"But I've just been uncomfortable front-loading too many rate cuts and assuming that what we've seen in inflation will be transitory." He was joined by Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid, as well as Governor Stephen Miran, who preferred a steeper cut. Recent readings show the annual inflation rate around 2.8%, well above the Fed's 2% target. "I'm pretty optimistic that for 2026 rates will will be able to be a fair bit lower than they are today. With this assessment, my preference was to leave the target range for the policy rate unchanged at this week's meeting."

In a report published last month, Salesforce said it expects AI to drive a staggering $263 billion in global online holiday sales this year, representing 21% of all holiday orders. While AI shopping is in its early stages, initial reads on how shoppers are interacting with it show the opportunity it can bring for retailers. said Kimberly Shenk, the founder and CEO of Novi, a tech firm that helps brands adjust to AI shopping. Walmart, Target and others join the AI raceAs more shoppers start their gift searches on AI chatbots, some of the country's biggest retailers, including Walmart, Target and Etsy , have announced their own strategies to try to attract customers through AI assistants. On the other hand, Amazon — an online retail behemoth where many shoppers begin their product search — has taken the opposite approach.

The EU’s outright ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 is poised to be watered down, a senior European parliament politician has said. “The reality is that there will still be millions of combustion engine-based cars around the world in 2035, 2040 and 2050,” he said. “The technology ban on combustion engines is off the table,” he said. Reports of a looming rowback on the 2035 ban enraged green campaigners. Having hybrid cars as a continued option would merely delay the switch to electric vehicles (EVs), he added.

At the Los Angeles’ Peacock theater last night, The Game Awards broadcast its annual mix of prize presentations and expensive video game advertisements. The Gallic favourite took game of the year, as well as awards for best game direction, best art direction, best narrative and best performance (for actor Jennifer English). Elsewhere, Hades II took best action game, Hollow Knight: Silksong won in best action/adventure and Arc Raiders won best multiplayer. Developed by Arcanaut Studios, it’s a single-player narrative adventure set on the brink of major change for the galaxy. The Game Awards is a controversial and imperfect beast.

Investors are facing a period of historically high concentration in the S&P 500 Index headed into 2026, with a small number of mega-cap technology and AI-related companies dominating the index's performance and risk. He expressed concern that investors remain too concentrated in the "Magnificent 7" stocks, which currently make up about 35% of the U.S. large-cap stock market index. "It has been an awesome run for these companies, but let's just make sure the portfolios are sufficiently diversified outside the mega-cap growth segment, also outside of U.S. equity companies," Ryder said. Ed Yardeni, Yardeni Research president, said investors should be underweight the Mag 7, but overweight the "Impressive 493" during a "Squawk Box" interview earlier this week. He was referring to the remaining 493 S&P 500 stocks.

Maria Balshaw is to step down as the director of Tate in 2026, after a challenging nine-year tenure when she steered the organisation through the Covid-19 pandemic and had to deal with fluctuating attendance figures and financial instability. Balshaw had the unenviable task of taking over from Nicholas Serota, the long-serving director, who established Tate Modern 25 years ago and is currently chair of Arts Council England. Figures released in March showed that Tate Modern and Tate Britain had experienced a 27% decline in attendance since 2019 – although, as Balshaw said in a letter to the Guardian, 2019 was Tate’s most successful year ever for visitor numbers. Tate Modern, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, welcomed more than 76,000 people during its birthday weekend – a turnout insiders hope could signal a rebound in 2025. The expansion of the National Gallery and a change in its collection policy to include modern art was also seen as a threat to Tate by some senior figures, although Balshaw welcomed the move.

After a long break for Lara Croft, a couple of fresh Tomb Raider adventures are on their way. Announced at the Game Awards in LA, Tomb Raider Catalyst stars the “charismatic, self-assured, formidable Lara Croft” from the original 1990s games, says game director Will Kerslake. Catalyst is in development at Crystal Dynamics, the Californian developer that has looked after Tomb Raider since 2003. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, meanwhile, is being developed in collaboration with Flying Wild Hog in Poland. In both games, Croft will be played by the British actor Alix Wilton Regan, who previously had significant roles in Dragon Age: Inquisition and Cyberpunk 2077.

But Democratic lawmakers and state officials, as well as consumer advocacy groups, are raising alarms about the impact of the order that Trump signed on Thursday night . It follows a push by some Republicans in Congress to impose a moratorium on state AI laws. Collin McCune, head of government affairs at Andreessen Horowitz, celebrated Trump's order, calling it "an important first step" to boost American competition and innovation. The White House will not use the executive order to target state laws that protect the safety of children, Krishnan said. Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, called Trump's order "mostly bluster" and said the president "cannot unilaterally preempt state law."

But the funds also come with "significant risk that the bet goes wrong," he said. While investing in a single company stock provides one-time exposure, single-stock ETFs tout strategies to magnify bets on one ticker symbol's gains or losses. Leveraged single-stock ETFs advertise a greater short-term return. "They have actually taken in more money than they currently have in assets," Evens said. Single-stock ETFs not intended for long-term holdingMore investors are asking about single-stock ETFs, particularly those tied to Tesla , Nvidia , Amazon and Apple , said Ashton Lawrence, a certified financial planner, director and senior wealth advisor at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina.

The US is ending temporary legal status for citizens of Ethiopia in the United States, according to a government notice on Friday, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on legal and illegal immigration. Temporary protected status is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. In recent months, the Trump administration has removed the protective status for people from numerous countries, including Haiti, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela. Trump has made controlling immigration a central plank of his second White House term. Those programs make it easier for US citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring family members into the country.

They also expressed fears that the war may spread to South Sudan and Eritrea. The UK estimates there are as many as 26 possible arms supply routes into Sudan with 10 countries of origin. Communities in the Darfur region are facing famine and malnutrition after an 18-month RSF siege around El Fasher, which fell to the group on 26 October. In a statement, the UK Foreign Office said the individuals were “suspected of atrocities including mass killings, sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians in El Fasher, Sudan”. Although there is no official figure for how many people were killed after the RSF’s seizure of El Fasher, British MPs have been briefed that at least 60,000 may have been murdered.

The US Department of the Treasury has lifted sanctions imposed on the Brazilian supreme court justice who oversaw the conviction of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes had been under Global Magnitsky sanctions, which target individuals accused of human rights abuses, since July. His wife Viviane Barci de Moraes – who was added the sanctions list in September – was also removed from the register on Friday. Trump imposed the punishment shortly after imposing tariffs on Brazil, justifying it as a response to what he claimed was a “witch-hunt” against Bolsonaro. Eduardo Bolsonaro has alleged that he influenced Trump’s decision.

Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group has ordered civilians in areas under its control to stay home for three days starting on Sunday, while it carries out military exercises in response to “intervention” threats from Donald Trump. Trump said earlier this month any country that produces cocaine and sells it to the United States was “subject to attack”. The ELN, the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas, controls key drug-producing regions of Colombia and vowed on Friday to fight for the country’s “defense” in the face of Trump’s “threats of imperialist intervention”. “It is necessary for civilians not to mix with fighters to avoid accidents,” the group said in a statement. So long as Maduro remains in power, the favored position that the ELN enjoys in Venezuela seems likely to continue.

The Pacific north-west is reeling from catastrophic flooding that inundated communities across the region this week, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate and prompting a federal emergency declaration. Torrential rain rapidly filled rivers and triggered flooding on Thursday from Oregon north through Washington state and into British Columbia, causing mudslides and tearing homes from their foundations. The rain arriving on Sunday will cause rivers to rise again, said Robert Ezelle, director of the Washington Military Department’s emergency management division. Bob Ferguson, the governor of Washington, on Friday morning warned that flooding “remains extremely unpredictable” and rivers were expected to continue to rise. View image in fullscreen A sign partially covered by flood water from the Snohomish River on 11 December.

Thailand’s caretaker prime minister has denied the existence of a ceasefire with Cambodia, despite Donald Trump announcing that both countries had agreed to halt fighting. As heavy clashes continued along the border between the two countries, Anutin Charnvirakul said on Saturday that Thailand had not agreed to a ceasefire with Cambodia and that its forces would continue fighting. Thai forces carried out strikes, including with fighter jets, while Cambodia fired rocket barrages along the border area on Saturday. View image in fullscreen The Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, speaks during a press conference after his call with Donald Trump. The Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, urged both countries to once again cease hostilities on Saturday.

The skull of a Tapanuli orangutan, caked in debris, stares out from a tomb of mud in North Sumatra, killed in catastrophic flooding that swept through Indonesia. The late November floods have been an “extinction-level disturbance” for the world’s rarest great ape, scientists have said, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects. View image in fullscreen A Tapanuli orangutan in the Batang Toru forests. Biologists have said that even a loss of just 1% of the Tapanuli population each year would be sufficient to drive the Tapanulis to extinction, as the animals only reproduce every six to nine years. The orangutan experts urged an immediate halt to development that will damage the remaining Tapanuli habitat, and an immediate survey of the region.

The chief organiser of South Korea’s notoriously gruelling university entrance exams has resigned – after complaints that an English test he designed was too difficult. But this year, just over 3% of exam-takers scored top marks in the English test – the lowest since absolute grading was introduced for the subject in 2018. He also apologised for “causing concern to test-takers and their parents, and for causing confusion in the college entrance exam process”. Enormous pressure on students in South Korea’s ultra-competitive education system has been partly blamed for teenage depression and suicide rates that are among the highest in the world. This month, South Korea’s national assembly approved an amended law banning private English-language educational institutes from administering entrance tests to preschoolers.

Do Kwon, the entrepreneur behind two cryptocurrencies that lost $40bn (£29.8bn) three years ago and caused the sector to crash, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for fraud. The South Korean, 34, had pleaded guilty to two counts of US charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud. Kwon, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, was sentenced at a hearing in New York. As part of his guilty plea, Kwon agreed to forfeit $19.3m and some properties that prosecutors claimed he gained from the fraud. Bankman-Fried, the founder of the US’s largest crypto exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024.

Last week, the European Commission proposed a €90bn (£79bn) loan for Ukraine, secured against Russian assets immobilised in the EU since its full-scale invasion. Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever met Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Friday for long-planned talks on the EU-UK reset, migration and the Russian assets. Germany, usually a champion of economic orthodoxy, sees the frozen assets plan as the best option and has pledged to provide one-quarter (€50bn) of needed guarantees for Belgium. The UK, which hosts €27bn (£23bn) of frozen Russian assets, supports the idea and expects some, but not all, G7 countries to move forward with a similar plan, following a decision on the Euroclear-held assets. US participation in the scheme is less certain, although it holds only a modest €4bn (£3.5bn) in immobilised assets.

There are fears for the wellbeing of the 2023 Nobel peace prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, after she was detained by Iranian security forces at a memorial ceremony for a human rights lawyer in the eastern city of Mashhad. View image in fullscreen A still from footage that shows Narges Mohammadi speaking at the memorial event in Mashhad. “Alikordi was a prominent figure among Iran’s community of human rights defenders,” the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Thursday. Speaking from Paris, Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, told the Guardian he was worried not only for his wife but also for the other rights activists arrested at the same time. Chirinne Ardakani, Mohammadi’s Paris-based lawyer, said: “I am calling for the immediate release of my client, as well as of all the human rights activists who have been arbitrarily detained alongside her.

His medical team will assess how much longer he will require treatment to protect and prioritise his continued recovery. He was therefore “encouraged” to learn about a new national screening checker, launched earlier this month, which shows who is eligible for existing breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes. The prime minister said he was “glad” the king’s cancer treatment was to be reduced. I know I speak for the entire country when I say how glad I am that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year. Early cancer screening saves lives.”The screening checker has been developed by Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 for the Stand Up to Cancer campaign to help people understand which NHS cancer screening programmes they are eligible for.

Leading organisations have criticised the development of the government’s flagship violence against women and girls strategy, calling the process chaotic, haphazard and “worse than under the Tories”. Initially expected in spring, the VAWG strategy was delayed until summer and then autumn. But multiple sources from organisations working in the VAWG sector said they had felt sidelined during the devising of the strategy. A government spokesperson said: “It is our mission to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade. “Our violence against women and girls strategy does exactly that.

After an eight-week trial at Newcastle crown court, the men were found guilty on 30 charges committed between 2014 and 2019 that included rape, sexual assault and blackmail. The men are:Bogdan Gugiuman, 44, of Gateshead, who was found guilty of three counts of rape, and supplying a class A drug. Codrin Dura, 27, of Gateshead, who was found guilty of four counts of rape, four counts of sexual activity with a child, blackmail, attempted rape, serious sexual assault, supplying a class A drug, and arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence. Stefan Ciuraru, 22, of Gateshead, who was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault, sexual activity with a child, and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. “The offending ranged from sexual assaults, like touching, through to the most serious offences of rape, including rapes by multiple people against the same victim,” he said.

Keir Starmer has said it is “frankly beyond belief” that resident doctors would strike during the NHS’s worst moment since the pandemic, in remarks that risk inflaming tensions with medical staff. Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA resident doctors committee, said ministers were “laying the blame for the failings of the NHS to cope with an outbreak of flu at the feet of resident doctors”. An indicative online ballot of resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, is due to close on Monday morning. They are reckless.”The prime minister added: “Right now, resident doctors’ colleagues will be cancelling operations, cancelling their Christmas leave and preparing for this coming storm. View image in fullscreen Resident doctors on a picket line at St Thomas’ hospital in London last month.

“I’d explain, but it’s classified,” the TikTok video’s caption reads, the username above revealing the identity of the mystery man: Keir Starmer. In a shocking twist, Starmer’s TikToks are borderline competent. Allow TikTok content? Allow TikTok content? Allow TikTok content?

Vincent says he now wants to run Leon “as a family business, almost like running your own corner shop”. Leon had 68 outlets at the time of the buyout including 43 directly owned and operated. View image in fullscreen John Vincent says he wants to run Leon ‘as a family business’. View image in fullscreen Vincent wants to improving quality with thicker slices of halloumi. We want to be the best food company in the world but don’t want to be the biggest,” he says.

Card Factory has delivered an unwelcome early Christmas surprise for investors by issuing a shock profit warning during the greetings card retailer’s peak trading period, which sent shares plunging by more than a fifth. The retailer, which also owns the online card and gift brand Funky Pigeon, said economic pressure on shoppers has hit confidence in its most important trading period of the year. “Over recent months, the pressures facing the UK consumer have been well publicised,” the company said in a trading update. The integration of Funky Pigeon, which it bought from WH Smith in July for £24m to boost its web offering, remains “on track”. Last month, Carl Cowling, the WH Smith chief executive, stood down after an investigation found accounting failures in its North American division.

Reddit has filed a challenge against Australia’s under-16s social media ban in the high court, lodging its case two days after implementing age restrictions on its website. It was also seeking to challenge whether Reddit could be considered an age-restricted social media platform under the legislation. The next court appearance for Digital Freedom Project group is late February, and Reddit expects it will be heard sometime next year, if the high court takes up the case. “The freedom is engaged in most cases, but the high court goes on to find the law to be proportionate. “[But] the social media account ban only slightly reduces the overall volume of political communication in Australia,” the Monash University academic said.

On 26 March 2014, a trailer for a video game appeared on YouTube. In the late 1990s Ulf Wilhelmsson wanted to study for a PhD in video games in Sweden. In 2001, seeing a lack of students entering the university’s IT programmes, he proposed a video games development qualification. “Our aim has never been to help students to fulfil the short-term needs of the games industry,” says Wilhelmsson. You could follow Skövde’s lead – ensure that your town taught video game development at its university; host events where game developers could showcase projects; organise networking events where people felt safe exchanging knowledge – and you would cultivate something special.

United States forces raided a cargo ship travelling from China to Iran last month, according to the Wall Street Journal, in the latest reported instance of increasingly aggressive maritime tactics by the administration of US President Donald Trump. Unnamed officials told the newspaper that US military personnel boarded the ship several hundred miles from Sri Lanka, according to the report on Friday. It was the first time in several years US forces had intercepted cargo travelling from China to Iran, according to the newspaper. The operation took place in November, weeks before US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela earlier this week, citing sanctions violations. Neither Iran nor China immediately responded to the report, although Beijing, a key trading partner with Tehran, has regularly called the US sanctions illegal.

President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as Monday that would allow for reclassification of marijuana, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak about the White House's plans. "Trump rescheduling marijuana was not an if, in our assessment, but a when," Ed Groshans of Compass Point, a middle-market investment bank, wrote to clients in a Friday note. More optimismGroshans said the reported change would be "positive" for the cannabis industry, allowing banks to serve the sector. "If implemented, it dismantles nearly a century of outdated drug policies that fly in the face of science and medicine."

"Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed," an Oracle spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. The Oracle spokesperson did not specify a timeline for turning on cloud computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In September, OpenAI said it had a partnership with Oracle worth more than $300 billion over the next five years. "It's more like 2027, 2028, 2029, 10 gigawatts, that was the OpenAI discussion," Tan said on Broadcom's earnings call. WATCH: Oracle says there have been 'no delays' in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

That's also true for data center demand in the Lone Star State, where project developers are rushing to cash in on the artificial intelligence boom. Cheap land and cheap energy are combining to attract a flood of data center developers to the state. More than 220 gigawatts of big projects have asked to connect to the Texas electric grid by 2030, according to December data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. More than 70% of those projects are data centers, according to ERCOT, which manages the Texas power grid. 'Not all real'Data center requests have exploded in Texas since state legislation in 2023 required projects that have not signed electric connection agreements to be considered in power demand forecasts.

If you somehow beat the odds and win a large cash prize, what happens next can be just as important as the win itself. Here are five common mistakes experts say to avoid, starting the moment the ticket is in your hands. To prevent fraud, you'll want to sign the ticket in ink right away, state lotteries advise. "Holding the winning ticket before claiming it is akin to walking around town with $100 million in your wallet," he says. Telling everyone about winningAnnouncing a big lottery win can invite financial requests, scams and unwanted attention, says Gagliardi.

Home values have been losing ground for much of this year, with previously huge annual gains shrinking to nothing. The result is that homeowners are losing equity. This comes after years of steep gains in home prices and record equity. Even after the drop, homeowners still have an overall collective net equity of $17.1 trillion for homes with a mortgage. "Negative equity is on the rise, driven in part by affordability challenges that have led many first-time and lower-income buyers to over-leverage through piggyback loans or minimal down payments."

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Friday told investors what to look out for next week on Wall Street, including new economic data and earnings from FedEx and manufacturer Jabil . Cramer noted that Jabil is a major manufacturer of infrastructure and hardware for data centers. While the rising price of beef has hurt some restaurants, Cramer suggested restaurant giant Darden has been protected by its Olive Garden chain, which he said has "minimal beef exposure." It may be too soon to expect a turnaround at Nike, Cramer continued, but FedEx could be the "star of the week." Friday brings earnings from Carnival , Conagra and Paychex , and Cramer suggested all three reports will provide valuable insight.

Construction crews continue to remove the East Wing of the White House and prepare for construction of the new ballroom, as seen from the newly reopened Washington Monument, Nov. 14, 2025. A nonprofit group tasked with preserving U.S. historical sites sued President Donald Trump on Friday, seeking to halt construction of his massive White House ballroom until the project receives the proper federal approvals. "No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else," the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States said in the lawsuit in Washington federal court. "And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in," the suit said. The suit argues that Trump was legally required to secure reviews and approvals before demolishing the historic East Wing of the White House and beginning to build the 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

During the December Monthly Meeting , Jim Cramer and Jeff Marks, the Investing Club's director of portfolio analysis, set the table for the stock market in 2026, including identifying out-of-favor stocks that are strong buys right now. Here's a rapid-fire update on each stock in the portfolio, starting with seven currently unfashionable names that Jim says should soon be back in style. That's exactly why it's the perfect time to buy shares of this high-quality restaurant stock. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

An employee with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checks the documents of a traveler at the Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, California, U.S., Oct. 1, 2025. The Transportation Security Administration is giving U.S. immigration officials the names of every airline traveler as part of the Trump administration's widespread deportation program, The New York Times reported Friday. TSA, several times per week, gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement a list of travelers expected to be passing through airports, the Times reported. ICE and TSA are both divisions of the Homeland Security Department. "Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this.

Heading into the weekend, the film had tallied $232.7 million domestically and $753.4 million from international markets. PG-rated family films have outperformed PG-13 and R-rated films at the box office in 2025. So far, PG films released this year have generated $2.7 billion in the U.S. and Canada, while PG-13 films have tallied $2.5 billion and R-rated films have collected $2.4 billion. This shift started in 2024, when PG-rated films sold more tickets domestically than any other rated film for the first time ever. PG-13 films had dominated the space for decades, according to data from Comscore.

Protein captivated consumers and food companies in 2025, but fiber is increasingly stealing the scene as people place an increasing emphasis on promoting gut health. For most Americans, that recommended range usually falls somewhere between 25 grams and 38 grams of fiber per day, she added. "I think fiber will be the next protein," Laguarta said. The gut health crazeWatching fiber intake isn't new, experts note, but it's often been associated with older people who require it for health reasons as they age. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola launched its prebiotic soda, Simply Pop, with six grams of prebiotic fiber in five flavors to encourage gut health.

The source said Coinbase and Kalshi will formally announce the prediction market soon, with news potentially coming as early as next week. The partnership is not exclusive, but Kalshi will be the only prediction markets operator working with Coinbase when the product launches, according to the source. The firm did not comment on a timeline for when its prediction markets would go live for its users. The deal also underscores U.S.-based prediction markets operator Kalshi's push to embed its event contracts into various brokerages, widening its reach as the prediction markets space becomes increasingly competitive. This year, Kalshi embedded several of its prediction markets into trading platform Robinhood, as part of a non-exclusive partnership between the companies.

The political squabbling appears to be a sort of "proxy debate" over the high and rising costs of health insurance and health care in the U.S., said John Graves, a professor of health policy and medicine at Vanderbilt University. "The beating heart of this debate is, where are we as a country in terms of how we should help people afford their health insurance?" Democrats proposed a three-year extension to the enhanced subsidies, which lower insurance premiums for ACA enrollees. Extending the current ACA enhanced premium tax credits for a decade is estimated to cost about $350 billion, from 2026 to 2035. The beating heart of this debate is, where are we as a country in terms of how we should help people afford their health insurance.

Immigration agents appear to be increasingly arresting and detaining Afghan asylum seekers, especially men, who have arrived in the US recently and are awaiting court hearings to decide their cases. In New York, another Afghan asylum seeker was detained after complying with a request from immigration authorities to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Most of the Afghan asylum seekers who’ve been detained had requested asylum at the US-Mexico border over the last two years, attorneys said. The recent arrests “have created a huge chilling effect,” said Shala Gafary, managing director of the Afghan Legal Assistance program at Human Rights First. For individual attorneys like Noorzad, filing federal habeas corpus petitions to challenge clients’ detention is also logistically challenging and prohibitively expensive.

Dozens have been killed in a military strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to an aid worker, a rebel group, a witness and local media reports, as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month. “The situation is very terrible,” said on-site aid worker Wai Hun Aung. “The Mrauk U General Hospital was completely destroyed,” Khine Thu Kha told Reuters news agency. View image in fullscreen A mourner reacts as bodies are laid out at a cemetery before their burial following a Myanmar military air strike in Mrauk U in western Rakhine state on 11 December 2025. Local media reports said dozens had been killed in the hospital strike, with photographs from the scene showing the shattered remains of the health facility, and shrouded bodies visible on the ground outside the facility after the attack.

Kylie Minogue has scored her 11th UK No 1 album, putting her level with David Bowie and Eminem in the league of all-time album chart-toppers. The album, Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), will sound familiar to her fans: it’s a reissue of her 2015 album Kylie Christmas (which only reached No 12), containing four newly recorded tracks and an altered tracklisting. Williams will be hoping to become the all-time leader in February with the release of his forthcoming studio album, Britpop. Minogue is also in the singles chart this week with Xmas, one of the retailer Amazon’s now yearly exclusive Christmas songs. But these classics will have new rivals for the Christmas No 1 next week, as a number of charity and novelty singles enter the race.

The Scottish rock group Primal Scream has defended displaying an image of a swastika inside a Star of David during a London gig, in response to accusations of racism and antisemitism. On Friday, Primal Scream, in a post on its Instagram account, defended the video, saying: “The film is a piece of art. In a free, pluralistic and liberal society freedom of expression is a right which we choose to exercise.”Some people that attended the gig accused Primal Scream of racism. Primal Scream, who were founded by frontman Bobby Gillespie in 1982, were performing a 25th anniversary show for their album XTRMNTR. A CST spokesperson said: “Entwining a Star of David with a swastika implies that Jews are Nazis and risks encouraging hatred of Jews.

Wes Streeting has told resident doctors that strikes and a sharp rise in the number of flu cases over the Christmas period could be “the Jenga piece” that forces the NHS to collapse. The health secretary said the NHS faced a “challenge unlike any it has seen since the pandemic” and urged resident doctors to accept the government’s offer and end their action. He said: “The whole NHS team is working around the clock to keep the show on the road. Asked if talk of the NHS collapsing was over the top, Streather told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The NHS is coping at the moment. He said: “I cannot understand why, when I offered to rearrange strikes in January, why they didn’t take up that offer.

Prediction markets swung sharply Friday after President Donald Trump said Kevin Warsh has risen to the top of his list to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. On Kalshi, Warsh's odds jumped to as high as 40% from about 15% after Trump told the Wall Street Journal that Warsh is a top contender. Meanwhile, the implied probability of National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett becoming the next Fed chair dropped below 60% briefly from 80% not long ago. Asked directly whether Warsh was now his leading choice, Trump responded, "Yes, I think he is," according to the paper. Trump did imply that Hassett is still very much in the running as well and the NEC director is still leading the race on Kalshi.

Det er et slag for USA's præsident, Donald Trump, og hans mål om at indføre nye valgkort landet over. Over halvdelen af de republikanske senatorer stemte med senatets ti demokrater, hvorfor der var 31 for forslaget og 19 imod. Demokraterne har to. Hvis det nye valgkort var blevet stemt igennem, ville det have omtegnet de to distrikter, som Demokraterne nu har kontrol med. Det ville desuden splitte delstatens største by, Indianapolis, i fire distrikter, hvilket ifølge Demokraterne ville skade særligt minoritetsvælgere.