Kansas City will be one of the most exciting destinations in the world for soccer fans next year, and the State of Missouri is working with local officials and law enforcement partners to ensure visitors and residents are safe and secure at FIFA matches, Fan Festival, and all related events,” Governor Mike Kehoe said. “We appreciate the Trump Administration and FEMA acting swiftly to award this counter-drone funding, which will further strengthen our coordinated state and local security measures and represents a long-term investment in the security of the region.”
Kansas City is scheduled to host a total of six World Cup matches from June 16 through July 11.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KOAM NEWS NOW. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
From Cole Palmer trademarking more words to Erling Haaland giving the rest of the Premier League a chance - 442oons imagines the New Year's resolutions of some of the world's top footballers in a hilarious final video of 2025!
Check out the official 442oons YouTube channel for more animated football videos like this one!
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
Ruben Amorim insists he remains "very confident" that Manchester United will have a strong season despite seeing his side drop points against bottom-of-the-table Wolves in Tuesday's Premier League clash at Old Trafford. Facing the media after a hugely disappointing performance from the Red Devils, the Portuguese tried to explain what went wrong, pointing to a lack of fluidity and the fact he's missing some key players. Watch the full clip above ⬆️
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
Emiliano Martínez was left seething over taunts from Arsenal supporters after Aston Villa suffered a 4-1 defeat at Emirates Stadium. Villa's 11-match winning streak was emphatically ended by the Gunners, who ran out comfortable winners in Tuesday night's Premier League clash. While the result itself was damaging enough, the ugly scenes that followed in the tunnel compounded Villa's misery.
Martinez endured one of his most uncomfortable evenings since joining Villa. The 33-year-old conceded four times as Arsenal delivered a ruthless attacking display to reassert their title credentials. The opening goal was particularly painful for the former Gunners goalkeeper. At a corner, he was outmuscled by returning defender Gabriel Magalhaes, failing to impose himself as the ball broke Arsenal's way. It set the tone for a night in which Villa were repeatedly second-best. Martinez could do little to prevent further strikes from Martín Zubimendi, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus, before Ollie Watkins grabbed a late consolation for the visitors. The tension truly boiled over after full-time. As Martínez headed towards the tunnel, Arsenal fans directed chants and insults his way, questioning his trademark bravado. One supporter was heard shouting: "You're not dancing now, are you?" while others mocked him, saying, "You're rattled! F*** off, f*** off, f*** off! He's so rattled. Wakey wakey", urging him to leave the pitch. Martínez turned back to respond, his frustration plain to see, before being pulled away by staff keen to avoid a full-blown confrontation. It was another flashpoint in a relationship that has steadily soured since his departure from north London in 2020.
Martinez spent a decade on Arsenal's books between 2010 and 2020, finally getting his chance to shine during Mikel Arteta's first season in charge. He played a key role in the club's last FA Cup triumph and followed it up with victory in the Community Shield. Yet his Arsenal career ended abruptly soon after, with the goalkeeper sold to Aston Villa in a £20 million ($27m) deal. The return of Bernd Leno left Martínez facing reduced opportunities, prompting his decision to seek regular football elsewhere. Since then, Arsenal supporters have shown little sympathy. On his first return with Villa in 2021, he was greeted with chants proclaiming Aaron Ramsdale to be superior. With Ramsdale now gone, it was David Raya's name echoing around the Emirates on Tuesday.
Much of the animosity stems from Martinez's frank reflections on his Arsenal exit. While he has often spoken warmly about the club, his suggestion that he was not trusted enough struck a nerve with sections of the fanbase. Speaking previously to Sky Sports, Martínez said: "I just felt like they didn't trust me like they should have. When I was on a high, I still felt like they didn't deserve me because of the way they were treating me. They couldn't guarantee me the games I needed, so I thought that if they couldn't guarantee me the games I needed, then I'm moving on.
"They didn't say to me that I wasn't going to play, they just didn't guarantee me the games that I wanted to play. So, after 10 years, I decided to leave, and it was very difficult. My family didn't understand why I was leaving when I was at such a good level at Arsenal, but it was my decision to leave and I'm really proud I did it. It was a gamble, but I always believe that if you stay in the comfort zone, you will never reach anything in life. I decided to take the step up."
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
Villa manager Unai Emery was also involved in a minor tunnel controversy after appearing to miss the customary post-match handshake with Arteta. Emery later played down the incident, explaining that he had simply followed his usual routine and saw Arteta engaged with his staff.
The Villa boss explained: "Yes, but it's simple. You can watch. After [finishing] the match, always my routine is quick, shake hands and go with my coaches, with my players, or go to the dressing room. And I was waiting, I was waiting. Of course, he was happy and he was with his coaches and I decided to go inside. But for me, no problem."
Villa will be keen to respond quickly when they host Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Arsenal, meanwhile, have opened up a five-point gap at the top of the Premier League over Manchester City, who do hold a game in hand. With confidence surging and the Emirates once again a hostile place for visiting former heroes, Arteta's side have sent a clear message that they are not slowing down anytime soon.
Manchester City are reportedly in talks over the £30 million ($40m) loan-to-buy sale of Oscar Bobb as Pep Guardiola gears up to welcome Antoine Semenyo to the Etihad. City and Bournemouth have held constructive negotiations over the structure of Semenyo's £65m transfer, with all sides confident that the framework of the deal is now in place. The Ghana international has already given verbal approval to the switch, with formal steps set to begin once the January window opens on New Year's Day.
Despite the transfer edging closer, Semenyo played the full 90 minutes of Bournemouth's 2-2 draw with Chelsea in the Premier League on Tuesday night. That could mark his final appearance for the Cherries, bringing down the curtain on a spell that has elevated him into one of the division's most sought-after forwards. Club sources indicate the sale could be concluded within 48 hours, prompting recruitment staff to accelerate contingency planning in attack.
While Semenyo's arrival would add depth to Guardiola's front line, it also sharpens competition in areas where minutes are already scarce. Bobb is the clearest example of a player squeezed by City's abundance of attacking talent. The 22-year-old enjoyed a breakout start to last season before suffering a leg fracture that stalled his momentum. Subsequent setbacks have left him struggling to reassert himself, and there is a growing acceptance that regular football elsewhere may be essential for his development.
According to The Daily Mail,Borussia Dortmund currently lead the race, with talks progressing over a loan until the end of the campaign that would include an option to buy for around £30m. Sevilla and Atletico Madrid are also tracking the situation, while Premier League sides such as Crystal Palace and Bournemouth have made enquiries. Newcastle United are monitoring developments from a distance.
In other attacking positions, Omar Marmoush has seen his opportunities diminish as Guardiola has stepped back from deploying him on the left flank. The Egypt international is currently away at the Africa Cup of Nations, and while his role has reduced, City maintain that he remains part of their plans. Similarly, speculation around Savinho has been played down. The Brazilian recently committed his future to City after rejecting interest from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer. Guardiola has praised Savinho's improved defensive work rate, underlining why the club are unwilling to entertain offers unless something extraordinary materialises.
Looking for smarter football bets? Get expert previews, data-driven predictions & winning insights with GOAL Tips on Telegram. Join our growing community now!
At Bournemouth, the impending loss of Semenyo has been met with regret rather than surprise. Head coach Andoni Iraola had been vocal about his hope to keep the forward for as long as possible. However, he acknowledged that circumstances were beyond his control.
Last week, the Spaniard said: "The more games Antoine can play for us, [the better]. If he can play years for us, it's much better! If it cannot be years, it can be months. If he can only play weeks, it is weeks but the more time he plays with us, the better for us. Antoine's situation is quite clear. Antoine is a massive player for us. Obviously, I don't want to lose him, but there are some situations that are not under my control."
Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting
With Semenyo's exit looming, Bournemouth have begun exploring replacements and are reportedly keen on Brennan Johnson of Tottenham. Predominantly a winger but comfortable across the front line, Johnson's adaptability fits Iraola's tactical demands and he has emerged as a serious option, though Crystal Palace are thought to be leading the race for his services.
Home » FIFA President Defends Ticket Prices for World Cup, Claming 150 Million Ticket Requests
FIFA President Gianni Infantino is pushing back against mounting criticism of the organization's World Cup 2026 ticket prices, arguing that record-setting demand validates FIFA's approach — even as fans and supporter groups continue to call the prices “extortionate” and out of reach for ordinary attendees.
Speaking Monday at the World Sports Summit in Dubai, Infantino said FIFA has already received more than 150 million ticket requests during the current ticketing phase, which runs through January 13, 2026. He framed that number as evidence of unprecedented interest in the first expanded 48-team World Cup, which will be staged across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
“In the last few days, you have probably seen there is a lot of debate about ticketing and ticket prices,” Infantino said, before describing the volume of applications as “absolutely crazy” — a comment that underscores FIFA's central argument: demand is so high that the market will bear it.
Infantino also repeated FIFA's longstanding messaging that World Cup revenues are redistributed to support soccer development worldwide. “There is football because [of] and thanks to these revenues we generate with and from the World Cup, which we reinvest, of course, all over the world,” he said in Dubai.
The remarks are the first major public defense of ticket pricing from FIFA leadership since the latest application window opened in early December, triggering backlash as fans began sharing examples of steep face-value pricing for marquee games. According to published pricing details and prior reports, ticket prices have ranged from relatively lower-cost early-round options to several thousand dollars for premium matches — with the cheapest seats for the final reportedly priced in the four-figure range in some tiers, drawing sharp criticism from supporter organizations and media outlets.
READ MORE: FIFA World Cup Ticket Pricing Widely Condemned as Prices Surge to Thousands
FIFA has also pointed to affordability measures — including the introduction of a limited “supporter” ticket tier — after facing criticism over the sticker shock. But those lower-cost seats represent only a small slice of the overall inventory, leaving much of the public debate focused on the prices attached to high-demand games and later rounds.
While FIFA emphasizes record demand on the primary side, new data from Ticket Club's secondary marketplace points to a familiar pattern: a sharp surge immediately after the matchups and schedule dropped, followed by a gradual repricing as early seller optimism meets real buyer behavior.
According to Ticket Club's latest market snapshot, the overall average ticket price across all matches moved from $3,190 (Dec. 8) to $4,994 (Dec. 11), then eased to $3,805 (Dec. 17) and $3,697 (Dec. 30). In Ticket Club's framing, that represents a short-lived “FOMO tax” right after the announcement, with prices drifting lower as the initial frenzy fades — though the market remains meaningfully higher than it was on day one of matchup week.
Breaking the market out by round, Ticket Club's data suggests the Group Stage has stabilized relative to the early spike, while knockout rounds remain more volatile as sellers “test ceilings” for the later, higher-stakes matches:
Ticket Club also highlighted a continuing “host premium” for Group Stage matches featuring Mexico, the United States, or Canada — though that premium narrowed in late December. As of Dec. 30, Ticket Club data showed Group Stage games featuring host nations averaging $4,695 versus $2,443 for non-host matchups, roughly a 1.9× premium by their measurement.
Examples cited by Ticket Club include three openers priced well above the broader Group Stage average: Mexico vs. South Africa in Mexico City at $10,109, Canada vs. Playoff A in Toronto at $6,705, and United States vs. Paraguay in Inglewood at $6,531.
On the city level, Ticket Club's Dec. 30 snapshot showed Mexico City as the most expensive Group Stage market (average $5,443), while Monterrey ($1,851), Atlanta ($1,905), and Kansas City ($1,962) stood out as comparatively lower-priced “value hubs.”
The takeaway: even with record demand on the primary side, the early secondary market appears to be normalizing from its initial spike — not collapsing, but settling as sellers and buyers recalibrate after matchup week. With FIFA's current ticketing phase open until Jan. 13, and additional sales windows expected to follow, both primary and secondary pricing are likely to remain fluid as inventory, allocations, and fan expectations continue to shift.
Below are Group Stage games in chronological order with the latest average price (12/30) and the % change vs. when matchups were announced on 12/8.
TicketNews readers can claim a free 1-year Ticket Club membership – sign up using code TICKETNEWS at this link
Below are the knockout-round matches in chronological order with the latest average price (12/30) and the % change vs. 12/8.
From intensifying antitrust scrutiny to fan backlash over pricing and access, 2025 proved to be one of the most consequential…
Thousands of soccer fans missed out on seeing soccer stars Lionel Messi, Sergio Buisquets, and Luis Suarez play the Vancouver…
© 2025 TicketNews. All rights reserved.
Some TicketNews posts have affiliate links - it may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase tickets or other products.
Team Canada and Team China took the time to explore Sydney Wednesday before the start of the United Cup, visiting the Sydney Zoo where they interacted with kangaroos and koalas.
The Canadians in attendance were Auger-Aliassime, rising WTA star Victoria Mboko, Alexis Galarneau and Kayla Cross. One year ago, Mboko was outside the Top 300 in the PIF WTA Rankings. She enters the United Cup as World No. 18.
"I'm really excited. This is my first time playing such an event and playing the whole Australia swing, so there are a lot of new experiences and so many new things to come," Mboko said. "I'm excited to play United Cup. It's a really fun event and to be here with Felix and the team, it's really great."
Auger-Aliassime is flying higher than ever at No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings. A winner of 50 matches during the 2025 season, the Canadian will try to make a quick start to the new year Down Under. He is serving as playing captain for Team Canada.
"I have great memories playing in the past team events here in Australia," Auger-Aliassime said. "We actually won with our team [the ATP Cup] in Sydney a couple years back, so it would be nice to get a win again."
The Team China members who visited the Sydney Zoo were former WTA No. 31 Zhu Lin, Zhang Zhizhen (second from right), Te Rigele (far right), Wang Aoran (far left) and captain Wu Di (second from left).
Zhang and Zhu lead the way for the Chinese. Zhang has played the United Cup in each of the past two seasons, tallying a 1-2 singles mark each time. He is proud to represent his country on a global stage.
"This is always different. Also that is why United Cup is a little bit different [from] other tournaments," Zhang said. "You have to fight for every point, even if you get one more point or one more set you are helping your team."
Action in Sydney begins on 3 January. Click here to find out who is competing in the mixed-teams event.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more.
Your data will be used in accordance with the
ATP Privacy Policy
and
WTA Privacy Policy.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices
Iga Swiatek readies for her first shot at the career Slam in Australia, as Coco Gauff brings a retooled serve to a U.S. title defense.BySteve TignorPublished Dec 30, 2025 copy_link
Published Dec 30, 2025
© 2025 Getty Images
📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!United we start.For the fourth year, tennis kicks off its 11-month schedule with the United Cup in Australia. The event began, in 2023, as a hopeful model of gender unity, in a sport that hasn't had a ton of it over the decades. Since then, it has established itself as a table-setting tournament that balances camaraderie with competition and showcases both tours in one place.It's still a hopeful way to begin. While United Cup may not inspire the intensity of Davis Cup or BJK Cup, or radiate the star power of Laver Cup, it's the only place where we see the men and women teaming up and hanging out on the sidelines, and then playing together for their countries, and for ranking points. From here, the tours mostly go their separate ways.As in seasons past, the 2026 edition will be an advertisement of the sport's depth, rather than its leading lights. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as usual, will begin their seasons at the Australian Open; Novak Djokovic starts at the 250 in Adelaide; and Aryna Sabalenka will be in Brisbane.Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to sayWhat United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
United we start.For the fourth year, tennis kicks off its 11-month schedule with the United Cup in Australia. The event began, in 2023, as a hopeful model of gender unity, in a sport that hasn't had a ton of it over the decades. Since then, it has established itself as a table-setting tournament that balances camaraderie with competition and showcases both tours in one place.It's still a hopeful way to begin. While United Cup may not inspire the intensity of Davis Cup or BJK Cup, or radiate the star power of Laver Cup, it's the only place where we see the men and women teaming up and hanging out on the sidelines, and then playing together for their countries, and for ranking points. From here, the tours mostly go their separate ways.As in seasons past, the 2026 edition will be an advertisement of the sport's depth, rather than its leading lights. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as usual, will begin their seasons at the Australian Open; Novak Djokovic starts at the 250 in Adelaide; and Aryna Sabalenka will be in Brisbane.Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to sayWhat United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
For the fourth year, tennis kicks off its 11-month schedule with the United Cup in Australia. The event began, in 2023, as a hopeful model of gender unity, in a sport that hasn't had a ton of it over the decades. Since then, it has established itself as a table-setting tournament that balances camaraderie with competition and showcases both tours in one place.It's still a hopeful way to begin. While United Cup may not inspire the intensity of Davis Cup or BJK Cup, or radiate the star power of Laver Cup, it's the only place where we see the men and women teaming up and hanging out on the sidelines, and then playing together for their countries, and for ranking points. From here, the tours mostly go their separate ways.As in seasons past, the 2026 edition will be an advertisement of the sport's depth, rather than its leading lights. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as usual, will begin their seasons at the Australian Open; Novak Djokovic starts at the 250 in Adelaide; and Aryna Sabalenka will be in Brisbane.Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to sayWhat United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
It's still a hopeful way to begin. While United Cup may not inspire the intensity of Davis Cup or BJK Cup, or radiate the star power of Laver Cup, it's the only place where we see the men and women teaming up and hanging out on the sidelines, and then playing together for their countries, and for ranking points. From here, the tours mostly go their separate ways.As in seasons past, the 2026 edition will be an advertisement of the sport's depth, rather than its leading lights. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as usual, will begin their seasons at the Australian Open; Novak Djokovic starts at the 250 in Adelaide; and Aryna Sabalenka will be in Brisbane.Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to sayWhat United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
As in seasons past, the 2026 edition will be an advertisement of the sport's depth, rather than its leading lights. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as usual, will begin their seasons at the Australian Open; Novak Djokovic starts at the 250 in Adelaide; and Aryna Sabalenka will be in Brisbane.Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to sayWhat United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to sayWhat United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
What United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women's side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.
Like team events across all sports, United Cup begins with group play, before moving on to knockout rounds for the eight surviving nations. Here are a few potential highlights from the six three-team groups.Group AUSA, Spain, ArgentinaThe U.S. is the defending champion, and has the strongest one-two punch in Fritz and Gauff. But their match against Spain should be a battle. Fritz will face Jaume Munar, a competitor in the dogged Spanish tradition who had his best season in 2025. Gauff, meanwhile, will play another hard-charging, gradually-improving player in 40th-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. This will be their first meeting.Group BCanada, Belgium, ChinaCanada comes into 2026 hot, with a team led by Felix Auger Aliassime, who leapt from No. 29 to No. 5 last year, and Mboko, who leapt to Cinderella stardom with her title run in Montreal.I'm looking forward to seeing them play Belgium, which will have two low-key warriors, Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens, in the singles positions.Group CItaly, France, SwitzerlandItaly vs. Switzerland will feature a battle of the generations on the men's side, between Flavio Cobolli, 23, and Stan Wawrinka, 40. More interesting, perhaps, will be the women's contest, between No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and No. 11 Belinda Bencic.
The U.S. is the defending champion, and has the strongest one-two punch in Fritz and Gauff. But their match against Spain should be a battle. Fritz will face Jaume Munar, a competitor in the dogged Spanish tradition who had his best season in 2025. Gauff, meanwhile, will play another hard-charging, gradually-improving player in 40th-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. This will be their first meeting.Group BCanada, Belgium, ChinaCanada comes into 2026 hot, with a team led by Felix Auger Aliassime, who leapt from No. 29 to No. 5 last year, and Mboko, who leapt to Cinderella stardom with her title run in Montreal.I'm looking forward to seeing them play Belgium, which will have two low-key warriors, Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens, in the singles positions.Group CItaly, France, SwitzerlandItaly vs. Switzerland will feature a battle of the generations on the men's side, between Flavio Cobolli, 23, and Stan Wawrinka, 40. More interesting, perhaps, will be the women's contest, between No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and No. 11 Belinda Bencic.
Canada comes into 2026 hot, with a team led by Felix Auger Aliassime, who leapt from No. 29 to No. 5 last year, and Mboko, who leapt to Cinderella stardom with her title run in Montreal.I'm looking forward to seeing them play Belgium, which will have two low-key warriors, Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens, in the singles positions.Group CItaly, France, SwitzerlandItaly vs. Switzerland will feature a battle of the generations on the men's side, between Flavio Cobolli, 23, and Stan Wawrinka, 40. More interesting, perhaps, will be the women's contest, between No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and No. 11 Belinda Bencic.
I'm looking forward to seeing them play Belgium, which will have two low-key warriors, Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens, in the singles positions.Group CItaly, France, SwitzerlandItaly vs. Switzerland will feature a battle of the generations on the men's side, between Flavio Cobolli, 23, and Stan Wawrinka, 40. More interesting, perhaps, will be the women's contest, between No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and No. 11 Belinda Bencic.
Italy vs. Switzerland will feature a battle of the generations on the men's side, between Flavio Cobolli, 23, and Stan Wawrinka, 40. More interesting, perhaps, will be the women's contest, between No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and No. 11 Belinda Bencic.
Norway's Casper Ruud, Malene Helgo, Astrid Brune Olsen, and Ulrikke Eikeri in Sydney.© Corbis via Getty Images
© Corbis via Getty Images
The men's matches in this group, between De Minaur, Mensik, and Casper Ruud, should be top-flight. And the Australian team always draws a crowd.Group EGreat Britain, Greece, JapanHere the women's singles players—Raducanu, Maria Sakkari, Osaka—stand out.Group FGermany, Poland, NetherlandsPoland has been the runner-up each of the last two years. With Swiatek on board, they'll be in contention again. Win or lose, it will be nice to welcome back her teammate, Hubert Hurkacz, who hasn't been seen since he wrecked his right knee at Wimbledon. His match against Germany's Alexander Zverev will be a highlight.Read More: Swiatek, Gauff, Osaka, Auger-Aliassime, Zverev among 2026 United Cup entrants
Here the women's singles players—Raducanu, Maria Sakkari, Osaka—stand out.Group FGermany, Poland, NetherlandsPoland has been the runner-up each of the last two years. With Swiatek on board, they'll be in contention again. Win or lose, it will be nice to welcome back her teammate, Hubert Hurkacz, who hasn't been seen since he wrecked his right knee at Wimbledon. His match against Germany's Alexander Zverev will be a highlight.Read More: Swiatek, Gauff, Osaka, Auger-Aliassime, Zverev among 2026 United Cup entrants
Poland has been the runner-up each of the last two years. With Swiatek on board, they'll be in contention again. Win or lose, it will be nice to welcome back her teammate, Hubert Hurkacz, who hasn't been seen since he wrecked his right knee at Wimbledon. His match against Germany's Alexander Zverev will be a highlight.Read More: Swiatek, Gauff, Osaka, Auger-Aliassime, Zverev among 2026 United Cup entrants
Read More: Swiatek, Gauff, Osaka, Auger-Aliassime, Zverev among 2026 United Cup entrants
Success in United Cup doesn't necessarily beget more of the same. Last year Gauff and Fritz went 11-1 combined and swept Poland in the final, only to suffer upset losses at the Australian Open.That said, while this is a team event, there are plenty of intriguing individual storylines that will get underway over the course of its nine days. Here are a few.Coco Gauff: How is her serve journey coming?In August, Gauff hired a serve specialist, Gavin MacMillan, to fix her wayward delivery. The early results were encouraging: She won the title in Wuhan and made the semis in Beijing. Now we'll see what the stroke looks like after an off-season of work.Taylor Fritz: At 28, is he still climbing, or has he peaked?Fritz's road to the elite has been long and hard-earned, but with Alcaraz and Sinner ensconced at the top, he doesn't seem any closer to a Slam title. We'll see this year if he has any more gears to shift into.
That said, while this is a team event, there are plenty of intriguing individual storylines that will get underway over the course of its nine days. Here are a few.Coco Gauff: How is her serve journey coming?In August, Gauff hired a serve specialist, Gavin MacMillan, to fix her wayward delivery. The early results were encouraging: She won the title in Wuhan and made the semis in Beijing. Now we'll see what the stroke looks like after an off-season of work.Taylor Fritz: At 28, is he still climbing, or has he peaked?Fritz's road to the elite has been long and hard-earned, but with Alcaraz and Sinner ensconced at the top, he doesn't seem any closer to a Slam title. We'll see this year if he has any more gears to shift into.
In August, Gauff hired a serve specialist, Gavin MacMillan, to fix her wayward delivery. The early results were encouraging: She won the title in Wuhan and made the semis in Beijing. Now we'll see what the stroke looks like after an off-season of work.Taylor Fritz: At 28, is he still climbing, or has he peaked?Fritz's road to the elite has been long and hard-earned, but with Alcaraz and Sinner ensconced at the top, he doesn't seem any closer to a Slam title. We'll see this year if he has any more gears to shift into.
Fritz's road to the elite has been long and hard-earned, but with Alcaraz and Sinner ensconced at the top, he doesn't seem any closer to a Slam title. We'll see this year if he has any more gears to shift into.
Flavio Cobolli's Italy reached the quarterfinals of the 2025 United Cup.© 2024 Getty Images
© 2024 Getty Images
The 23-year-old Italian had a breakout 2025, anchored by a world-class forehand. Now he'll try to avoid a sophomore slump, and keep climbing through the rarer air of the Top 15.Belinda Bencic: What does she do for an encore to her comeback season?Judging by her strong 2025 results, you would hardly have guessed that Bencic had just had her first child. Now, at 28, can she fulfill the Slam-winning potential she showed as a teen?Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari: What's left for the Greeks?Tsitsipas and Sakkari have both been ranked as high as No. 3, and are both now out of the Top 30. Can either put a halt to their parallel slide?Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu: New coaches will try to return them to past gloryThese two former major champs showed promise with new mentors—Osaka with Tomasz Witkorowski, Raducanu with Francisco Roig—in the latter half of 2025.📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!
Judging by her strong 2025 results, you would hardly have guessed that Bencic had just had her first child. Now, at 28, can she fulfill the Slam-winning potential she showed as a teen?Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari: What's left for the Greeks?Tsitsipas and Sakkari have both been ranked as high as No. 3, and are both now out of the Top 30. Can either put a halt to their parallel slide?Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu: New coaches will try to return them to past gloryThese two former major champs showed promise with new mentors—Osaka with Tomasz Witkorowski, Raducanu with Francisco Roig—in the latter half of 2025.📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!
Tsitsipas and Sakkari have both been ranked as high as No. 3, and are both now out of the Top 30. Can either put a halt to their parallel slide?Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu: New coaches will try to return them to past gloryThese two former major champs showed promise with new mentors—Osaka with Tomasz Witkorowski, Raducanu with Francisco Roig—in the latter half of 2025.📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!
These two former major champs showed promise with new mentors—Osaka with Tomasz Witkorowski, Raducanu with Francisco Roig—in the latter half of 2025.📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!
📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!
By Greg Evans
NY & Broadway Editor
UPDATED with Disney statement: A Walt Disney World worker was bowled over by a 400-pound runaway boulder that's part of the park's Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular in Orlando, Florida, with video of the incident making the social media rounds yesterday.
The boulder prop now appears to have been removed from the attraction after the accident.
In a statement to Deadline, a Disney spokesperson said, “We're focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering. Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.”
Related Stories
News
Latest Death At Walt Disney World Resort Ruled A Suicide; Third Fatality In 10 Days
News
Guest Dies In Apparent Suicide At Walt Disney World Hotel
The worker, or cast member in the parlance of the Disney theme parks, can be seen in widely shared video attempting to halt the faux-boulder after the sphere bounced off its proper course. Audience members including many children watch as the unidentified employee is knocked to the ground, his head seemingly bloodied.
Watch on Deadline
The employee is then lifted to his feet by other park workers. In video circulating today, the boulder stunt is absent from the attraction, possibly indicating that Disney World has removed the large prop.
In one video making the rounds – watch it below – a man shooting cell phone video Tuesday can be heard jokingly tell his family, “It's coming right for us,” apparently thinking the audience-bound bouncing boulder was all part of the show. After the worker is knocked down and other workers come to his aid, a woman can be heard saying, “Wait, like, for real?” The man taking the video then says, “It's alright girls, it's ok…He literally saved our lives.”
The social media videos began circulating Tuesday, December 30. Scott Gustin, a frequent blogger on theme parks and all things Disney, was the first to report the incident, confirming that it happened Tuesday and that the cast member received immediate care.
Another blogger, Blog Mickey, posted video today purportedly of the Indiana Jones attraction with the boulder stunt notably absent. (Watch that video below.)
The Indiana Jones attraction is a 30-minute show re-creating scenes and stunts from the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
NEW: During Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Disney's Hollywood Studios today, a 400-pound boulder prop dislodged from its track. A Cast Member was injured stopping it before it reached the audience. Disney says the Cast Member received immediate care and is recovering. pic.twitter.com/TxbWYV25OX
A 400-lb ball falls off track at Disney's Indiana Jones show, injuring a worker the worker is okay, but please pray! #disney #indianajones #stunt #injured #fyp
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
Hope he's ok.
That was more spectacular than Dial of Destiny.
I hope that guy gets a raise.
An everyday hero.
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The show featured the star's greatest hits and signature choreography, telling the story of her lengthy career.
By
Melinda Sheckells
As soon as the curtain fell in 2018 on her 120-show $100 million-grossing Jennifer Lopez: All I Have residency at Planet Hollywood, the speculation began on when — not if — J.Lo would return to Las Vegas.
After seven years, she announced plans for the new Up All Night Live while hosting the American Music Awards in May 2025. On Dec. 30, after months of rehearsal and teasers on her social media, the fervor came to fruition, as Lopez transported the sold-out audience of more than 4,000 at The Colosseum at Caesars from fantasy to reality and back again in a feverish haze of gyrating bodies and miles of sequins.
Always known for making a major entrance, Lopez launched the 120-minute pop, R&B and Latin music and dance odyssey with a spectacular Broadway-themed opener that included “Let Me Entertain You” from the musical Gypsy; 1999's “Waiting for Tonight” mashed-up with West Side Story's “Mambo”; an ultra-jazzy “Jenny From the Block”; and finished with 2007's “Do It Well.”
This set the tone for a night where Lopez framed her best moments not as a greatest hits revue but as a living timeline of “J.Lo the artist” chronicled through music, choreography and costuming. In a toast to their early aughts reign as the terry-cloth sweatsuit king and queen, Ja Rule joined Lopez on stage for their hits “Ain't It Funny” and “I'm Real.”
The most significant difference from her last Vegas show? Lopez's participation in Up All Night Live as narrator, speaking candidly about reinvention, resilience and the discipline it has taken to get her here and back again. Those reflections gave emotional ballast to the high-gloss production designed for spectacle on Las Vegas' most storied stage, which Adele, Cher, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion have graced.
Here's a look at Lopez's full opening night setlist for Up All Night Live at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Editor's Note: The following story contains spoilers for Season 1 of “Pluribus.”
The first season of Apple TV's acclaimed sci-fi drama “Pluribus” just wrapped on Christmas Eve, but audiences are already pining for news of the next chapter.
The nine-episode series from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan seemingly came out of nowhere in November, creating a frenzy at the tail end of 2025, which was a largely uneventful year for original drama television. Set primarily in Gilligan's go-to destination of Albuquerque, New Mexico, “Pluribus” kicks off with all but 12 people on Earth being infected with an alien virus that joins them into a mysterious hive mind. While the virus' global effects are seemingly positive — creating a communal society full of smiling faces and absent of violence, bigotry, and class systems — on a person-to-person level, the results are less comforting. Individuals aren't “I” but “we,” and all distinguishing personality traits have simply disappeared.
Related Stories A Simple Plan to Save ‘Stranger Things' from Hollywood's Tired Franchise Trap Here's What's Entering the Public Domain in 2026
At the center of all of this is a short-tempered romantasy novelist named Carol, played by Rhea Seehorn, who is one of the “lucky” few to be unaffected by the virus — though, as she finds out during the first season, that's only temporary. As Episode 9 comes to a close, Carol gets the news that “the Others,” as she calls them, are closing in on a way to bring her into the hive, setting up a nail-biting Season 2. (The first season is currently the #1 show on Apple TV.)
But exactly when that second season will make its way to screens is the question on viewers' minds, especially after Gilligan and executive producer Gordon Smith told The Hollywood Reporter after the finale that it could be a while.
“It's going to frustrate some folks, just to be honest. We work at the speed we work at, much like glaciers melt at the speed that they melt at. For my own sake, as much as anybody, selfishly, I wish we could get this job done quicker because I don't know how many years I've got left. I still want to do more things, but I go slower than I used to. So it's going to be a while between seasons; it just is,” Gilligan told the publication, elaborating on Smith's comment that the series “will be back as soon as humanly possible.”
In another post-finale interview, this time with Entertainment Weekly, the duo doubled down on refusing to rush toward Season 2, with Smith quipping that they're at least pointed in the right direction and Gilligan defending their creative process.
“As much as I am so grateful for the fans digging this show, we've always found our best way to proceed is to be in our bunker creating this thing and not pay too much attention to reactions of any sort, positive or negative,” Gilligan said. “We're kind of the first fans of this show, the first viewers of the show, and we kinda try to make ourselves happy.”
Those comments didn't sit well with eager “Pluribus” devotees, who logged onto social media in recent days to lament the team's lack of progress and express frustration over shows taking so long between seasons these days. And we're not talking about just any sci-fi fans here: Even Stephen King joined in the call for a speedier timeline, tweeting, “Vince Gilligan says he's in no hurry to get going on Season 2 of PLURIBUS. Understood, but hey, Vince, if you're listening: I'm not getting any younger.”
For now, there isn't a set date for Season 2 to start filming, which means it'll likely be 2027, at the absolute earliest, before viewers get to find out what Carol plans to do with the atom bomb the Others gifted her at the end of Season 1.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
The CBS News boss trolls Clooney's move to France and issues him an open invitation.
By
James Hibberd
Writer-at-Large
CBS News boss Bari Weiss is sending a message to George Clooney after the actor criticized her management of the news network.
The editor in chief issued an open invitation for Clooney to visit her newsroom and playfully mocked his move to France.
“Bonjour, Mr. Clooney!” wrote Weiss in a statement shared with The New York Post. “Big fan of your work. It sounds like you'd like to learn more about ours. This is an open invitation to visit the CBS Broadcast Center, where I'm spending the holidays working to relaunch the Evening News with my colleagues. Tune in January 5.”
Related Stories
News
George and Amal Clooney Granted French Citizenship
Business
Bari Weiss Says Pulling '60 Minutes' Story "May Seem Radical" But Necessary for "Integrity of the News"
The statement was apparently in response to an interview Clooney gave to Variety, where the actor said, “Bari Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak. Am I worried about film studios? Sure. It's my business, but my primary loyalty is to my country. I'm much more worried about how we inform ourselves and how we're going to discern reality without a functioning press.”
Related Video
Clooney also criticized CBS and ABC for settling costly lawsuits filed by President Trump that many felt were specious. “If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, ‘Go, fuck yourself,' we wouldn't be where we are in the country,” Clooney says. “That's simply the truth.”
Clooney previously co-wrote and directed the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, chronicling legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn). Clooney also recently played the role himself in Broadway production of the film.
France recently granted citizenship to Clooney, his wife Amal, and their twins, Ella and Alexander.
“I was worried about raising our kids in L.A., in the culture of Hollywood,” Clooney told Esquire in an interview published in October. “I don't want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don't want them being compared to somebody else's famous kids.”
According to NBC News, the Clooneys live in a luxury 18th century villa outside the town of Brignoles in southern France.
Weiss has come under criticism for her handling of CBS News since Paramount CEO David Ellison hired the Free Press founder in October. Amid fears that Weiss doesn't have enough experience for the role and would shift the organization politically to the right, Weiss recently held a 60 Minutes report on Trump's immigration policies that alleged human rights abuses at a prison in El Salvador.
“No amount of outrage — whether from activist organizations or the White House — will derail us,” Weiss wrote in a staff memo defending the decision. “We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media. We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right.”
In response to Weiss' decision and comments, 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi sent her colleagues a message challenging Weiss' decision and depiction of the story's vetting. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and standards and practices. It is factually correct,” Alfonsi wrote. “In my view, pulling it now — after every rigorous internal check has been met — is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
By
Jon Blistein
The K-pop label Ador has filed a lawsuit against ousted NewJeans member Danielle, seeking approximately $30 million (43.1 billion Korean won) in damages. The lawsuit also lists a member of Danielle's family and Ador's former CEO Min Hee-jin as defendants, the BBC reports.
The new suit comes days after Ador and its parent company, HYBE, revealed that they had ended their contract with Danielle amid wider talks with NewJeans members to return and end a protracted dispute. In that statement, Ador signaled their intention to take legal action, saying they believed Danielle's family member and Min Hee-jin “bear significant responsibility for causing this dispute and for the delays in NewJeans' departure and return.”
HYBE and Ador did not immediately return Rolling Stone's request for comment.
Popular on Rolling Stone
In November, all five members of NewJeans — Hyein, Haerin, Hanni, Danielle, and Minji — signaled their intention to return to Ador after their efforts to cut ties with their label failed in South Korean court. That same month, Ador announced that Hyein and Haerin would rejoin the group. In the statement announcing the decision to terminate Danielle's contract earlier this week, the label said Hanni had also “decided to stay with Ador,” and that Minji remains “in ongoing conversations” with the label.
Trending Stories
Kennedy Center Altered Rules So Only Trump-Appointed Board Members Could Vote on Name Change
Mickey Rourke Sued for $59,100 in Unpaid Rent, Facing Eviction
A$AP Rocky to Help Pay Rent for Tenants in His Childhood Harlem Building
Jack White Slams Congressman Tim Burchett Over AI Generated Video: ‘Tennessee Deserves Better'
The dispute between NewJeans and Ador dates back to fall 2024, when the band announced their decision to cut ties with the label. The move came after HYBE fired Min Hee-jin — who was instrumental in developing NewJeans — after accusing her of trying to take Ador independent (which Hee-jin denied). At a press conference, the members of NewJeans also accused Ador of “manipulation,” “mistreatment,” “deliberate miscommunications,” and workplace harassment. (ADOR denied the claims.)
The members of NewJeans attempted to rebrand and relaunch as NJZ, but HYBE/Ador quickly took the group to court. In March, right before their first show, a court put a stop to the NJZ rebrand, while a subsequent June ruling held that the K-pop group must honor their contractual obligations through 2029. The members of NewJeans had originally seemed intent on appealing the decision before ultimately deciding to open up talks of a return with Ador.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
By
Emily Zemler
Travis Kelce would prefer not to recall his time on a reality dating show. On the Dec. 31 installment of his “New Heights” podcast, the football star confirmed that he would rather have his “gooch waxed” than be subject to episodes of Catching Kelce.
During the “No Dumb Questions” segment of New Heights, which Travis helms with his brother Jason Kelce, the Chiefs player was asked, “Would you rather be forced and tortured watching Catching Kelce on a loop for the rest of your life or get Brazilian waxed like Jason?”
Travis quickly responded, “I'd rather get Brazilian waxed. Are you kidding me?”
Jason, who was waxed for charity earlier this year, agreed: “Yeah. Just rip it off. Easy decision.”
Despite the pain, Travis affirmed, “But yeah, I'd rather just get my gooch waxed.”
Popular on Rolling Stone
Catching Kelce aired for seven episodes in 2016 on E!. It featured Travis dating 50 women, one from each state, in his pursuit of love. He previously said he agreed to star in the series because he needed cash.
“I was so bad financially my first couple years,” he told The Pivot. “I literally went through my first couple checks like it was nothing. My season checks, all that. I was having so much fun, buying whatever the hell I wanted to do, going wherever the hell I wanted to… So I heard about the situation where I can make six figures in two weeks? I was like … ‘This is actually starting to sound a little better.'”
Earlier this year, he admitted on the Bussin' With the Boys podcast that the series was “the worst thing I ever did.” “It didn't set me up for anything,” he said. “I didn't realize what reality TV really was.”
Travis recently found lasting love with Taylor Swift. The couple announced their engagement in August. “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” they wrote in a joint post on Instagram.
The singer revealed in October that the sweet moment was a long time coming. During an appearance on Heart Breakfast, Swift said she started floating inspiration for her ring to the athlete about 18 months prior by showing him videos of recent work from designer Kindred Lubeck. They were only a few months into their relationship by then, but when she knew, she knew.
Trending Stories
Kennedy Center Altered Rules So Only Trump-Appointed Board Members Could Vote on Name Change
Mickey Rourke Sued for $59,100 in Unpaid Rent, Facing Eviction
A$AP Rocky to Help Pay Rent for Tenants in His Childhood Harlem Building
Jack White Slams Congressman Tim Burchett Over AI Generated Video: ‘Tennessee Deserves Better'
Editor's picks
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
Travis ultimately opted for a grand surprise that followed the taping of Swift's appearance on his New Heights podcast. “He really crushed it in surprising me,” Swift said on The Graham Norton Show. “While we were talking on his podcast, he had a complete garden built out the back of his house to propose in. He went all out, 10 out of 10.”
Swift stopped by New Heights earlier this year to promote her most recent LP, The Life of a Showgirl. While on the podcast, Swift reflected fondly on how Travis went about courting her. “This kind of felt more like I was in an '80s John Hughes movie, and he was standing outside of my window with boom box, just being like, ‘I want to date you,'” she said. “This is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.”
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
The director details the clever way he would stay alive if he suddenly found himself on the ill-fated ship.
By
James Hibberd
Writer-at-Large
Titanic is the most popular disaster-survival film of all time.
But if you found yourself on the “ship of dreams” on the night of April 15, 1912, what could you have done to survive its sinking?
We asked the film's Oscar-winning writer-director James Cameron during our interview for last week's Hollywood Reporter cover story and the ever-resourceful filmmaker gave a rather clever answer.
First, our phrasing of the question was specifically chosen: “If you were traveling by yourself as a second-class passenger on Titanic when it hit an iceberg, what would you have done?”
Related Video
Related Stories
Movies
James Cameron Defends 'A House of Dynamite' Ending: "It's the Only Possible Ending"
Movies
'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Star Trinity Bliss Talks Growing Up on Pandora and Starting a Swear Jar for James Cameron
“Traveling by yourself” because a man traveling with his family is presumably going to prioritize their survival instead of his own. And “second class” because we all know from watching Cameron's film that some third-class passengers found themselves trapped below decks and were pretty much doomed, while first-class passengers had the best shot at securing an easy seat on the lifeboats (even though Second Officer Charles Lightoller mistakenly took the captain's order of “women and children first” to mean “women and children only,” which resulted in some boats not being filled to capacity).
Turns out, Cameron has played this game himself.
“I think there were interesting ways to what-if or second-guess the whole thing,” Cameron says. “One I like to play with my Titanic experts is — with what we know now, and if you had the captain's ear — how could you save everybody? The other is: What if you're a time traveler, you go back and want to experience the sinking, and your little time-travel thing that gets you back fails, and you're like, ‘Oh f–k, I'm really on the ship, I've got to get off it.'”
Assuming you couldn't get a seat on a lifeboat the normal way, Cameron says that your best move would be to stand on the side of the Titanic and wait for a lifeboat to launch during the early part of the evacuation. Then you jump off the Titanic and swim to the newly launched boat. As long as the boat wasn't too far away, you'd survive the brief plunge into the 28-degree water — and the lifeboat passengers would likely pull you aboard given that people would be watching from the rails of the ship.
“Most people wouldn't have had the courage to jump into the water,” Cameron says. “They couldn't quite believe that the ship was really going to sink. But if you knew for sure it was going to sink and you weren't on a lifeboat, you jump in the water next to the boat the second it casts off. Once they rowed away, you were screwed. Are they going to let you drown when Titanic is still there and everybody is watching? No, they'd pull you in, and the officers would go, ‘Well, f–k, there's nothing I can do about that.' Boat four would be a good one for this.”
In the 1997 film, of course, Cameron's hero, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), reasons the best move is to stay on the ship as long as possible. Which made sense given the amount of information he had at the time — not knowing rescue from another ship wouldn't arrive until roughly two hours after Titanic sank. An even better move would have been for Rose (Kate Winslet) to stay on the lifeboat, giving Jack a better shot at survival on that floating door. But that's all part of the movie's appeal; there's a play-along factor where the audience can ask themselves what they would have done at various turning points.
Cameron's latest, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is now in theaters.
For more from James Cameron's wide-ranging and deep-dive interview with THR, read this week's cover story: James Cameron Is Ready to Move Beyond Avatar: “I've Got Other Stories to Tell.”
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Gigi and Bella Hadid's secret half-sister, Aydan Nix, said her siblings have been “warm and generous” since she met them in 2023.
“My sisters (along with the rest of the family) have been nothing but warm and generous. They have made space for me in ways they didn't have to,” the fashion designer wrote in a new essay for the Cut.
Nix was born from a brief relationship her father, Mohamed Hadid, had over 20 years ago with Terri Hatfield Dull.
Advertisement
The real estate developer, 77, also shares Bella, 29, Gigi, 30, and son Anwar, 26, with ex-wife Yolanda Hadid and daughters Marielle, 45, and Alana, 40, with his first wife, Mary Butler.
Advertisement
Nix, 23, said her half-brother, Anwar, “called [her] his baby sister the first time we ever spoke on the phone,” and that “Bella calls me her twin.”
“My mom couldn't even tell our voices apart when we first spoke to her on the phone,” the aspiring influencer told the outlet.
Nix shared that her siblings have also helped her learn more about their Palestinian heritage.
“Alana sent me resources and inspired me to become active in the fight for Palestine's freedom,” she penned.
Advertisement
Start your day with Page Six Daily.
Please provide a valid email.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Want celebrity news as it breaks?
“I watched Anwar's film ‘Walled Off.' Gigi took me for my first Palestinian meal and taught me the names of different dishes,” Nix added.
Advertisement
Additionally, Nix's supermodel sisters have also helped her get her foot into the fashion world after she recently graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York.
“Gigi introduced me to her friend Gabriella Karefa Johnson, whom I had admired not only for her styling but for her strong convictions and values,” she wrote in the Cut essay.
“I started assisting her when times were especially busy. My first day on set was a Victoria's Secret campaign. I worked 17 hours that day,” Nix added.
“I was exhausted, but I had never in my life felt more fulfilled. I felt like I had finally found the thing that I was supposed to do.”
Despite her flourishing relationship with her siblings, Nix admitted to feeling “like the odd one out” due to not sharing her childhood with them.
“No sleepovers, no shared holidays, no borrowing clothes, no inside jokes, no stories woven together,” she explained in her essay.
Advertisement
“They had a lifetime of memories, and I felt like the odd one out,” Nix wrote.
In May, the identity of Gigi and Bella's secret half-sister was revealed to be Nix.
Advertisement
“Over 20 years ago, our dad, while single, had a brief relationship that led to a pregnancy,” Gigi and Bella told the Daily Mail in a statement.
“Aydan was born and raised in Florida, growing up with the man she lovingly knew as her father until his sudden passing when she was 19,” the models added.
Gigi and Bella said Nix “decided to take a genetic test out of curiosity,” which led her to discover “a biological connection” to the cover girls.
Advertisement
The trio “first connected in late 2023″ and Bella and Gigi “embraced Aydan with open arms.”
Mohamed briefly dated Dull following his 2001 divorce from Yolanda.
The Daily Mail reported that their fling ended shortly before Dull discovered she was pregnant.
By Jake Kanter
International Investigations Editor
Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill. Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: jkanter@deadline.com.
This edition: Why Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker‘s idea to deepfake cinemagoers into movies was typically prescient.
Charlie Brooker is the grandmaster of predicting how the human experience could be shaped by technology. Whether it's Domhnall Gleeson's replicant boyfriend pre-dating grief chatbots, creepy social credits systems, or killer robots, Black Mirror is often the dystopian nightmare we come to recognize in reality.
Watch on Deadline
Related Stories
News
Streamer Report Card: Streaming Reached A Profit Turning Point In 2025, But Major Players Still Wonder How To Measure Success
Obituaries
Karen Glass Dies: Former Disney Exec & 'A Pickleball Christmas' Producer Was 63
With that in mind, my ears pricked up when Brooker cheerily sketched out an AI vision to boost cinema ticket sales during an on-stage interview in 2025. He proposed scanning the faces of cinemagoers as they enter the theater and then using AI to cast them “randomly” in the actual movie. “So imagine if you went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark and you don't know if you're going to be Indiana Jones, or a melting Nazi,” he told the Edinburgh TV Festival.
This was August. Little more than a month later, OpenAI launched Sora 2, allowing users to insert themselves into infinite movie realms through its “Cameos” feature. The results went astoundingly viral. Brooker's prescience had struck again.
The screenwriter touched on something fundamental about how AI content is being voraciously consumed as novelty. “It's telling, isn't it, that a lot of the AI-generated imagery you see is a remix of other things,” Brooker said.
But does it have the legs to walk into cinema theaters? The technology is there, but it's fair to say that storytelling and audience expectations are not — and that's before you even start considering the ethics for performers and privacy.
Attempts to revolutionize the cinema experience through innovation have flopped. Theaters flirted with choose-your-own-adventure-style ideas (something Brooker pulled off on Netflix with Bandersnatch), with little traction. 3D is now largely seen as a gimmick. And in 2013, the Dutch film APP allowed users to synchronize and expand the storyline via their phones, but it did not make the switch to Hollywood.
“People just don't go to the cinema for this stuff,” says Sarah Atkinson, professor of screen media at King's College London. Julian Hanich, professor of film studies at the University of Groningen, is equally skeptical. “The pleasure of watching a film is partly based on self-extending into a different world,” he explains. “If you are already part of that world through AI, that's kind of contradictory.”
It's perhaps instructive that the two exhibition executives approached for this Rendering column did not wish to speak about deepfaking their audience members into works of art. And Brooker would likely be the first to acknowledge the pratfalls of such an endeavor.
But that's not to say movie studios are dismissing these ideas. The best indication of this was Disney's shock deal to hand over characters from titles like Frozen and Toy Story to Sora, with the best user-generated videos set to be hosted on Disney+.
It's not quite Brooker's cinema vision, but who would have predicted at the start of 2025 that Disney superfans could star in AI-generated videos on the Mouse House's own streaming service? It would have sounded very Black Mirror.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
This is the dumbest thing i read all year.
I find, that this so called AI expert and his rendering column is unfortunately really out of touch with what's seriously going on in the industry. Sorry.
I go to the movies to escape myself, not to see myself on a huge screen
Dreadful idea.
Here's an idea. Lower your prices.
clean the floors, bathrooms, stop the ads– we're leaving home not to see ads and to get into an immersive experience that we chose on purpose, not what you choose to show us because someone paid you. Go find some gold in your mine and don't forget to be honest and to declare it on your taxes
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter
The battle between former colleagues Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin takes a nasty turn as conservative civil war intensifies. Levin calls Kelly a "degenerate bigot." Kelly brands the Fox anchor "a bitter old man."
By
Carly Thomas
Associate Editor
Right-wing talking heads like Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin once reserved their sharpest slings for liberals, immigrants and Joe Biden. But suddenly they're dropping their biggest bombs on each other.
Kelly, a former Fox News anchor and NBC host, has been engaged in an increasingly ugly social-media shootout with her former Fox News colleague Mark Levin, the longtime host of the syndicated The Mark Levin Show and star of Fox News' weekend staple Life, Liberty & Levin.
The two veteran anchors have been feuding since a Turning Point USA convention in mid-December, when Ben Shapiro‘s keynote speech attacking right-wing conspiracists like Tucker Carlson triggered a mini meltdown in MAGA-world. After lashing out at Shapiro and seemingly aligning herself with Carlson, Candace Owens and Jack Posobiec, Kelly took heat from former friends and supporters who accused her of trading her credibility for clicks. But what began as a debate over principles and tactics has taken an increasingly personal turn in recent days, with Levin denouncing his former Fox colleague as a “degenerate” and “laughingstock,” and Kelly dismissing Levin as an “irrelevant, bitter man.”
Related Stories
News
Megyn Kelly Lashes Out at Ben Shapiro and Bari Weiss as MAGA Infighting Escalates
Business
Megyn Kelly Inks New Deal With SiriusXM, Will Get Her Own Channel
The bad blood between the former colleagues escalated on Tuesday when Levin's latest anti-Kelly screed appeared on X. “Meg Kelly, whose ratings were so bad on NBC she became a laughingstock, was canned for promoting blackface on Halloween,” Levin wrote, referencing Kelly's untimely departure from the Today show in 2018. “You see, she was always a degenerate bigot. This is why she's cool with Candace Owens and Jack Posobiec. This is why she slobbers over Qatarlson. She's part of the Woke Reich — the queen of the modern Klan. More to come.”
Related Video
But Kelly claimed to be unfazed. “You're just upset bc I'm not afraid of you or your baseless slurs,” she quickly clapped back on her former Fox News colleague. “You're an old, irrelevant, bitter, angry man who could never make it in the Fox News primetime. We used to laugh at you there for your red-faced tantrums over … everything.”
The growing ideological rifts within the MAGA movement burst into the open at AmericaFest, Turning Point USA's annual conference, when Ben Shapiro took to the stage and called out what he referred to as “grifters” in the conservative movement. “The conservative movement is in serious danger, from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty, who offer nothing but bile and despair,” he said, in a speech that earned him a standing ovation from the crowd.
Shapiro also rapped Kelly, along with Carlson and Steve Bannon, for their failure to renounce the conspiracy-minded podcaster Owens, who has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Charlie Kirk, Turning Point's late co-founder, was assassinated in September as part of a global conspiracy that may have involved the Israeli government, the FBI and Kirk's widow, Erika. (Owens responded to Shapiro's remarks by calling him “a midget” and blaming Jews for the slave trade. Kelly has claimed that critics like Shapiro and CBS News president Bari Weiss have been motivated by their support of Israel.)
At Fox, where Kelly once served as a popular primetime anchor, the network's usually voluble anchors have stayed silent as their onetime colleagues battle it out. No Fox News personality, other than Levin, has mentioned the contretemps. “It's like crazy person versus crazy person. Who you gonna root for in that fight?” one longtime Fox News producer wryly tells The Hollywood Reporter. Fox News honchos are also not taking sides. Reps for the network did not respond to THR‘s request for comment.
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
By Max Goldbart
International TV Co-Editor
HBO Max will be available in two more territories on Canal+ as the French powerhouse strikes a fresh multi-year, multi-territory agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
The agreement renews HBO Max in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungrary and Romania on Canal+, but will also see the streamer distributed via Canal+ in Belgium and Austria.
HBO Max has rolled out to major European markets over the past year or so and will soon go live in the UK, where it has previously been unable to launch due to WBD's long-running deal with Sky.
Related Stories
News
Warner Bros. Discovery Set To Reject Paramount's Latest Takeover Bid After Board Meets Next Week
News
Six Trends That Will Continue Shaping Asia Pacific's TV & Film Biz In 2026
Canal+ and WBD said today's partnership marks a “major milestone in the development of their collaboration on an international scale.”
Watch on Deadline
Overall, the agreement covers the distribution of HBO Max, the renewal of several WBD channels and the renewal of the exclusive pay-TV window for Warner Bros. movies, which land on Canal+ six months after their theatrical release in France.
Around 12 WBD channels have been renewed across territories in Africa on MultiChoice Group, the firm that Canal+ acquired earlier this year. CNN International and Cartoon Network will air exclusively in South Africa and non-exclusively in other territories. A number of other networks have also been renewed in African markets.
Canal+ also has distribution deals in place with Netflix and could become an important player if Netflix's acquisition of WBD goes through, which will give Netflix control over two of the world's biggest streamers.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
More debt for paramount to incur, on top of its money losing shares, if they succeed in their hostile fight with Netflix
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
By
Charisma Madarang
When reflecting on 2025, Jessie J said it was “one of the hardest but most magical years of my life.”
Earlier this year, the singer shared that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and has since updated fans throughout her journey, including sharing the “lows and highs” following her recovery post-surgery.
“This is an honest story post that will get blown up l'm sure. But who cares,” Jessie wrote in an Instagram Story posted on Dec. 30. “As truthfully in a world full of ‘everything is fine, I'm happy, l'm good, life is perfect' there is Grief hurt pain sadness heartbreak and reflection and processing happening this time of year for many of us, along side the good and great or on it's own.”
“This year has been heavy and hard in many ways for all of us, for me personally one of the hardest but most magical years of my life. Personally and professionally,” the singer continued. “But all the sadness has come up this week, it's the first time l've stopped (working and being in public in months) So l'm crying a lot. Writing shit down feeling really low tbh. The lowest | have felt in a while.”
Jessie added that she was feeling an “accumulation of stuff just making its way to the surface” and that she was “letting it out.” The artist advised, “Don't hold it in people. We are not superhuman or meant to be happy and positive all the time. It's healthy and normal to cry.”
Before ending her note, she wrote, “Sending love to anyone feeling this way too right now. No positive end to this. Just I'm with ya. It's shit sometimes.”
In September, Jessie took to the stage for the first time following her breast cancer surgery, a heartfelt moment that also marked the first time her two-year-old son saw her perform live. “I'm just so grateful to be here, you have no idea how grateful I am to see so many of you singing along after all these years,” she told the crowd gathered at BBC Radio 2 In the Park festival in Essex, before sharing that “another special thing that's happening today is that my son is seeing me sing on stage for the first time.”
Trending Stories
Kennedy Center Altered Rules So Only Trump-Appointed Board Members Could Vote on Name Change
Mickey Rourke Sued for $59,100 in Unpaid Rent, Facing Eviction
A$AP Rocky to Help Pay Rent for Tenants in His Childhood Harlem Building
Jack White Slams Congressman Tim Burchett Over AI Generated Video: ‘Tennessee Deserves Better'
Jessie also released Don't Tease Me With a Good Time in November, her first album in eight years and first record since parting ways with Republic Records. The artist released her new music on D.A.P. and her own self-titled label.
We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.
Bikini-clad Alessandra Ambrosio posed for her boyfriend in a sultry new set of beach snaps.
The Victoria's Secret Angel was pictured modeling a royal blue seashell-studded thong bikini on the rocky beaches of Pernambuco, Brazil on Tuesday.
She wore her brunette locks loose around her shoulders while posing in the sunshine, accessorizing with layered necklaces and a pair of sunglasses for the impromptu tropical shoot.
Advertisement
Boyfriend Buck Palmer — who rocked a coordinating blue ball cap and black swim trunks — crouched down to take a shot of his girlfriend as she posed in the shallow waters.
Advertisement
At one point, the model kicked up her feet and reclined against the black rocks for another sultry photo. In yet another snap, daughter Anja, 17, joined the supermodel as Palmer caught the moment.
Palmer and Ambrosio were caught by a nearby photographer's lens flirting in the shallow waters and embracing in a passionate kiss, as well.
Ambrosio, 44, has been sharing bikini-clad photos from her holiday vacation, where she's been spotted frolicking in the waves with Palmer, 43, and other pals.
Advertisement
On Friday, she modeled an animal print bikini in snapshots shared to Instagram, and on Sunday she layered a green two-piece swimsuit with a plunging, butter-yellow coverup while wading in the ocean.
“Feeling the energy of Noronha and being blessed by salty water, sunsets and this magical island!” she captioned an upload, which included an affectionate selfie with the Australian jewelry designer.
Advertisement
On Monday, Ambrosio shared a montage of videos from the beach getaway, at one point dancing at sunset with Palmer in a pink bikini with a matching coverup.
She labeled the clip, “A few moments of magic ✨🏝️💖”
The dreamy holiday vacation comes two months after Ambrosio and her lookalike daughter made a rare red carpet appearance alongside Palmer at the Bravo Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Start your day with Page Six Daily.
Please provide a valid email.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Want celebrity news as it breaks?
All three posed at the event, with Anja — whom the model shares with ex-fiancé, Jamie Mazur, along with son Noah, 13 — wearing a black halter dress, and Ambrosio donning a white gown with a sheer mermaid skirt.
Palmer wore a black suit with a satin lapel, and beamed alongside Ambrosio and her daughter ahead of “The Secret Agent” screening.
Advertisement
Ambrosio and Palmer confirmed their relationship back in December 2024, holding hands at an Art Basel event in Miami.
Advertisement
In March, she opened up about the romance in rare comments.
“We just love life to the fullest,” Ambrosio told Us Weekly at the time.
“We love living life and spending time together and enjoying every little thing. I guess it's the little things, sometimes, that count more. Whatever we do, we both just have this passion for life.”
Ten years after she last played Charlotte Thornton on “When Calls The Heart,” actress Brooke Shields shocked Hearties in October 2025 with the news she'd be returning to the Hallmark Channel series for season 13, premiering on January 4, 2026.
Turns out that wasn't the only surprise Shields, 60, had up her sleeve. In an interview with Parade on December 29, the legendary actress revealed her 22-year-old daughter Rowan will join her onscreen for her acting debut — and a moment that's especially meaningful for Shields.
Shields first appeared on “When Calls The Heart” as a guest star in 2016, playing the mother of Daniel Lissing's character, Mountie Jack Thornton. She arrived in Hope Valley on horseback to check on her son, who went on to marry the show's lead character Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow), and father “little Jack” (Hyland Goodrich). But in the season five finale, Jack died in a landslide during a training mission with other Mounties.
In teasers for season 13, set in 1922, Charlotte is seen back in Hope Valley and seemingly supporting the new love that's blossomed between Elizabeth and Mountie Nathan Grant (Kevin McGarry). They were last seen trying to access a new treatment for little Jack, who was diagnosed with diabetes in season 12. In fact, the season ended with them heading to stay at Charlotte's boarding house.
Charlotte's unexpected return was an easy yes for Shields, who told Parade, “Little Jack having diabetes in an era when nobody knew about it, and refrigeration wasn't a thing, was compelling to me. I have a Type-1 diabetic daughter who was diagnosed at age 14, and this is the first major television series script that came across my desk that had a legitimate Type-1 diabetes storyline, and that definitely hit home for me.”
Shields and her eldest daughter, Rowan Henchy, told People in 2024 that Henchy had been diagnosed with diabetes as a high school freshman in 2018. Now an advocate for others navigating the disease, frequently showcasing the patches she wears to pump medicine and monitor her blood sugar levels, Henchy has since graduated from college.
Interested in a career behind the scenes, she got to join her mom on the set of “When Calls The Heart” in Vancouver while she was filming. To their surprise, the show's producers and writers said they planned to write a small part for Henchy, Shields told Parade.
“So, I get to have a scene with my daughter, who has never done anything like that before,” Shields said. “I'm just sitting there thinking that at 60 years old it has culminated into this really feel-good, positive goodwill that I'm being invited to still play in and do, and share it with my daughter.”
Shields told Parade she's thrilled to be back on “When Calls The Heart,” noting that “the show has such a special place in the zeitgeist. The fans are incredibly generous, and it's been fascinating to see how the series has matured over the years.”
That includes, Shields said, how it's continued to portray strong women in the early 1900s. She told Parade, “I read the scripts, and it dealt very honestly and appropriately with women in this time of their lives.”
“They have to pick themselves up,” she said, describing the show's female characters. “Charlotte does things on her own. She opened her own boarding house with her own money and did things that women weren't often doing in that time period. She's not relying on a man, and it's an interestingly modern feminist approach in the best of ways.”
“When Calls The Heart” season 13 premieres on January 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will be available to stream the following day via Hallmark+.
I'm thrilled to have Brooke Shields back as Charlotte Thornton. I'm just disturbed to hear her tell Nathan he is honourable and as good a man as her son Jack. Does she know the part he played in Jack's death and kept it from Elizabeth for years? That was not honourable and he is definitely not worthy to try and fill Jack's shoes. Jack and Elizabeth were the legacy Mountie and teacher lovestory and it's disrespectful to try and replace him.
Comment
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Δ
Previous
Next
Like EntertainmentNow?
Go here and check the boxnext to EntertainmentNow
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
By Nellie Andreeva
Co-Editor-in-Chief, TV
The official ratings for the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors are in, and the Dec. 23 telecast averaged 3.01 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data.
That is an all-time low audience for the annual special, down from 4.1M Live+Same Day viewers last year when it aired on a Sunday with a football-boosted 60 Minutes lead-in. This year, the event was broadcast on a Tuesday.
Established in 1978 to celebrate “individuals whose unique contributions have shaped our world,” the Kennedy Center Honors recognized Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, KISS, George Strait, and Gloria Gaynor at the 2026 ceremony, which for the first time ever was hosted by a sitting U.S. President in Trump who previously headlined the NBC reality series The Apprentice.
Related Stories
News
Trump Wants To"Unleash Hell" In 2026; POTUS Tries To Go Full Maximus With A Misguided 'Gladiator' Flex
News
More Performing Artists Cancel Kennedy Center Gigs After Trump's Name Is Added To Arts Venue
“At the request of the Board, and just about everybody else in America, I am hosting the event,” he wrote on Truth Social Dec. 23, plugging the special to his followers. “Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremony' abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make ‘hosting' a full time job?”
Watch on Deadline
This year's Kennedy Center Honors was held amid a series of controversial moves surrounding the institution since Trump returned to office in January. They have included replacing most members of the Board of Trustees appointed by his Democratic predecessors, Trump becoming Chairman and, most recently, the name change of the memorial to The Trump Kennedy Center, which was announced Dec. 18, after the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony had taken place Dec. 7 but before its telecast aired on CBS Dec. 23. There have been a string of cancellations for previously scheduled performances as a result, including several over the past week.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Δ
Don't you mean “The Donald J. Trump Center of Dishonor”?
Trump is all about ratings. Always has been. His personally hosted awards show had the lowest rated in the history its broadcast. He can't deny the ratings nor blame anyone but himself.
Not that he will of course accept blame for anything. Never has and never will. But reality is reality no matter how much he denies it. Like saying an election he lost was stolen or that prices aren't higher because of his tariffs. The man is the gold (orange) standard for denying accountability.
lol. lmao even.
‘Completely talentless and LOWEST RATINGS ever. Why is this man still on the air?'
At the same time – YES – please leave the Preidency to make this your full time job, and then we can cancel you.
Everything taco touches turns to crap
Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form.
Sign up for our breaking news alerts
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Teyana Taylor and Aaron Pierre have reportedly called it quits after less than a year of dating. The two have gone their separate ways following weeks of online speculation about the status of their relationship, according to Page Six. The reason for the split has not been made public.
The breakup comes during a major career moment for Taylor, who is entering awards season with momentum behind her work in film and music. While the romance captured public attention throughout 2025, the timing now places the split alongside one of the most high-profile chapters of her professional life.
Taylor, 35, and Pierre, 31, first sparked dating rumors in early 2025 after attending the Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala in Los Angeles together. Their connection quickly drew attention, especially after they were spotted at the Vanity Fair Oscars party soon after. Pierre later appeared in a short film tied to Taylor's 2025 album, “Escape Room,” where the two shared a steamy on-screen moment that fueled further buzz.
By June, Taylor made the relationship Instagram official, posting a birthday tribute to Pierre alongside photos from his celebration. The couple continued to step out together, including at the BET Awards, where Taylor described Pierre as “very gentle,” adding that he allowed her to feel “safe” and not “in survival mode,” per Page Six.
Pierre was equally supportive in public. During a panel promoting “Escape Room,” he praised Taylor, calling her “really one of one.” The pair were frequently seen coordinating outfits and appearing side by side while promoting the project, which later earned Taylor a Grammy nomination. Their last notable public appearance together was at the London premiere of Taylor's film “One Battle After Another.”
Even at the height of their visibility, Taylor was careful about labels. In a November cover story with The Hollywood Reporter, she referred to Pierre as her “apple pie” and said they were each other's “safe space,” but stopped short of calling him her boyfriend. “If that's something that I decide to say, then it's going to be something that we say together,” she explained, according to Essence.
Taylor echoed that sentiment in an August interview with HOT 97, describing their bond as “very healthy,” “soft” and “safe,” and calling it “one of the best feelings I ever had.”. Pierre shared a similar tone in an October interview with Men's Health, saying it was a “joy” to support Taylor publicly and that “anything that feels right feels easy.”
The split arrives as Taylor heads into awards season with a Golden Globe nomination for “One Battle After Another” and growing Oscar buzz. She is also building on the success of “Escape Room,” which marked a major return to music after previously stepping away from the industry.
As Taylor once said while reflecting on her approach to relationships, “If that's something that I decide to say, then it's going to be something that we say together.”
Comment
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Δ
Previous
Next
Like EntertainmentNow?
Go here and check the boxnext to EntertainmentNow
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
Maria Shriver shared a touching tribute to her cousin Tatiana Schlossberg hours after her passing on Tuesday, December 30.
Shriver took to Instagram shortly after news of Schlossberg's passing to share a touching tribute in honor of her cousin.
“I return to this space today to pay tribute to my sweet, beloved Tatiana, who left this earth today. I return to this space to pay tribute and honor her loving and supportive family, who came together and did everything they possibly could do to help her. I return to this space heartbroken because Tatiana loved life. She loved her life, and she fought like hell to try to save it,” Shriver began. “I cannot make sense of this. I cannot make any sense of it at all. None. Zero.”
Shriver continued, “Tatiana was a great journalist, and she used her words to educate others about the earth and how to save it. She created a beautiful life with her extraordinary husband George, and children Eddie and Josie. She fought like a warrior. She was valiant, strong, courageous.”
The Kennedy family has endured multiple tragedies over the years, including the deaths of late President John F. Kennedy, Schlossberg's maternal grandfather, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy Jr.
Shriver—who is the first cousin of Schlossberg's mother, Caroline Kennedy—remarked on Kennedy's strength through the tragedy of losing her daughter, after losing her father at a young age.
“My heart has always been with my cousin Caroline ever since we were little kids. My entire being is with her now. What a rock she has been. What a source of love she has been with Ed, Rose, Rory, Jack, George, Eddie, Josie, and all of Tatiana's cousins and friends and the amazing doctors who tried so hard,” she continued.
Schlossberg opened up about her cancer diagnosis in a deeply personal essay published by The New Yorker in November. She revealed that doctors discovered her disease while she was in the hospital after giving birth to her second child, daughter Josie, in May 2024.
“A few weeks ago, Tatiana wrote so beautifully about her diagnosis and her battle with this horrendous disease. If you haven't read her words, please honor her by doing so (the article is linked in my stories). Her piece is extraordinary,” Shriver added in her Tuesday tribute. “Whatever your faith, please pray for Tatiana and her grieving family. Tatiana was the light, the humor, the joy. She was smart, wicked smart, as they say, and sassy. She was fun, funny loving, caring, a perfect daughter, sister, mother, cousin, niece, friend, all of it.”
She went on to promise to “make sure Eddie and Josie know what a beautiful, courageous spirit their mother was and will always be. She takes after her extraordinary mother, Caroline.”
Is she a herion addict like Robert Kennedy , maria shriver using heroin and cocaine her arms look like she's on heroin . Did Arnold rape all the maids.
I always thought he was killing the Kennedy with his weight lifter buddies . They were probably helping alqueda because crimes against servicemen
Arnold raping boys on pedofile island
How many veterans were robbed in California muscle beach trying to heal. Working with bad juice . Hgh, bad water
Were your maids documented by California law, is Arnold killing his in laws , how cum he complains about alimony , when he came from Austria how much was he worth. 2 kroners
10 pesos and a dime
Comment
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Δ
Previous
Next
Like EntertainmentNow?
Go here and check the boxnext to EntertainmentNow
About
Contact US
Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
Editorial Guidelines
Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP
Jessica Alba and Cash Warren's eldest daughter, Honor, is headed to Yale University in August.
The 17-year-old's college plans were revealed on Dec. 17 in a sweet Instagram post from her elite private high school, Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences.
In the graphic, an adorable photo of Honor as a toddler can be seen above the college's name and logo.
The graphic also reads that she will study English and Film Studies at Yale, where her father also attended college.
“Honor is headed to Yale University!!” the caption began. “We are so proud of Honor and it's an HONOR to send her off 💙 GO BULLDOGS #honorisabulldog.”
Dozens of the teen's classmates filled the comments section with congratulatory messages.
Honor's younger sister, Haven, 14, also showed her support in the comments, with a few red heart emojis.
Alba shares three kids — daughters Honor and Haven, as well as son Hayes, 7 — with her ex-husband.
In February, the actress filed for divorce from Warren after nearly 17 years of marriage, and the exes requested joint physical and legal custody of their kids.
Since their split, the duo have seemingly been able to co-parent amicably. Alba and Warren reunited to celebrate Easter with their children back in April.
The “Honey” star took to Instagram on at the time and posted a family snap of all five of them smiling.
“Easter Sunday w the fam 💐🐰🫶🏽,” Alba captioned the pic.
Start your day with Page Six Daily.
Please provide a valid email.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Want celebrity news as it breaks?
The “Fantastic Four” actress and the former film producer reunited again in October to watch Honor's tennis match, but this time things appeared a bit frostier between the exes.
In photos obtained by Page Six, the Honest Company founder and Warren kept their distance as they walked next to each other near the courts.
An eyewitness told the Daily Mail that Alba barely acknowledged her ex and they sat separately during the match before briefly conversing.
Both parties have moved on with new people.
Alba is currently dating actor Danny Ramirez. She soft-launched their romance via Instagram in October after being linked for months.
Meanwhile, Warren was linked to model Hana Sun Doerr, 25, and 20-year-old Seanna Pereira over the summer.
NEW YORK (WABC) -- As we head into a new year, many people turn to the stars for guidance, checking their horoscopes or sometimes looking to psychics about what's to come. But the two men at the center of this story have been using those gifts for something very different.
You might call them the definition of an unlikely duo, one's a psychic, the other an FBI agent. They're real-life friends and partners who have worked together for the past 25 years tracking some of the most notorious criminals.
And now, John Edward and Bob Hilland are sharing some of the inner workings of cases they've collaborated on in a new book, it's called Chasing Evil.
Joelle Garguilo sat down with them both to talk about the book, how their unlikely partnership started, and how they've helped in countless chilling cases as they hunted evil together.
Joelle Garguilo: I think maybe a good place would be your first impressions of one another. And I say that because, Bob, you were a little skeptical, as I would imagine people in your field are.
Bob Hilland: Yeah, 100%. I heard him on the radio several times, and I thought it was utterly ridiculous, how could people believe this? I heard him one day and I had this response that I needed to figure out if he was a con or not. And it just so happened I had many cases. One of them involved a woman and a couple who disappeared at the hands of one guy, and there were no witnesses to lead to a suspect. So I brought that case to him to vet out, was he a con or was he legit?
Joelle Garguilo: And when that meeting happened, you started to read him.
John Edward: Yeah, I didn't really trust his intentions, the reason why he was there, because I don't do police work. I don't do investigative work. My passion is to help people, everyday people. Help them maybe become unstuck or connect with their family members and friends. But this came in and I kind of felt a sense, we'll call it a sense of duty. He kind of tested me, right? He brought me control items, and then I wound up reading for him. And I think that's where the journey began. The journey began where I gave him information that I could not possibly know, that was later confirmed by his family. And then that kind of cracked open the potential.
Joelle Garguilo: So much of your job must be being faced with skepticism and criticism. Do you feel like that?
John Edward: It is, and it should be. I think we have to approach everything in life as a critical thinker. We have to be skeptical. We have to say, "I'm not sure." I want people to be seekers and explorers, and if they're a seeker and an explorer, that can lead to discovery. I came into the subject matter very skeptical. I've remained skeptical in my mindset. I'm always looking for validation and information within a reading that I'm the one who's doing it. I'm always looking to help back it up.
Joelle Garguilo: You didn't want anybody to know about this. Then why do the book now?
John Edward: The book Chasing Evil starts with a little boy named Noah. And when that case gets resolved, for the very first time in our three decades of doing this, it was something that I heard in his voice, it was something that I felt, and there was a press conference that was happening. Up until that moment, it'd always be, "Please don't use my name," and he used to jokingly say, "No worries, I want to keep my job." So we were in perfect alignment there. Something seemed to shift when it came to that case. And I think what's important is that folks like Bob don't always get that validation, and I think this is kind of an opportunity for him to be validated in his personal life.
Bob Hilland: We've been on quite a journey for many years. I wrote the first draft of this book probably six or seven years ago. It was just cathartic to get it out. And then as I concluded my career at the Bureau and moved on to my new career, he and I would have many conversations about, "Hey, maybe it's time we start putting this together." Because we've been on quite a ride for a long time.
Joelle Garguilo: Can you talk about some of the cases, at least the ones that we read about in this book?
Bob Hilland: There's the Yale University student Annie Le, who was murdered and killed. There is the Michael Vick dog fighting case. There is a guy by the name of John Smith, and then there are some overseas experiences in places like Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
Joelle Garguilo: If we go into the Annie case at Yale, so here you are, you're there, and you can't find her. You call John, and then what happens?
Bob Hilland: There were a lot of investigators from many agencies looking for this poor young girl. It was obvious that she had been assaulted and likely killed, and the question was, where was her body? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but you don't know which haystack you're looking in. I think the second day, I'm at the laboratory where she was last seen. I was with the Connecticut State Police, the FBI. They were giving me the walkthrough, and at that moment, John called me from Ireland and said, "Hey, wherever you are right now, she's there." I said, "What do you mean she's there?" He said, "Wherever you are right now." And if you've ever seen him, once he starts getting information, it comes quick. Now you have to understand, I was not the lead investigator. I was just one of many people helping out in this case, and I'm surrounded by colleagues and associates. And John says, "Hey, wherever you are, did they find a mini-refrigerator?" So now I have to turn to these folks who don't even know me and say, "Hey guys, I got a crazy question. Any chance you came across a mini-refrigerator?" And they looked at me like, "Yeah. Where is it?" So now this group of six or seven of us are walking through the labyrinth of these hallways. John's on the phone talking to me, "She's there." And now we're face to face with this mini-refrigerator. And John says, "You there?" I said, "Yeah." And he says, "All right, there's a door on the right, and there's a door on the left." And I said, "That's right." He says, "She's in the door on the left." I said, "Guys, we need to go in there." They open the door, and keep in mind, the whole place had already been searched thoroughly. And John says, "Hey, she's in the pipes. She's like between pipes or something." And we're looking through this room, four or five of us, and it's a rather large room, but she's not there. And he's on the phone adamant. I said, "I'm sorry, John. We've all looked. She's not here." The next day, perhaps, I'm driving back to DC and my phone lights up from one of my colleagues. He says, "Bob, you're not gonna believe this. We found her." I said, "Where'd you find her?" She was in the wall between the bathroom and the room. She was between the pipes.
Joelle Garguilo: How does that happen? I know it's gotta be so hard to explain it.
John Edward: So when I'm working with energies, every single person I sit in front of is a case to me. Every person is a case. And I have to figure out who's coming through, how did they pass, and what is their story? What Bob did with me is, if I was a flashlight, he just directed my ability to use it in a different capacity.
Joelle Garguilo: When I did ask "Why now?", there's a part of me that almost thought a different reason why now, because there are some cases in this book where the body was never found. The people were never prosecuted. And in a sense, I thought maybe for you, Bob, this was your way to give justice to the victims.
Bob Hilland: You can be the best FBI agent or investigator, run everything to the ground, and sometimes the cases don't work out like you want. When the readers go through this book, I think they're gonna feel like they're a part of these investigations when they hear the conversation between John and I, but I really hope they take away that we cared about these people. We cared about their families, the sacrifices we both made going through this personally and professionally.
Joelle Garguilo: Yeah. What do you guys love about this relationship, this friendship?
John Edward: Not the height difference.
Joelle Garguilo: I know. But also we should say you are, what, six foot eight?
Bob Hilland: I am. Six foot eight. I am.
Joelle Garguilo: Yeah.
Bob Hilland: Well, I think for me, there's been a lot of laughs, a lot of tears, a lot of growth, and sometimes the only way you grow is through pain, and there's been some of that too, right? I mean, not between us, but in the journey we experienced together. We all have, I think, a lot of acquaintances in our life. We have few brothers. He's one of mine.
Joelle Garguilo: Do you feel like you were supposed to come together?
John Edward: I do. I think everything happens for a reason. I think for everybody that's watching this, there are things that are taking place that are acting as catalysts for change.
Joelle Garguilo: Not that this is about that, but for the skeptics out there, what would you say?
John Edward: Stay skeptical, but don't be cynical.
Bob Hilland: I would say that I was that guy. I am that guy. God forbid that any of these people who are skeptical, if they had somebody close to them that disappeared and they had the best investigator working the case, and that investigator ran every lead to the ground. And despite everything, they couldn't find a loved one. But I happen to have this buddy here who may be able to say, "Hey, maybe look over there." Would they not want me to talk to him? I went from this black-and-white young guy where life is this. If I can change, you know, I'm the son of Archie Bunker, if I can change, anybody can.
Joelle Garguilo: What's it like for you when you're introducing new people to your friend and you know that they are skeptics, and all of a sudden, he does what he does?
Bob Hilland: Yeah. It's funny. Those moments, and there were a few of them. There was another one with the Secret Service. It sounds crazy, but I felt like I was proud of him. Like, this is my buddy.
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Follow us on YouTube
* More local news
* Send us a news tip
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
By
Alex Hopper
Sometimes a musician can be so otherworldly that we have a hard time coming up with anything else to give credit to. Yes, some musicians seem to be sourcing power from something supernatural. They don't seem to be on the same playing field as us—like no amount of practice or training could ever measure up to the skill or the oddball artistry they exhibit. The three rock artists below have been accused of practicing the occult. Whether or not those claims are valid, the rumors are unstoppable.
It all started with Robert Johnson, an early blues guitarist who became a myth when a story circulated that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for supernatural musicianship. Johnson's story inspired many others, forging an ironclad connection between music and the dark forces.
While those claims have never been proven, the myth hasn't stopped building. Countless movies, songs, and other folktales have been written about meeting the devil at the crossroads. It's imagery that sticks around.
Rock artists have long been associated with the occult. While many musicians attempt to push back against that notion, a few help proliferate it—Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page being one. His offenses include buying the famous occultist Aleister Crowley's former home, opening up an occult bookstore, and the plethora of creepy notions he helped inject into Zeppelin's catalog.
Though it seems Page is likely more of a hobbyist than a believer, his interests outside of music certainly add some color to his career.
One look at Marilyn Manson had people accusing him of Satanic rituals and other occult practices. He's certainly got the look of someone who'd be into that kind of thing, and while we don't like to judge a book by its cover, Manson's demeanor is more than a coincidence.
Manson is a shock artist, hellbent on turning heads. In doing this, he's racked up some interesting anecdotes and also criminal investigations. The fact that he named himself after infamous cult leader Charles Manson should say everything that needs to be said. At any rate, Manson hasn't done much to dispel his occult rumors. In fact, it seems like he rather enjoys being a point of contention.
(Photo by Andre Csillag/Shutterstock)
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.
How Stephen Stills Scored a Big Hit Thanks to a Billy Preston Phrase
3 Female-Fronted Classic Pop and Rock Songs That Hit No. 1 in 1986
Satanic Panic or Truly Supernatural? 3 Artists That Were Rumored To Be Working With the Occult
© 2025 American Songwriter American Songwriter: a Savage Ventures Brand
MISSISSIPPI — As revelers ring in the New Year and scan the skies for fireworks, Mississippians hoping to spot something more otherworldly may want to temper their expectations.
A new study ranks Mississippi among the worst states in the nation for reported UFO sightings, with just 7.82 sightings per 1 million residents each year. The analysis, conducted by social casino website McLuck, examined reports filed with the National UFO Reporting Center between 2020 and 2024.
Full disclosure: Last year a different company put out a different study based on different criteria that said we're the 4th most likely to see a UFO, so really, is any of this for anything more than fun?
By contrast, Vermont tops the list as the state where residents are most likely to report seeing a UFO, averaging 33 sightings per 1 million residents annually. New Hampshire and Idaho followed closely behind, with more than 31 sightings per 1 million residents each year.
Mississippi ranked 48th out of 50 states, with 115 reported sightings over the five-year period. October was the most common month for sightings in the state, while 9 p.m. was the most frequent time of day, according to the study.
It should be noted that Mississippi had a very noteworthy sighting that has been discussed at length in Pascagoula in 1973.
Texas, despite having one of the highest total numbers of reported sightings, ranked last overall when population was taken into account, with just 7.01 sightings per 1 million residents annually.
In a release sent Tuesday, McLuck researchers calculated sightings per capita to better reflect how likely residents are to report unexplained objects in the sky, rather than simply tallying raw numbers. They also analyzed patterns by month and time of day.
Across much of the country, summer evenings appear to offer the best chance of spotting a UFO. August was the most common month for sightings in four of the top five states, and 9 p.m. emerged as the most frequent time nationwide.
Vermont led all states with 107 sightings reported from 2020 to 2024. August accounted for the largest share, and nearly a quarter of all reports in the state occurred around 9 p.m. New Hampshire posted similar trends, with August and early nighttime hours leading the way.
Idaho, Maine and Oregon rounded out the top five. Idaho saw a sharp increase in reports from 2023 to 2024, while Maine experienced a 29% year-over-year rise during the same period. Oregon, meanwhile, recorded a decline in sightings last year despite ranking high overall.
Joerg Nottebaum, a spokesperson for McLuck, said seasonal and behavioral factors likely play a role in the trends.
“Our study reveals the states with the highest number of UFO sightings over five years, finding that the summer months are the best time of year to spot one,” Nottebaum said. “This is probably due to the lighter evenings and Americans spending more time outside, which could increase their chances of spotting these phenomena.”
Interest in UFOs remains strong nationwide. More than 60% of Americans believe the U.S. government is hiding information about UFOs and extraterrestrial life, according to a recent YouGov survey cited by McLuck.
While Mississippi may not be a hotspot for reported sightings, researchers note that location, weather patterns and population density all influence reporting rates. For hopeful skywatchers in the Magnolia State, the study suggests that fall evenings — particularly in October — may offer the best chance, however slim, of spotting something unexplained.
For those determined to improve their odds this New Year's, the data point north — preferably toward Vermont — and suggest stepping outside just after dark, eyes on the sky.
This study analyzes reports submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2025, to identify which US states have the highest number of UFO sightings. The total number of yearly sightings per 1 million residents was then calculated for each US state to determine a fairer ranking.
In addition, the months and hours of the day where UFO sightings are most likely to occur, both at state and national levels.
The study also highlights the states that experienced the largest increase in UFO sightings in 2024 compared to 2023.
Join the news democracyWhere your votes decide the Top 100
Fan theories and conspiracies are nothing new in the world of gaming and there's a recent Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 one which has been completely shut down by a developer.
Pretty well ever since it was announced open lobbies would be returning in Black Ops 7, there has been all kinds of speculation about how much skill is actually taken into account.
Open lobbies mean that SBMM (skill-based matchmaking) is minimally considered (but not entirely ignored) when deciding who players will be up against.
Although it was welcomed with open arms during the Beta in October, and continues to be a very popular choice among Black Ops 7 players, there have been constant claims Activision has been tweaking it.
The latest came on 26 December, when one X / Twitter user posted: "They have cranked the ever living f*** out of SBMM for the Christmas noobs lmaoooo. I've been finding nothing but master prestige players in every lobby."
"Christmas noobs" refers to new Black Ops 7 players that have got the game for Christmas.
And in response, Treyarch design director Matt Scronce himself shut down the claims. He simply replied: "No they haven't."
Conspiracy debunked.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.
Elsewhere from indy100:
How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel
Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Daily e-Edition
Evening e-Edition
Sign up for email newsletters
Sign up for email newsletters
Daily e-Edition
Evening e-Edition
Trending:
You've probably never cirque-d like you can with Paranormal Cirque.
The human circus — eschewing animal acts for dazzling derring-do from acrobats and athletes — is making its South Florida debut Jan. 9-19 in a big-top tent to be set up in Miramar Regional Park. And unlike other circuses that crisscross Broward and Palm Beach counties, Paranormal Cirque is not for the whole family.
“We're bringing our R-rated horror circus with a haunted attraction pre-show,” says Steve Copeland, a comedian and spokesman with Cirque Italia, the show's Bradenton-based producer. “It's rated R cuz there's lots of bad language, there's adult humor, there's skimpy and revealing costuming. No nudity, unless you maybe buy the performers a couple drinks, but no nudity in the show itself. Miramar better get ready for a heck of a good time.”
According to Copeland, some of the acts include:
“We're a strictly non-animal circus, although some of our performers do eat like animals,” he adds. “You're going to see awesome acrobatics, beautiful aerial acts, you're going to see feats of strength and daring and death-defying death stunts — all with a horror theme. So all of the acts are performed by zombies, by ghosts, by werewolves, by vampires. There's also a lot of comedy, which people don't expect. In fact, a lot of the R rating comes from the comedy.”
Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to see Paranormal Cirque, but teenagers (ages 13 through 17) can attend as long as they have an adult guardian.
Copeland continues, “And in addition to two hours of Vegas quality R-rated power circus entertainment, you get a haunted attraction free show that begins an hour before show time and it's free with the admission ticket. So, you don't have to pay anything extra, it's included in the price of the ticket. And it's a walk-through haunted house starring the same performers that you're going to see in the show. They're going to scare the heck out of you. So, maybe bring a change of underwear.”
The show's parent company, Cirque Italia, was started by Manuel Rebecchi in 2012 and now has seven touring companies. Rebecchi is the nephew of the late Moira Orfei, a famous Italian circus performer and actor.
Paranormal Cirque runs Jan. 9-19 at Miramar Regional,16801 Miramar Parkway. Tickets range from $20-$65. To purchase, go to paranormalcirque.com.
Copyright © 2025 Sun Sentinel
Forget the grainy footage of 'flying saucers' or the campy sci-fi tropes of little green men from Mars; the search for extraterrestrial life has officially moved from the fringes of the paranormal into the prestigious halls of mainstream science.
For decades, admitting to a belief in aliens was enough to have an academic's credibility questioned, but a profound shift in the scientific zeitgeist is underway. Today, it is no longer the conspiracy theorists making the loudest noise—it is the astrophysicists, and they are armed with data.
A startling new consensus is emerging among the experts tasked with studying the stars. According to data highlighted by Science Focus, the stigma surrounding the 'E.T.' question has all but evaporated. In a recent survey of 1,055 scientists (including 521 astrobiologists), a staggering 86.6 per cent of respondents agreed that extraterrestrial life almost certainly exists somewhere in the vastness of the cosmos.
This isn't just a hopeful hunch; it is a calculated conclusion based on the sheer scale of a universe that seems increasingly hospitable. The study, published in Nature Astronomy and led by Peter Vickers of Durham University, also revealed that 58.2 per cent of astrobiologists believe intelligent alien life is out there.
At the heart of this changing perspective is the Copernican principle—the scientific idea that Earth is not special, but merely one of countless similar worlds. In our own Milky Way alone, there are between 100 billion and 400 billion stars.
When you zoom out to the observable universe, the numbers become truly incomprehensible: roughly 100 sextillion stars. To put that in perspective, there are 13.33 billion times more stars in the sky than there are individual grains of sand on every beach and desert on Earth.
Against this backdrop, the recent passing of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has served as a timely reminder of our cosmic connectivity. First detected on 1 July 2025 by the NASA-funded ATLAS survey in Río Hurtado, Chile, the object emerged from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius at a blistering 137,000 miles per hour.
While scientists like Mike Garrett, the Sir Bernard Lovell Chair of Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, maintain that such objects are likely natural, their presence proves that material from other star systems can and does reach our own.
Garrett argues that the ingredients for life—carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen—are far from rare. They are the common currency of the universe, found on comets, asteroids, and distant exoplanets alike.
'We now know that most stars have a planetary system,' Professor Garrett explains. 'That means there are loads of places where life can arise. Besides, simple life arose so quickly on Earth; to me, that's a key sign that it must be happening elsewhere.'
The challenge is no longer debating 'if' life exists, but determining exactly 'where' and 'how' we can find it. The search has moved beyond looking for microbial 'biosignatures' to a more ambitious hunt for 'technosignatures'—measurable evidence of past or present technology, such as radio leakage or atmospheric pollutants.
In fact, recent research from the University of Manchester suggests that human-made radar from international airports could be detected by advanced civilisations up to 200 light-years away—meaning the same applies to us searching for them.
Mike Garrett remains optimistic about our chances of a breakthrough. 'We're in a much better position to discover it now than we were five years ago,' he notes. 'Everything is going in the right direction for detection.' The rapid acceleration of computing power, digitisation, and artificial intelligence is providing researchers with the tools to sift through astronomical data at speeds previously thought impossible.
As we peer deeper into the dark through the lenses of the James Webb Space Telescope—which has already captured 3I/ATLAS using its Near-Infrared Spectrograph—and anticipate the arrival of more interstellar visitors, the scientific community is bracing for a discovery that would change everything.
Having reached its closest point to the Sun on 29 October 2025 at a distance of 1.36 AU, 3I/ATLAS is now on its way out of our system, leaving behind a legacy of data. We are no longer looking at a silent, empty void, but a universe potentially teeming with stories that have yet to be told. The 'fantasy' of alien life is fast becoming the most anticipated reality in human history.
© Copyright IBTimes 2025. All rights reserved.
Police officers discovered the victim's lifeless body inside the cell, with blood staining the surrounding walls
A FORMER Discovery Channel star has reportedly confessed to strangling his cellmate after a “higher power” told him to do so.
Chad Ollinger, 41, is accused of murdering fellow inmate Christopher Kelly at the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada.
Please provide a valid email.
Your info will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy
You'll now receive top stories, breaking news, and more, straight to your email.
Authorities say Ollinger admitted to the killing, claiming it was “righteous” because he believed Kelly was a paedophile.
He said this belief came from a supernatural ability to read people's minds.
Correctional officers discovered Kelly “lying motionless inside a cell” during routine checks on Friday night.
He had suffered multiple injuries and was given first aid, but was pronounced dead at the scene.
Read more about Nevada
QUAKE SHOCK
Earthquake alarm sparks panic after blasting 'Drop, Cover, Hold!'
END OF AN ERA
Iconic Vegas hotel ripped down and demolished to make way for MLB ballpark
An arrest report noted there was blood splattered all over the walls of the cell.
According to police, Ollinger told investigators he possessed a special power that allowed him to know things about others that most people could not.
He claimed he needed no proof of Kelly's alleged crimes because he could “see into his mind.”
Ollinger allegedly told detectives in interview: “Good luck cracking the case.”
Americans banned from four countries as more nations issue travel restrictions
Hilarious moment bank robbers in brazen ‘£30m' Xmas heist PAY for parking
Ukraine soldier who Putin CAN'T kill survives 5 drone strikes & mortar blitz
Dog treat recall spans 7 states as feds warn of gut-twisting salmonella outbreak
Police reports say Ollinger climbed onto Kelly's bunk, restraining him in a chokehold while he lay facing the wall, and holding him until he stopped breathing.
He then allegedly dragged Kelly down and struck his head against the metal bedframe to ensure he was dead.
Investigators say Ollinger expressed no remorse and claimed he did not care if he spent the rest of his life in prison.
Ollinger has since been rebooked on a murder charge and appeared before a judge, who ordered a mental health evaluation before the case can proceed.
The accused previously appeared on several episodes of Discovery Channel's Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch.
This follows Ollinger and his father, Duane, as they search for a long-rumoured Aztec treasure on their 160-acre property in Utah's Uinta Basin.
The pair have spent more than a decade excavating the land, convinced it holds a fortune worth millions.
Jail records show Ollinger was arrested on October 27 as a fugitive from another state.
He is also facing a contempt of court charge.
He has had prior run-ins with law enforcement, including an arrest last year for avoiding police before later posting bond.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
It remains unclear why his cellmate was being held at the detention centre.
The LVMPD Homicide Section is currently leading the investigation, which is ongoing.
© NEWS ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |
TERMS OF USE |
PRIVACY |
YOUR AD CHOICES |
SITEMAP
More from The Sun
The site was going to play a crucial role in defending Britain if nuclear war ever broke out
AN abandoned RAF site dubbed Britain's ‘Area 51' is a magnet for UFO hunters, urban explorers and conspiracy theorists who believe it was once home to government investigations into aliens.
From the outside, Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire looks like your typical 17th century Grade II listed house set in quiet rural surroundings.
Please provide a valid email.
Your info will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy
You'll now receive top stories, breaking news, and more, straight to your email.
But in 1950 it was taken over and became home to the RAF's police and secret service personnel, covering espionage and counterintelligence.
And thanks to documents released in 2010 it emerged it also dealt with sightings of UFOs, leading to rumours it was hiding parts of flying saucers and even extra-terrestrial corpses recovered from crashes.
Urban explorer Gareth Smith told The Sun: “I've been to Rudloe a total of five times in the past 15 years. The last time I went was a year ago, and it's almost like nature is taking it back.
“I've been there in the daytime and at night, and it's pretty spooky. Inside the buildings there are brambles growing through the walls, upturned desks and chairs, and you definitely feel on edge, as well as the adrenalin pumping.
Read More Features
TWISTED TWINS
I treated twin who ran onto M6 & stabbed man… did telepathic bond drive her?
DEATH CULTS
How troubled Brits ‘seeking violent deaths' are groomed on twisted fetish sites
“Seeing it over the years, every time I went there I went into a different building, and the change is kind of apocalyptic.”
The base was also featured on an episode of the American TV show Ancient Aliens that explores the theory that this was top-secret government research on aliens.
Top secret documents declassified in 2010 confirmed RAF Rudloe, between Corsham and Box in Wiltshire, WAS used as a UFO intelligence base.
It was home to the Flying Complaints Flight, a unit of the RAF Police which gathered reports of UFO sightings near RAF bases and passed them to the Ministry of Defence headquarters.
Hot dinners & warm beds… how West Ham opened its doors to rough sleepers
Snow warning MAPPED for New Year's Day as Arctic air creeps across UK in -4C dip
Frantic search for woman in her 20s who gave birth then left baby in hospital
Hilarious moment bank robbers in brazen ‘£30m' Xmas heist PAY for parking
Ministers heard weekly reports of UFO sightings and Churchill once even ordered one reported meeting between RAF planes and a UFO to be kept secret for at least five decades in order to prevent “mass panic”.
This is what led to it being dubbed the country's ‘Area 51', after the US Air Force's military base associated with extra-terrestrial activity including the infamous Roswell incident and government cover-ups.
Wiltshire has long been an epicentre of strange activity, including crop circles, UFOs, and mysterious ancient sites like Stonehenge.
And to add further intrigue, the base sits on top of a vast maze of underground tunnels and bunkers built in old Bath Stone quarries that was essentially a city able to house as many as 4,000 people.
Government ministers would also have been evacuated to here in case of a nuclear attack on Britain, and there was even a section dedicated to the Royal Family.
There was also a BBC TV studio that the government would have used to broadcast to the nation while war raged above ground.
Although Rudloe Manor is now a separate dwelling belonging to a local family, the RAF site and its 40 prefabricated buildings still lay abandoned, surrounded by security fences topped with razor wire.
Today, a metal gate covers the old entrance bearing the sign ‘private, keep out', windows of the huts are boarded up or smashed out, while several oil tanks capable of holding 6,000 gallons lie peeling, covered in graffiti and vandalised.
Dog walkers use the old access road for exercise, but locals remain tight-lipped for fear of inviting more conspiracy theorists or intruders.
Despite the efforts made to secure the compound, those determined enough to battle through the brambles and scale or slip through the fencing have been able to explore the eerily quiet site and its abandoned buildings.
Gareth added: “I've explored the camp but never got into the house itself, it would have been pointless. It was left for 20 years in a state of dilapidation. I know someone who's really into UFOs who got into Rudloe Manor, but it was just a shell, just rooms blocked off with breeze blocks and in a complete state of disrepair.
“I've only been in the old RAF buildings though. I just find the way somewhere can be left as it was with signs of what used to go on there just fascinating.
“It became known as the UK's Area 51 because of the rumours of UFO investigations and then some suggested there were old parts of the spacecraft or even aliens.
“It doesn't make sense there was anything like that, because it was a non-flying military base, it had no runways. They would have investigated reports of the unexplained in the air, and I'm sure that's still done somewhere else today.
We've always known about the UFO rumours, some people want it to be true because it's more interesting
“We've all seen videos of unexplained objects in the air, or UFOs, but personally I think most things can be explained, so I think it's a pretty bold claim there was ever anything like that at Rudloe, other than documents.
“Last year when I went, I didn't get past the boundary because there was security to stop the many people they had breaking in there.”
A source close to the new owners of Rudloe Manor claims the property, which lay empty for 20 years before it was renovated, is still regularly targeted for its historical link to the UFO reports.
They told The Sun: “People talk of Rudloe Manor like it's still connected to the RAF base, but it's just a family home now and has been since it was sold in 2021.
“That hasn't stopped people breaking in sadly. It's happened at least twice in the past few months, with people even trying to take pictures of the children.”
One woman who did not want to be identified said: “We've always known about the UFO rumours, some people want it to be true because it's more interesting.
“The tunnels have long been closed, some of them are believed to be demolished when some of the old Rudloe buildings were crushed into the ground.
“Some people believe parts of a spaceship housed there, but I don't think it is true.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
“I'd love for them to open it for tours, especially to see what the Queen's chambers would have looked like.”
Other locals suggest the land is ear-marked for development, but no planning applications have currently been submitted.
THE mystery surrounding Area 51 has always entertained the public eye, with many theorising what lies behind the top-secret government base.
Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada, just 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas, and is the common name of a highly classified at the United States Air Force facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range.
The airbase is commonly believed by many to be the home of the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems.
The US Air Force acquired the site in 1955.
However, the CIA never acknowledged the existence of the facility until June 2013, following a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2005.
The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories, as some believe the facility is used to house alien technology or extraterrestrial life.
The base has never been declared a secret base, but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.
Conspiracy theorists believe the facility is used to store, examine and reverse engineer crashed alien spacecraft, including material supposedly recovered from the 1950s Roswell crash.
The so-called Roswell incident is one of the most discussed and controversial UFO theories in history.
History.com calls the Roswell incident the “mother of all UFO sightings.”
In July 1947, a rancher found “mysterious debris” and soldiers from a nearby base came to collect the materials.
Then came a giant leap as newspapers reported that a “flying saucer” went down in a New Mexico city.
Snow warning MAPPED for New Year's Day as Arctic air creeps across UK in -4C dip
Frantic search for woman in her 20s who gave birth then left baby in hospital
Hilarious moment bank robbers in brazen ‘£30m' Xmas heist PAY for parking
Two schoolgirls sexually assaulted at shopping centre - as three men arrested
©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. View our online Press Pack. For other inquiries, Contact Us. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)
Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/
Alastair Gunn
Humans love conspiracy theories. From the JFK assassination, the Illuminati and the ‘deep state', to vaccine distrust and ‘chemtrails', the modern world is awash with beliefs in collusion and hoaxes.
How and why these baseless claims arise, and what maintains them, are complex questions. But one thing's for sure: contrarian narratives are not going away.
Here are 10 widely held falsehoods concerning space and our place within it, which we examine rationally.
It's safe to say they don't stand up to scrutiny…
Let's start with perhaps the strangest conspiracy theory of all: that Earth is flat.
The basic premise is that ancient cultures were right – Earth is a circular disc that is perfectly stationary while the sky rotates above it.
Furthermore, the idea that Earth is a sphere is a villainous lie spread across millennia by an evil, secret establishment.
There are many reasons (or excuses) flat Earthers give for this belief: Earth looks flat; we don't feel Earth moving; NASA has faked images of the spherical Earth; gravity doesn't exist; ships don't sink below the horizon; the tides are caused by Earth moving up and down; explorers who have discovered the edge of the world have been silenced; the Moon generates its own light; artificial satellites don't exist… and so on.
All of these can be easily disproved or logically discounted.
Disproving the flat-Earth hypothesis is surprisingly easy – so easy that the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes did it in 240 BC.
You can actually perform a similar proof yourself. All you need are two synchronised clocks, two sextants(or other devices for measuring angles in the sky), a car and a friend.
If you and your friend stand exactly 111km (68.9 miles) apart, but are at the same longitude, and both measure (at the same time) the angle of the star Polaris above the horizon, you will find the angle differs by 1˚.
There are only two possible explanations for this. First, if Earth is flat, Polaris is 6,371km (3,959 miles) above Earth's surface.
Second, if Earth is a sphere, it has a radius of 6,371km.
We can go further and disprove the first possibility.
If Polaris were only 6,371km high, then if you travel 6,371km from the North Pole on a flat Earth, you have made an equilateral triangle and Polaris would be 45˚ above your horizon.
But do the measurement yourself and you will find Polaris is actually 32.6˚ above the horizon. This is irrefutable proof that Earth is a sphere, of radius 6,371km. Case disproved.
Sadly, NASA is the recipient of much distrust and derision from conspiracy theorists.
The agency is accused of faking climate-change data, faking the Apollo 13 disaster and faking Martian surface rovers.
But these accusations are dwarfed by the claim that humans never went to the Moon, a belief even more ubiquitous than the flat-Earth theory.
The idea has a long history, first appearing even before the first Apollo landing, and was undoubtedly given a boost by the 1977 movie Capricorn One, in which a manned mission to Mars is faked by NASA.
Conspiracy theorists point out that there are no stars in the sky in images taken from the lunar surface.
Or that shadows, backgrounds, and even footprints do not appear as expected.
They also often refer to the US flag ‘waving' when the Moon has no atmosphere, or that astronauts would be killed by radiation while passing through Earth's Van Allen belts.
Actually, all of the ‘proof' for a faked Moon landing can be easily refuted.
For example, there are no stars in the lunar sky because photos were taken in full sunlight and therefore with short exposures.
The US flag only ‘flutters' when it is moved by an astronaut.
The Van Allen belts present no danger to astronauts during the short time they spent within them.
But can we prove that humans went to the Moon? Yes, we can.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has imaged several of the Apollo landing sites from lunar orbit.
Lunar module descent stages, the tracks of lunar rovers and even disturbances by the astronauts themselves can clearly be seen.
Plus, laser ranging of the Moon is only possible because Apollo astronauts left behind special mirrors for the task.
Unfortunately, even these proofs are often discounted as merely part of the conspiracy and therefore faked.
The Apollo project employed about 400,000 people for a decade and cost about £19.1bn ($25.8bn) – more than £180bn or $250bn in today's money.
Were all these people part of the conspiracy? What about scientists who have analysed Apollo rock samples? Has NASA managed to dupe all these people too?
Frankly, it would be far more costly and difficult to fake the Moon landings than to actually go to the Moon.
Modern science is pretty confident that Earth cannot be the only place in the Universe where life has emerged.
The Universe is so huge, so full of stars and planets, and so old, that life – even intelligent civilisations – probably exist elsewhere.
Currently, however, we have no evidence of life beyond our tiny planet.
This has not stopped the rise of the ‘alien conspiracy', which proposes that governments around the world are already suppressing knowledge of, and contact with, alien beings.
This broad conspiracy theory includes the myth of ‘Area 51', the appearance of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), abductions and experimentation by aliens, and the Roswell incident.
Aligned with this is the belief that Earth was visited in prehistory by ‘ancient astronauts', or that recently discovered interstellar asteroids or comets are really alien spacecraft.
Despite often-cited ‘evidence' for aliens (and their collusion with governments), none of it stands up to thorough scientific scrutiny.
Claims are not repeatable, measurable, testable or unambiguous.
Most can be discounted, and those that can't do not necessarily imply alien involvement; other unproven but possible explanations can easily be put forward.
Case unproven.
In July 1976, NASA's Viking 1 orbiter took an image of the Martian surface that seemed to show a human face on Mars.
Later analysis showed that the face was just a trick of the light, the result of specific viewing and illumination angles.
Subsequent high-resolution imagery has revealed the face to be a perfectly natural Martian hill with some depressions that can, under the right conditions, give the appearance of a face.
Despite this, some commentators have declared this as evidence of lost Martian civilisations and ruined ancient cities.
A popular conspiracy theory holds that an extraterrestrial craft, dubbed ‘Black Knight', is in orbit around Earth, and that its existence is being covered up.
This seems to be an amalgam of various myths and misunderstandings, and was probably inspired by a NASA photo of space debris taken during a Space Shuttle flight in 1998.
The idea that Earth will be destroyed by a collision with a planet called Nibiru was first proposed in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, a Wisconsin woman who claims to have been abducted (and implanted) by aliens.
The ‘Nibiru cataclysm' has since gained widespread attention.
There is no scientific evidence of a planet on a disastrous collision course with Earth.
There is a small possibility of a large Planet 9 (or Planet X) floating somewhere in the farthest reaches of the Solar System.
This could explain the observed clustering of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Even if eventually found, however, it would not be a threat to Earth.
Some claim the Moon is hollow and may be an alien spaceship. This theory gained traction in the 1970s following several pseudoscientific publications.
It's easy to show that the Moon isn't hollow.
Data from seismometers placed on the Moon by Apollo astronauts, and countless orbital observations, clearly show the Moon has a solid interior with a thin crust, thick mantle and dense core.
During its mission to Saturn in 1981, NASA's Voyager 1 probe discovered an odd hexagonal cloud feature around the planet's north pole.
The Cassini mission confirmed it to be about 14,500km (9,009 miles) long.
Such an odd shape, which doesn't often occur in nature, has led some to suggest intelligent design.
Numerous studies have shown that such shapes can easily form in turbulent rotating fluids. Nature can always surprise us.
In the 1960s, a myth about a ‘lost day' gained traction among evangelists.
An engineer named Harold Hill claimed that while working for NASA, a missing time period was uncovered when calculating space probe trajectories.
He claimed this proved the biblical story of God making the Sun stand still during Joshua's battle with the Amorites.
Hill never worked for NASA, and the story is completely undocumented. Still, many believe that NASA found a missing day and is hiding the truth.
More hoax than conspiracy, the infamous ‘green Moon' meme began in 2016 with a single Facebook post claiming that on 29 May the Moon would turn green due to an alignment with Uranus, the first since 1847.
The hoax has resurfaced annually ever since. Despite its increasingly tongue-in-cheek tone, it's still believed far and wide.
Sadly, no amount of reasoned debate can shake these 10 beliefs for true conspiracy followers.
Arming ourselves with clear, testable evidence is the best defence – but perhaps the healthiest response is to accept these theories as an often humorous quirk of human nature.
What conspiracy theories would you like to see debunked? Let us know by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com
Alastair Gunn
Astronomer