Please turn on JavaScript to use this featurePlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature13m ago 13.50 CET Ilhan Omar says ICE agents pulled her son overGood morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman, has said her son was pulled over by ICE agents on Saturday and asked to provide proof of citizenship. “Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by ICE agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” she told WCCO’s Esme Murphy. Omar fled civil war as a young child, came to the US as a refugee and became a US citizen in 2000. Omar told WCCO that it was “disturbing” and “creepy” to have the president be “obsessed with you” – but said it is a deflection tactic to focus attention away from his political failures.

Spain’s socialist-led government is to launch a national public transport pass that will allow people to travel anywhere in the country by bus or train for a flat monthly fee of €60 (£52.70). The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, unveiled the initiative on Monday, saying it would come into effect in the second half of January and was intended “to change the way Spaniards understand and use public transport for ever”. The prime minister hailed the transport pass as proof of his administration’s commitment to improving the everyday lives of Spaniards. According to Sánchez, the scheme could help some workers cut their monthly travel costs by as much as 60%. The intervention received short shrift from Sánchez, who said: “The time when bishops meddled in politics ended when this country’s democracy began.”

In an email to the Guardian, Yenor wrote: “Degenerates such as yourself who celebrated the assassination Charlie Kirk deserve nothing but scorn, let alone explanations of complex ideas.”It was not immediately clear which celebration Yenor was referring to. We don’t waste time answering its half-baked questions.’”The statement matched one provided in response to separate recent reporting on the Heritage Foundation. Rightwing ructionsYenor’s appointment has caused ructions on the right, with many conservatives objecting specifically to his views on women. That’s political poison.”He added: “Heritage and Yenor face a choice. Do they stand within the conservative consensus, seeking to extend its principles into the public consciousness and enact them into law?

Los Angeles mourned the death of beloved Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle on Monday morning, as police announced the arrest of their son on suspicion of murder. At Rob Reiner’s Walk of Fame star in the heart of Hollywood, some fans stopped by to pay tribute. “It hurts, it really, really hurts as a parent,” said Morgan, who had tears in his eyes. Alana Brown, a visitor from Detroit who walked by Reiner’s star on Hollywood boulevard, said she was grateful for Reiner’s activism and willingness to use his voice. Fans also gathered on Sunday night outside the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, where Rob Reiner’s hands are paved into the cement.

Aerial view of vehicles being driven on the road through the central business district in Beijing, China. Asia-Pacific markets were set to open lower Monday, after Wall Street declined Friday stateside as investors took a breather from the AI trade. Traders in Asia will also look toward key data from Japan and China on Monday, with China releasing its retail sales, fixed asset investment and industrial output numbers for November. Japan will announce its fourth-quarter Tankan numbers. The Tankan survey, conducted by the Bank of Japan, measures business sentiment among companies in the world's fourth largest economy.

China's retail sales growth and industrial production missed estimates in November while investment declined more than expected, data from National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday, indicating consumption remains a major worry. Retail sales rose 1.3% last month from a year earlier, sharply missing Reuters' median forecast for a 2.8% growth, and slowing from 2.9% rise in the prior month. Chinese policymakers have pledged further policy support to drive domestic demand and boost consumption and investment for next year. Eswar Prasad, professor of economics at Cornell University and senior fellow at Brookings Institute, expressed concerns over the sustainability of China's economic growth. "The government clearly wants to rebalance growth and understands what's needed to bolster household consumption and raise productivity.

Russia’s central bank has said it is seeking $230bn (£170bn) in damages from Euroclear, as the Kremlin fired a warning shot against the use of Russian frozen assets to aid Ukraine. EU leaders will decide later this week whether to use €210bn in Russian frozen assets to provide Ukraine with a loan to fund its defence and keep the economy afloat. Moscow, however, said that using the assets is theft and has threatened to seize European private investors’ holdings in Russia. Speaking on Monday, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the reparations loan was “the most credible option” for funding Ukraine. “The reparations loan is based on the Russian frozen assets, that means it doesn’t come from our taxpayers’ money, which is also important,” she said.

Her warning echoes widespread fears for Brighton’s plentiful independent shops, which have given the Sussex city international renown. But even here – the affluent home of some of the UK’s favourite independents – the potential last generation of shopkeepers is under threat. Its owner, Richard Grills, says a combination of higher business rates, VAT, staff costs and additional council charges have reduced his profit margins significantly. As a hospitality venue, he has benefited from business rates relief, but since his premises were rerated and his relief reduced, his annual bill has gone up from £1,200 to £12,000. “If we lose this footprint of independent shops we risk losing footfall in the high street,” she adds.

Freelancers and gig economy workers could enjoy more flexibility over how and when they pay their mortgage under plans designed to help more people get on the property ladder. Some changes have already taken effect: in recent months, many banks and building societies have announced that some customers can access bigger mortgages. In its new mortgage review, the regulator said there was wide agreement that some potential first-time buyer groups “could be better served”. One idea under discussion involves offering greater payment flexibility to self-employed people, contractors, freelancers and others, which could include “alternative payment schedules to help those with irregular income flows”. However, the FCA has said they could be suitable for some consumers who might struggle to afford a traditional repayment mortgage.

The former Scottish secretary Ian Murray has hit out at the prime minister for his “humiliating” sacking, despite deciding to remain a minister in the government. In a candid interview Murray said he had felt under appreciated in his cabinet role and that he had been in two minds whether to accept his current position as technology minister. The minister also directly criticised Keir Starmer’s approach to the reshuffle, saying he had not given him an adequate explanation as to why he was moved. He added: “For me, the hardest part was the complete lack of any sort of recognition for doing a half-decent job. “If I’m not good enough for the Scotland Office, why am I now number two in two major UK departments?”

At the top of the agenda is the peace plan put forward by US President Donald Trump and continuing funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The European strategy so far has been to alter the US-proposed peace plan in such a way that it becomes completely unacceptable to Russia. US intelligence support, crucial in Ukraine’s war planning, is currently available to Kyiv for free. The other big problem is that Trump’s peace plan has radically different designs for the assets in question. This means that if the reparations loan plan goes ahead, it would undermine the most attractive provision of Trump’s plan.

The EU is expected to present its first-ever housing plan on Tuesday, after consultations with experts, stakeholders and the public. For months, those on the frontlines of the crisis have warned the problem is too big to ignore. “The new pandemic affecting European cities is called the cost of housing,” said Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, who launched the Mayors for Housing alliance last year with the support of his counterparts in Paris and Rome. View image in fullscreen Jaume Collboni described the housing crisis as an unprecedented internal threat to the bloc. The city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, has joined calls for an affordable housing fund.

10.50 CET Morning opening: Crunch time Jakub KrupaKey Ukraine-US talks are set to continue in Berlin today after five hours of negotiations on Sunday, with a group of European leaders later joining the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to show their solidarity with Kyiv. Moscow has been publicly dismissive of any calls put forward by Ukraine’s European partners so far. Whether they will succeed in making progress on either of the two things remains to be seen. But US president Donald Trump, who only last week branded EU leaders as weak and indecisive, will be certainly looking at their actions to see if they want to challenge his thinking about them. It’s Monday, 15 December 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

CNBC's Jim Cramer reviewed recent market action and made the case for Procter & Gamble . "My favorite tech stocks right now are the business-to-business users of technology," he said. Procter & Gamble owns many well-known household and hygiene brands including Pampers, Crest, Olay, Gillette, Dawn, Febreze and Mr. Clean. Cramer dubbed Procter & Gamble a buy at these levels, saying "in this whacky market, you want those who use the technology, not those who make it." "These big tech stocks can't advance unless they can rein in their spending," he said.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism,” he said. “The Jewish community are hurting today. “We have a government that sees antisemitism as a problem to be managed, not evil that needs to be eradicated,” she said. We need a whole series of actions that involve the public sector and government ministers, in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders, community activities. “We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders.

Keir Starmer is a key partner in this process, and he will be flying to Germany to attend. The government is announcing that councils will receive a further £19m aimed at providing safe housing for domestic abuse survivors as part of the violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy. Around £500m will go towards the domestic abuse safe accommodation duty, which places a statutory requirement on local authorities to provide support to survivors and children in safe accommodation. 10.30am: Rishi Sunak, the former PM and former chancellor, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry about the economic response to the pandemic. 2pm: Keir Starmer gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.

Kast was running for the third time and had built his campaign on the claim that rising migration over the past decade had fuelled a rise in crime. Kast is the first post-dictatorship president to openly declare himself an admirer of Augusto Pinochet, under whose regime an estimated 40,000 people were tortured and more than 3,000 killed. “What we are seeing with Kast is a return to the origins of a right that clearly did not have democratic credentials,” said Kaltwasser. She attributes this wave largely to a widespread public belief that Bukele’s measures have been successful in El Salvador. Pellegrini added: “Conducting strikes – or extrajudicial killings, as the UN has called them – is clearly sending a message to governments across the region that human rights are no longer a priority for the US and that the cost of committing human rights violations is much lower.

Celebrities and lawmakers from both of the US’s major political parties are condemning Donald Trump after the president blamed the death of Rob Reiner on what he described as the acclaimed Hollywood director’s dislike of him. That killing prompted reprisals from the White House against those who cited Kirk’s history of hostile rhetoric toward immigrants, women and other marginalized groups. And Goldberg said: “I don’t understand the man in the White House. So sick.”US House member Zoe Lofgren, another California Democrat, called Trump’s comments “a new low for this petty, hateful man”. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.”Greene’s fellow Republican US House member Thomas Massie struck a similar chord.

In a Sunday court filing , iRobot said it had between $100 million and $500 million of assets and liabilities. Colin Angle, co-founder and former CEO of iRobot , on Monday said the company's move to declare bankruptcy was "profoundly disappointing" and "nothing short of a tragedy for consumers." Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called regulators' efforts to block the deal a "sad story" and said it would've given iRobot a competitive boost against rivals. He added that iRobot's bankruptcy serves as a "warning" for competition watchdogs. Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO, said in a statement Monday that the restructuring plan would help secure the company's "long-term future."

Washington has blamed ISIL (ISIS) for the attack and promised retaliation. Three US soldiers have been killed in an attack in Syria’s central city of Palmyra. Washington has accused the ISIL (ISIS) group of carrying out the assault. The government in Damascus has expanded its ties with Washington and joined a coalition to fight the ISIL group. But how much of a security challenge is ISIL in Syria?

"There's no magic in the business model, and that transparency aligns us fully with that person." Levchin gave some insight into consumer behavior over the holiday season, saying Affirm saw a large increase in spending on travel, especially among Gen Z shoppers. He also said his company saw a "big rebound" in spending on sports goods, a category that lagged last year. So they're paying their bills back, but they're looking to stretch their dollar," Levchin said of Affirm users. They're looking for deals."

Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that “the frontline is everywhere”, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday. A public inquiry into the death of Sturgess, who accidentally picked up the poison bottle, concluded this month that the Russian president was “morally responsible”. Metreweli took over from Richard Moore as the chief of MI6, or C, in October. Previously she was MI6’s head of its technology and innovation department, or Q, and spent most of her career in the Middle East and Europe. Our security, our prosperity, and our humanity depend on it,” the new chief will say.

The town in Gujarat accounts for nearly 98 percent of India’s total and about a third of the global ship recycling volume. With its unique tidal pattern and gently sloping beach, Alang in the 1980s became the backbone of India’s ship recycling industry, where ships could be beached and dismantled at a minimal cost. In Alang, ships are driven ashore at high tide — a process called beaching. “But what’s going wrong in Alang has multiple reasons,” says Haresh Parmar, secretary of the Ship Recycling Industries Association (India). These measures made Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling Yards (ASSRY) one of the most compliant ship-recycling clusters in the developing world, with 106 of ASSRY yards having received HKC Statements of Compliance (SoC).

Thrive Capital, the tech investment firm known for taking big stakes in companies including OpenAI, Stripe and Databricks, announced on Monday that it's tapped Palantir veteran Jim Siders to serve as CEO of Shield Technology Partners, a newly created business focused on IT services. Siders spent more than 12 years at Palantir, where he most recently served as chief information officer, overseeing global IT operations, business applications and infrastructure. Shield was launched in June by Thrive Holdings and investment firm ZBS Partners, with over $100 million in initial funding. As of December, Shield works with seven companies and is expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue this year, Thrive said. Shield primarily works with small and mid-sized businesses, and has ambitions to expand its portfolio going forward.

The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new initiative dubbed the "U.S. Tech Force," comprising about 1,000 engineers and other specialists who will work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology projects throughout the federal government. Those "private sector partners" include Amazon Web Services , Apple , Google Public Sector, Dell Technologies , Microsoft , Nvidia , OpenAI, Oracle , Palantir , Salesforce and numerous others, the website says. The Tech Force shows the Trump administration increasing its focus on developing America's AI infrastructure as it competes with China for dominance in the rapidly growing industry. Once Tech Force members complete their two terms, they can seek full-time jobs with those companies, who have committed to consider the programs' alumni for employment. The private partners can also nominate their employees to do stints of government service.

Britain is caught in “a space between peace and war” complicated by the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies dominated by powerful individuals and corporations, according to the new head of MI6. The order of world institutions “designed in the ashes of the second world war” was, she said, being deliberately contested “from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom” and “even our brains” through deliberate online disinformation. She argued Britain and the world were “now operating in a space between peace and war” – a state in which the spy agency, traditionally focused on running agents and working with human sources, had to contend with. MI6, she said, had to become “fluent in technology” and anticipate the impact of future advances. Metreweli, 48, took over as the head of MI6, the UK’s international spy agency, in September, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

In the corner of one of Westminster’s endless Christmas receptions, a Conservative veteran of the Brexit years admits they are somewhat baffled by the frenzied leadership speculation among the new Labour ranks. Yes, the Labour leader is polling at historic lows – but things can get a lot worse. “This is not like Hartlepool,” one cabinet minister says, referring to the byelection that almost saw Starmer quit as Labour leader. For Labour, this is a particularly diverting topic of conversation, because no one knows exactly how a leadership challenge could come about. View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham has been repeatedly mentioned in Labour leadership speculation.

The company is also scrapping a next-generation electric truck, codenamed the T3, as well as planned electric commercial vans. About $8.5bn is related to cancelling planned EV models. Ford effectively killed the entirety of its announced second-generation of EV models with Monday’s announcement. For its future EV lineup, the company is shifting focus to more affordable EV models, conceived by a so-called skunkworks team in California. This midsize EV truck is being built at Ford’s Louisville plant.

The UK has signed a new trade deal with South Korea designed to increase exports of cars, Scottish salmon and Guinness canned in Britain. It follows UK deals with India and the US, and the free trade agreement with the EU clinched this year. Existing trade between the UK and South Korea is worth more than £15bn a year under a 2019 post-Brexit arrangement. View image in fullscreen The trade minister Chris Bryant tries a racing simulation at Samsung in London to mark the end of negotiations on the UK-South Korea deal. The deal also gives British exporters tariff-free trade on 98% of goods, aligning it with the EU’s trade deal with Seoul.

But they should become professionals licensed by the state. But they will need to be operated by humans who are licensed professionals. Having a state license means you’ve worked through an educational program and most likely sat for an exam that has validated your competence. Getting a professional license will result in a higher-paid job, certainly more than another applicant without one. Having a state license not only provides you with a leg up to get a job, it also better enables you to start your own business, if you so choose to do.

The deal between the federal and state governments aimed to make gun laws broadly uniform across states and territories. Albanese said Bondi beach was a place associated with joy and celebrations but was “forever tarnished by what has occurred last evening”. Police said they had closed Bondi beach and surrounding roads on Monday to allow detectives from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team to investigate, but some people were walking and swimming at the beach early in the morning. 1:10 Video shows Hanukah celebrations moments before Bondi beach mass shooting – videoThe prime minister and the leader of the opposition, Sussan Ley, visited Bondi beach on Monday morning. The president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, said the attack showed “antisemitism has well and truly found a place here in our beloved country”.

Five big storiesUK news | British police forces are stepping up security in Jewish communities after the antisemitic terror attack at Bondi beach in Australia. Instead, shortly before 6.50pm on Sunday, gunfire erupted at a family-friendly Hanukah event at Archer Park, just behind Bondi beach, sending hundreds of people fleeing in terror. “Hero of the Bondi Beach massacre” says the Mail, in reference to the man who disarmed one of the two alleged attackers. The i paper leads with “The hero of Bondi beach”, the Telegraph has “Hate and heroism on Bondi” and the Mirror runs “Horror and heroism at Bondi”. Top story at the Times is “Bloodbath at Bondi beach” and the Sun says “Bondi fiends dad & son”.

That same month, Bosnian Serb forces, supported by the Yugoslav People’s Army and paramilitaries, launched coordinated attacks within the country to seize territory and expel non-Serb communities. ICTY judgements and UN investigators have blamed Bosnian Serb forces for these attacks. The enclave was overcrowded and had become dependent on irregular UN aid convoys, and Bosnian Serb forces controlled the surrounding areas. In early July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces advanced on the enclave. In 2016, he received a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including his role in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

The US company behind the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner has filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to be taken over by one of its Chinese suppliers. iRobot, which is best known for debuting the Roomba vacuum cleaner in the early 2000s, will be taken over by a subsidiary of its main supplier, Picea Robotics. The Roomba maker, which is listed in the US, said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware as part of a restructuring agreement with Picea. The iRobot chief executive, Gary Cohen, said the deal with Picea would strengthen the company’s financial position. The company said the bankruptcy filing was not expected to disrupt its app, supply chains or product support.

Data from the NSW firearms registry shows that about a third of the state’s approximately 1m firearms are located in major cities. It is not clear whether this would have affected the father’s gun licence, or whether the NSW firearms registry was aware of this association. Show After the 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur that killed 35 people, the Australian government enacted the national firearms agreement. Lanyon later confirmed that the older shooter held a recreational hunting licence as a member of a gun club. Hunting and gun club membership is one avenue to obtain a gun licence across most Australian jurisdictions.

The shooter responsible for the Bondi Beach attack was a licensed firearms holder who owned six firearms, police say. The murder of at least 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach by two gunmen on Sunday was a rare occurrence in a country that is known for its strict gun laws. Here’s a closer look at what took place, despite Australia’s strict gun laws. Lanyon said the father “is a licensed firearms holder who had six firearms licensed to him”, emphasising that he “met the eligibility criteria for a firearms licence”. How strict are Australia’s gun laws?

Forget toys and collectibles, crypto might be a hot ticket item this holiday season. In the U.S. 45% of Gen Z adults aged 18 to 28 said they would be excited to receive cryptocurrency as a holiday gift this year, according to a global survey of 1,000 adults conducted by payment technology company Visa in October. How wise it is to gift crypto is a separate matter, and the expert advice varies. Given how volatile and speculative cryptocurrencies are, they can be risky and are ill-advised if you're looking to gift an asset that will grow in value, says Flavio Landivar, a certified financial planner and senior financial advisor at Evensky and Katz/Foldes Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. Unlike publicly traded stocks or exchange-traded funds that represent ownership of a tangible asset like a business, cryptocurrencies have no "real, underlying intrinsic value," Landivar says.

Korea Zinc will start the project by acquiring two mining complexes and the only US zinc smelter, which is in Tennessee. Korea Zinc, the world’s largest zinc smelter, has announced a $7.4bn smelter project that will be funded largely by the United States government as Washington pushes to cut its reliance on China for a range of critical minerals. Nyrstar said the sale of its US assets to Korea Zinc is expected to close in the first half of 2026. The administration has expanded its critical minerals list by adding copper, metallurgical coal, uranium, phosphate, potash, rhenium, silicon and silver. China dominates the world’s supply of critical minerals, such as antimony and germanium, which are used in telecommunications equipment, semiconductors and military technology.

Baron Capital on Monday launched five actively managed exchange-traded funds, betting that its long-term record – including a large, early investment in SpaceX – will translate to growing demand for active strategies in an ETF format. The new funds – the Baron First Principles ETF (RONB), Baron Global Durable Advantage ETF (BCGD), Baron SMID Cap ETF (BCSM), Baron Financials ETF (BCFN) and Baron Technology ETF (BCTK) – began trading on Monday. Each ETF is designed to mirror investment approaches that Baron Capital has used for decades across its mutual funds and private accounts. Baron Capital founder, CEO and chairman Ron Baron said SpaceX, which is eyeing one of the largest IPOs ever, has exceeded Tesla to become the firm's largest investment at about $10 billion. SpaceX's rapidly expanding Starlink satellite network is a key driver of its long-term investment thesis, Baron said.

Dr Susan Monarez, the former director of the CDC, will lead California’s new public health initiative, the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX). Monarez had clashed with Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy. PHNIX was created to modernize the state’s public health infrastructure and serve as a direct response to the Trump administration’s dismantling of public health safeguards and prioritization of vaccine skepticism. “The Public Health Network Innovation Exchange is expected to bring together the best science, the best tools, and the best minds to advance public health,” Newsom said in a statement. Newsom has also further cemented California as a symbol of Trump resistance through participation in the West Coast Health Alliance and the Governors Public Health Alliance.

When Donald Trump posted during his first term on what was then called Twitter, his attacks and rants differed significantly from US federal agency staff’s more cautious and traditional approach on social media. Much of the federal bureaucracy is also now deliberately provocative on social media, using memes and humor and insults. Unlike radio, which just broadcasts messages, users inhabit social media and see content based on data gathered about them, Srinivasan said. Some other places do treat social media differently. Germany also has laws to prevent hate speech on social media.

She says some of the best career advice she's gotten came from ex-boss Maureen Chiquet, the former Chanel CEO, who gave her a three-question framework to figure out if she was ready for a new job or career change. "I often ask people three questions when you're making a career decision," Kramer tells CNBC Make It:What do you want to learn or what do you want to teach? Meanwhile, having worked on the Ralph Lauren fragrance business, she felt she could bring that knowledge to working on Chanel's fragrances including Chanel No. Kramer recommends using this framework when looking for a new job and narrowing what opportunities you want to pursue. She also says it can be used to evaluate the job you're already in when paired with a "traffic light" method.

A Pakistani man living in Australia has spoken of his “deep trauma” and said his life had become a “nightmare” after his photo was widely circulated on social media falsely labelling him as one of the shooters in the Bondi beach terror attack. Police on Monday identified the two alleged shooters as father and son Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24. None of the Facebook or X posts that wrongly showed Akram’s image were given warning labels or community notes by the platform’s factcheckers to flag it as misinformation. He called on the social media platform to take responsibility for giving a platform to misinformation. Contributing to the pile-on, one user labelled the Bonnyrigg home address of the alleged shooter as a mosque on Google Maps.

Venezuela’s government has lashed out at the European Council over its decision to renew sanctions against the South American country until 2027, calling the measures “a complete failure”. The sanctions, first introduced in 2017, include an embargo on arms shipments to Venezuela, as well as travel bans and asset freezes on individuals linked to state repression. On Monday morning, the European Council announced its plans to renew sanctions on Venezuela until January 10, 2027, citing “persistent actions undermining democracy and the rule of law” and human rights violations under the administration of President Nicolas Maduro. ‘Futile’ sanctionsAccording to the European Union, 69 people were subject to asset freezes and travel bans under the sanctions as of January this year. AdvertisementBut the Venezuelan government rejected the sanctions as “futile”, describing them as part of “an erratic foreign policy lacking autonomy” and slamming “the European Union’s growing irrelevance as an international actor”.

Almost half of all people using employment services received threats to suspend their payments in the last quarter, new data has revealed. In an October 2025 Senate estimates hearing, Senator Jess Walsh said the government knew Centrelink payment suspensions were causing harm, but defended leaving them on despite questions over whether they were used lawfully. Of the 618,000 payment suspension notices issued, 347,000 were issued by employment service providers and resulted in at least a temporary pause of payment. That amounts to nearly half of all employment services participants receiving a threat of payment suspension in a single quarter, analysis by the Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) showed. “Where incorrectly or inappropriately applied non-compliance action is identified, including payment suspensions, the department overturns these decisions and gives feedback to providers about why those decisions were reversed.”

Little Foot, one of the world’s most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past. Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. Prof Ronald Clarke, a paleoanthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, who led the team that excavated the skeleton, attributed Little Foot to the species Australopithecus prometheus. View image in fullscreen Students visit Sterkfontein where Little Foot was discovered. The fossil skeleton has been dated as 3.67m years old, but other scientists have suggested Little Foot cannot be older than 2.8m years.

Some parents treated Budge Studios’ 2023 mobile game Bluey: Let’s Play! Later that same year, Artax Games’ Bluey: The Videogame was widely criticised on release for its barely two-hour run time, technical problems and $60 price tag. When Brumm suggested Deo should pitch BBC Studios, other Bluey games were already under way. “They take a lot of pride in being the first Australian team to work on a Bluey game,” he says. It is another win for the Australian games industry after Adelaide-made Hollow Knight: Silksong’s immense popularity crashed global storefronts in September.

Leaders around the world expressed their horror at Sunday’s terrorist attack on Bondi beach, in which at least 16 people died, mixed in some cases with harsh words for the Australian government for alleged shortcomings in tackling antisemitism over the past two years. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia.”The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the news was “deeply distressing”. “The United Kingdom sends our thoughts and condolences to everyone affected by the appalling ‍attack in Bondi beach.”King Charles said he and Camilla were “appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack”. “My thoughts, and the thoughts of all New Zealanders, are with those affected,” he said. “My heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this first day of Hanukkah, a festival celebrating the miracle of peace and light vanquishing darkness.”

The ultra-conservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president. With more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.17% of the vote, against 41.83% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric. This was Kast’s third attempt at the presidency: in 2021, he was defeated by Boric in the runoff. Despite his sweeping victory, Kast will not command an absolute majority in Congress, neither in the lower house nor in the Senate, even when counting all rightwing parties together. The ultra-conservative has pledged to cut public spending by $6bn within 18 months, but has not explained how he intends to do so.

Long-awaited verdicts in Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s national security trial will be delivered on Monday, one of the city’s most closely watched rulings since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. He became a prime target after Beijing imposed the sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, a year after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that Beijing “firmly supports” Hong Kong in “safeguarding national security in accordance with the law and punishing criminal acts that endanger national security”. The Hong Kong government said on Friday that Lai had received “adequate and comprehensive” medical services and that “no complaints” had been raised. Lai countered that he had never tried to influence other countries’ foreign policies on Hong Kong and China through his overseas contacts.