Australian athlete becomes first female winner of Antarctic Ice MarathonNewsFeed Australian athlete becomes first female winner of Antarctic Ice MarathonAustralian athlete Catherine Drysdale has won the Antarctic Ice Marathon, becoming the first woman to take the title in the race’s 20-year history. She completed the 42.4-kilometre race in freezing temperatures and strong winds near the South Pole.

Berlin prosecutors say they have charged a member of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party with making a Nazi salute in parliament. The suspect allegedly “greeted a party colleague … at the east entrance to the Reichstag building with a heel click and a Hitler salute” in June 2023, the prosecutors said in a statement issued on Monday. Making such a salute is illegal in Germany and is punishable by up to three years in prison. The newspaper Bild named the politician as Matthias Moosdorf, 60, a member of parliament for Zwickau in the former East German state of Saxony. Moosdorf has been a member of the AfD since 2016 and was until recently a foreign policy spokesperson for the party’s parliamentary group.

Two students who died in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University were being remembered Monday – as a manhunt for their killer continued following the release by authorities in Rhode Island of the sole person of interest detained in the case. Thinking of her family and friends, especially her parents.”Ella Cook Photograph: GoFundMeThe other person killed was MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek national in his first year of studies at the Ivy League university, family members said. “He always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation, and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew. Our family is incredibly devastated by this loss,” Umurzokov’s sister said in a statement accompanying the GoFundMe appeal. The Gun Violence Archive, a non-partisan resource, defines mass shootings as ones in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

Who stopped the Bondi attack? Compare & Contrast Who stopped the Bondi attack? We compare and contrast Netanyahu calling the Bondi shooter’s disarmer Jewish vs. his cousin saying he’s Syrian Muslim.

The protest is said to be the largest coordinated hunger strike in UK prisons since 1981 when Irish Republican inmates led by Bobby Sands refused food. The demands of the pro-Palestine hunger strikers include immediate bail, the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action. ‘Crisis point for activists’Qesser Zuhrah, 20, and Amu Gib were the first to go on hunger strike 44 days ago. “Reports that Palestine Action activists on hunger strike have been hospitalised due to seriously deteriorating health send chills down the spine,” Amnesty International UK said. “It made me feel more sick, knowing that the people who are in a position to help end this hunger strike are not engaging.”

"The AI market has been on a wild ride lately," the toy based on the Ultraman character cautioned. Haivivi is one of 1,500 companies in China's $4 billion dollar AI toy industry. So it will learn what kind of thing you like," Sean Xu, director of AI products with Chongker, told CNBC. The electronic pulse is triggered after holding the AI pet tightly for 10 seconds. If a potential shopper prefers a high energy toy, Loona the AI puppy by Keyi Tech uses cameras and lasers to zip around its new home.

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize laureate María Corina Machado suffered a vertebra fracture during her secret journey from Venezuela to Norway last week, her spokesperson has confirmed. Machado previously said she feared for her life during the perilous voyage to receive her award in Oslo. “The vertebra fracture is confirmed,” Machado’s spokeswoman Claudia Macera said. She had been due to attend the Nobel peace prize ceremony in the Norwegian capital on Wednesday, but was delayed and did not make it in time. Her fracture did not stop her from climbing over a barrier to greet supporters outside her hotel shortly after her arrival.

A minivan carrying nine passengers has crashed into a tree, killing four people and leaving three children in hospital. Police say the vehicle was travelling along Chapel Road in Muckatah, in northern Victoria near the NSW border, when it crashed about 5pm on Monday. The three children were airlifted to hospital with serious injuries. The driver and a passenger were also seriously injured and were taken to hospital by road. Detectives are travelling to the scene and the circumstances surrounding the crash are yet to be established.

One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, has consolidated its place as the awards-season leader in emerging with the most nominations from the London Critics’ Circle film awards. One Battle After Another, a counter-culture thriller loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, picked up nine nominations, including film of the year, director and screenwriter of the year for Anderson, and actor of the year for DiCaprio. Co-stars Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn were nominated in the supporting categories while Chase Infiniti was nominated for breakthrough performer. In third place, with seven nods, is Ryan Coogler’s juke-joint horror-thriller Sinners, including director and writer nods for Coogler. The awards, which are voted on by more than 200 members of London Critics’ Circle film section, are announced on 1 February at a ceremony in London.

Britain’s biggest business groups have urged Conservative peers to stop blocking Labour’s landmark workers’ rights bill in the House of Lords to avoid throwing away a compromise deal reached with trade unions. It comes as some business leaders warned lifting the cap could enable some high earners to secure unlimited compensation. The lobby groups warned that blocking the bill could put cooperation between business leaders, the government and trade unions at risk, and could lead to the loss of the six-month compromise. Business leaders had stepped up their lobbying efforts against the workers’ rights changes, warning that companies could cut jobs as a result or be forced to put up their prices – with the potential to stoke inflation. Under Kemi Badenoch, the Conservatives have attempted to make in-roads to repairing the party’s bruised relationship with business leaders by promising to rip up Labour’s changes to employment rights.

This past March, when Google began rolling out its AI Mode search capability, it began offering AI-generated recipes. In one memorable case, the Google AI failed to distinguish the satirical website the Onion from legitimate recipe sites and advised users to cook with non-toxic glue. Without this essential IP, many food bloggers earn their living by offering their work for free while using ads to make money. It’s Google itself, with its changes to the algorithm and now with AI Mode, that’s making the sites harder to find. Photograph: Maskot/Getty ImagesBut unless the public rebels against AI Mode, there is only so much bloggers can do.

Ukraine peace talks intensify as EU debates use of frozen Russian assetsNewsFeed Ukraine peace talks intensify as EU debates use of frozen Russian assetsAs Ukraine peace talks continue, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting European and US officials in Berlin over security guarantees. Meanwhile, the EU is split on using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort. Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reports from Brussels.

The European Union has launched an “air bridge” to bring eight planeloads of humanitarian aid into Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region. The first flight left on Friday, delivering about 100 tonnes of aid from “EU humanitarian stockpiles and partner organisations”, the commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations said in a statement. The paramilitary has now set its sights on Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State; Dilling, also in South Kordofan; and the North Kordofan State capital, el-Obeid. The UN has repeatedly warned that the Kordofan region is in danger of witnessing a repeat of the atrocities that unfolded in el-Fasher. With the RSF in control of all of Darfur’s major cities, Sudan in effect is split in two.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is prepared to abandon Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership in exchange for tighter Western security guarantees. So will Kyiv be able to get security guarantees from its Western allies? “From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO; these are real security guarantees. The Ukrainian president also stressed that new security guarantees must be legally binding and endorsed by the US government. The security guarantees now under discussion would fall short of NATO’s Article 5 – meaning an attack on one is an attack on all.

Kevin Hassett's candidacy for the Federal Reserve chair, once seen by the market as almost a sure thing, has received some pushback by high-level people who have the ear of President Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with the matter. The pushback could help explain why interviews with candidates were cancelled in early December and then, at least for Warsh, rescheduled for last week. After telling reporters that he knew who he was going to pick for Fed chair, Trump surprised investors Friday when he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh had moved to the top of the Fed candidates list alongside Hassett. The pushback has taken more of the form of promoting Warsh, rather than criticizing Hassett. But as December wore on, according to several sources, Hassett's candidacy received some resistance, with worries growing that the bond market could revolt over time if it sees him as too much in the pocket of Trump.

While effective meetings can support employee engagement, alignment and decision-making, people are often roped into meetings that feel unnecessary. "By framing your agenda as questions, now you have to really stop and think, why am I having this meeting?" "By framing your agenda as questions, you have a better sense of who has to be there because they're relevant to the questions. By framing your agenda as questions, you know if the meeting has been successful or not, if the questions have been answered." Besides canceling or declining unnecessary meetings, you can still improve necessary ones by shortening them or reducing them in size or frequency in many cases.

Australia’s prime minister has rejected accusations from his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state earlier this year had contributed to Sunday’s deadly antisemitic terrorist attack on Bondi beach in Sydney. In an interview with national broadcasters, Anthony Albanese was asked if he accepted “any link between that recognition and the massacre in Bondi”. Albanese did not directly respond to Netanyahu’s accusation that he had “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement” when fighting antisemitism. Jewish community leaders echoed the call for more action. The Labor government has been mindful of Australia’s multicultural society, including the numerous and electorally powerful migrant community from Lebanon.

Glaciers in the European Alps are likely to reach their peak rate of extinction in only eight years, according to a study, with more than 100 due to melt away permanently by 2033. The melting of glaciers driven by human-caused global heating is one of the clearest signs of the climate crisis. Under this scenario, glacier losses would peak at about 3,000 a year in 2040 and plateau at that rate until 2060. Larger glaciers take longer to melt, with those in Greenland reaching their peak extinction rate in about 2063 – losing 40% by 2100 under 1.5C of heating and 59% under 2.7C. The researchers said the peak loss dates represent more than a numerical milestone.

Nick Reiner has been arrested following after the death of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, according to Los Angeles jail records. On arrival, they found a man, 78, and a woman, 68, dead, which were later confirmed to be Rob and Michele. A spokesperson for the Reiner family confirmed their deaths on Sunday evening. “It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” the family spokesperson said in a statement to media. Promoting the film, Rob Reiner said that much of the film was based in autobiography.

Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar told a Minneapolis broadcaster that her son had been stopped over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, after Donald Trump ordered an operation targeting the Minnesota city’s Somali population. “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,” Omar said on Sunday in an interview with WCCO. She added that her son, who she did not name, had earlier been praying at a mosque when ICE agents arrived and entered, before leaving without incident. The president recently went on a racist rant against Somalis, calling them “garbage” and saying Omar “should be thrown the hell out of our country”. The Trump administration has deployed immigration agents to Minnesota’s Twin Cities area to target undocumented Somalis and Latinos.

Judicial opinions allowing the government to suppress speech in the name of national security rarely stand the test of time. But time has been unusually unkind to the US supreme court decision that upheld the law banning TikTok, the short-form video platform. And courts are not supposed to allow the government to side-step that review simply by declaring that national security requires censorship. Events since the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban have only underscored why the justices were wrong to defer to the government’s arguments. Over the coming months, the supreme court will confront other cases in which the government invokes national security to justify the suppression of speech.

Rob Reiner’s son Nick has been taken into custody after the deaths of the director-writer and his wife, Michele, according to US media reports. The LA Police Department said in a statement on Sunday that they were investigating the deaths of two people in an apparent homicide. More to come…

Fouad Naal, 52, was in Sednaya and Adra prisons for 21 years until December 8, 2024. Hundreds of thousands of people have disappeared in the al-Assad prison network. Although swearing was forbidden in the prison, Naal began swearing at the guards to try to elicit a response. “Guns were on the ground next to abandoned military uniforms.”As they continued walking, Naal said he and his fellow prisoners encountered soldiers. Just a couple of days before this interview, he revisited Sednaya Prison with a group of Syrians and Ukrainians.

Rob Reiner discusses the story of "Spinal Tap" at 92NY on September 15, 2025 in New York City. President Donald Trump slammed Rob Reiner on Monday morning, a day after the famed Hollywood director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found brutally slain in their Los Angeles home. That online record for Nick Reiner did not show any charges. Trump suggested that the couple was killed because of "the anger" Rob Reiner caused in other people due to his opposition to the president. However, there is no evidence to suggest that this is the case, and the police have not provided any motive.

The Home Office has failed to protect vulnerable migrants it locks up in detention centres, a high court judge has ruled. The case was brought by two detainees from Egypt and Bangladesh who were detained between 28 July 2023 and 11 March 2024. Both were detained at Brook House immigration detention centre near Gatwick, where undercover filming by BBC Panorama revealed abuses of vulnerable detainees by guards in 2017. The subsequent Brook House public inquiry raised multiple concerns about risks for vulnerable immigration detainees. “This has put countless immigration detainees with serious mental illness or suicidality at a real risk of harm.”Detention charities are calling for rules that exist on paper to protect vulnerable detainees to be implemented.

Resident doctors in England will go ahead with a five-day strike this week after rejecting the government’s latest offer aimed at ending a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions. “Tens of thousands of frontline doctors have come together to say ‘no’ to what is clearly too little, too late,” BMA resident doctors committee chairman Jack Fletcher said in a statement, adding that members had rejected the government’s latest offer on working conditions. Health Secretary Wes Streeting appealed to doctors to call off the strike. The BMA said 83 percent of resident doctors voted to reject the government’s offer with a turnout of 65 percent among its more than 50,000 members. The BMA has also called for improvements beyond the 5.4 percent pay increase announced earlier this year, arguing resident doctors continue to suffer from years of pay erosion.

Many damaged homes in Gaza collapsed during the recent storm, trapping people in their rubble. Overcrowding inside damaged homes further stresses weakened structures as multiple families are often forced to live together in a single house or floor. Often, they have no other option, or they see damaged homes as better shelter than deteriorating tents. According to the Government Media Office, 13 homes collapsed and 27,000 tents were flooded or swept away. The Civil Defence has urged residents to get out of damaged homes during the storms.

NewsFeed Louvre shut down as museum staff stage strike over working conditionsMany tourists in Paris were disappointed Monday morning when the Louvre was closed after workers walked off the job during one of the busiest times of the year. The union is demanding better working conditions and urgent renovations at the museum.

We're trimming our position in GE Vernova to lock in big gains after the stock's recent rally. In addition to Monday's trim, we are also downgrading GE Vernova to our hold-equivalent 2 rating and reiterating our $800 price target. From this sale, we will realize a strong gain of about 61% on GE Vernova shares purchased in May 2025. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

Rishi Sunak was concerned about the UK’s ability to fund itself in March 2020 after the government announced rescue measures costing tens of billions of pounds to prevent mass redundancies, the Covid-19 pandemic inquiry has heard. Reflecting on the chaos in the early days of the pandemic, Sunak said it was “acutely stressful” to see the interest bill on government bonds rising after only a month as chancellor. The market for UK government bonds, also known as gilts – the oldest major asset market in the world – was witnessing major turmoil in April 2020. Sunak said: “I’d been chancellor for, you know, what felt like five seconds and then you could see a very material tightening in UK financial conditions. Sunak said that in the early days of the pandemic his priority was to protect people’s jobs, household incomes and to ensure businesses did not fail.

Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, is once again facing criticism for rushing to social media to tout his agency’s work on tracking down a person of interest in a shooting prematurely. But the person of interest was later released from custody hours later, and the shooter is still at large. “Always looking to declare victory while seeking praise.”Adam Cochran, a commentator with more than 265,000 followers on X, said: “Kash Patel needs to immediately resign his post,” citing his incompetence. Some have referred to him as “Keystone Kash,” a reference to slapstick policing by Keystone cops depicted in silent films. The FBI sources told a national group that Patel doesn’t have the experience necessary to run the agency, leaving it a “rudderless ship”.

Satellite images reviewed by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency show that the Israeli military has continued to demolish buildings in areas of Gaza it has occupied since a ceasefire with Hamas went into effect. Legal experts and United Nations officials have said throughout the war that the destruction of civilian infrastructure could constitute a war crime. Israel has remained in control of about 58 percent of Gaza since the ceasefire began, withdrawing behind the so-called “yellow line” that divides coastal Gaza from its border regions. Before its creation, there were 39 active Israeli military points inside the enclave, according to Sanad. At the time, Badran said that Hamas viewed Israeli demolitions in the area as a continuation of military operations.

NewsFeed Palestinians in Gaza fear rain as war-damaged buildings collapseStorms in Gaza have caused war-damaged buildings to collapse, killing civilians and leaving many Palestinians afraid to stay in their homes. With tents offering little protection, residents say rain now brings fear instead of relief.

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. 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. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

When they arrived at the courthouse four unmarked ICE vehicles “surrounded and blocked” Ramirez Sanan’s car, according to the lawsuit. “ICE officers questioned the shaking, crying 13-year-old about his legal status, age, and who he lived with. Her lawyers said she suffered a concussion, bruising, and a radial nerve palsy from her arm was twisted while ICE officers handcuffed her. “My family is broken and will never be the same,” Ramirez Sanan said. “The ICE officers did not even identify themselves, let alone provide an explanation or warrant, before violently assaulting the family.

One of the world’s biggest providers of educational services has been fined more than £2m for a range of serious breaches related to examination standards that could have affected tens of thousands of students. The cases concerned GCSE English language exams, A-level spoken Chinese and an online English proficiency test. In the case of the English proficiency test, Pearson was fined £750,000 when it emerged that in 2023 it had allowed about 5% of candidates to take the test online at home, rather than at a secure centre. The GCSE English breach concerned the risk of inconsistent grading standards. Ofqual fined Pearson £1.2m in 2022 for failures with reviews of marking arrangements between 2016 and 2019.

The government of Trinidad and Tobago has announced it will allow the US military access to its airports in coming weeks as tensions build between the US and Venezuela. The announcement follows the recent installation of a radar system at the airport in Tobago. But critics of the government say Trinidad and Tobago risks being drawn into Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro. It has two main airports: Piarco international in Trinidad and ANR Robinson international in Tobago. In October, a US warship docked in Trinidad’s capital as the administration of Donald Trump increases military pressure on Venezuela.

A peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will fail unless it is backed up by “robust” security guarantees from western powers, the UK prime minister has said. Starmer said: “European history is full of peace agreements that failed and sometimes led to even greater conflict. Starmer hosted the Ukrainian president along with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, at Downing Street last week in a coordinated show of support. In return Zelenskyy and his European allies are pushing for “article-5-like” security guarantees from Europe and the US, referring to Nato’s founding principle that an attack on one member country should be seen as an attack on all. Starmer has said the UK is willing to commit troops to defend Ukrainian sovereignty as part of a multinational force.

Morrisons has become the first UK supermarket chain to postpone its net zero carbon emission targets, delaying them by 15 years to 2050. Britain’s fifth-biggest grocer said its new targets would cover the entire supply chain, as well as Morrisons stores, including emissions from agriculture and land-use sources. The Bradford-based company said it had achieved a 22% reduction in total carbon emissions since 2019, its baseline, through operational changes, energy-efficiency projects, lower-carbon logistics and collaboration with its suppliers. The government, under energy secretary Ed Miliband, has a target of reaching net zero in the UK by 2050, with interim carbon budgets for 2030 and beyond. The German discounter Lidl has moved closer to overtaking Morrisons as the UK’s fifth biggest supermarket chain, behind Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi.

An afternoon with Keir Starmer isn’t necessarily many people’s idea of fun. To be fair, Keir also gives the impression he would rather not spend the afternoon with himself. He’s a man who has no trouble putting himself to sleep with his tortured use of English. Mind you, he isn’t the first prime minister to have worked out that boring the committee to death is the best strategy. This farm tax wasn’t targeting farmers.

Authorities in Gaza have warned that stormy weather could spur more war-damaged buildings to collapse and heavy rains are making it more difficult to recover bodies still under the rubble. The bodies were recovered from a multistorey building bombed in December 2023 where about 60 people, including 30 children, were believed to be sheltering. Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal called on the international community to provide mobile homes and caravans for displaced Palestinians rather than tents. Nassar went out to buy some necessities on Friday and returned to a scene of carnage as rescue workers struggled to pull bodies from the rubble. Israel’s continuing ban on the entry of heavy machinery into the Gaza Strip is a violation of the ceasefire, he added.

Zillow shares plunged more than 9% on Monday on worries that the online real estate platform could have a big new competitor: Google Search. Google appears to be running tests on putting real estate sale listings into its search results. Over the weekend, real estate tech strategist Mike DelPrete published mobile phone screenshots of Google Search results showing real estate listings, which appeared to be powered by real estate data company "HouseCanary." The decline in Zillow signals investors are bracing for the eventual impact of Google's foray into the real estate market. We would expect a similar approach in real estate, with Zillow, Homes.com, Realtor.com, etc.

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference at the office of the Attorney General on December 15, 2025 in New York City. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused delivery giant UPS of cheating seasonal holiday workers out of millions of dollars in legally owed wages, according to a new lawsuit filed Monday. The suit in Manhattan Supreme Court, filed 10 days before Christmas, alleges that UPS failed to pay seasonal workers minimum wages, promised wages, and overtime wages, in violation of state and federal labor law. The suit notes that during its peak season, which runs from October to January, UPS hires thousands of temporary workers at at least 55 facilities in New York state. UPS, in a statement, said, "We are aware of the news from the New York Attorney's General Office and, as a matter of policy, do not comment on ongoing litigation.

However, he was criticised by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, who called on Keir Starmer to condemn Vince. A Labour spokesperson said there “can never and should never be any excuses made for barbaric acts of terrorism”. It is understood that Vince is not a Labour member, and has not donated to the party since May 2024. In a post sent on Sunday afternoon, the same day as the gun attack at Bondi beach, Vince quoted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, saying “antisemitism spreads when leaders stay silent”. 3:22 'We had nowhere to go': eyewitnesses recount Bondi beach mass shooting – videoIn a later statement, Vince said: “To be clear – Netanyahu blamed Australian government policy for the terror attack at Bondi Beach.

A group representing the United States travel and tourism industry has warned that a proposal to require millions of foreign visitors to provide social media handles used over the past five years could have a “chilling effect” on visits to the US. It would require travellers from countries in the visa waiver programme to submit the social media data. They must complete an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form, which under the change would require the submission of social media handles. The US State Department said earlier this month that effective December 15, it is requiring all H-1B work visa applicants and their dependents to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public” in order for the department to review social media posts by applicants. US travel businesses are banking on the event to help rebound from a drop in tourism since Trump took office.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a press conference with the German Chancellor at the Chancellery in Berlin, on December 15, 2025. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday joined negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin, which began Sunday. "We believe the Russians, in a final deal, will accept all these things, which will allow for a … strong and free Ukraine," one official said. The official added that the Russians were open to Ukraine joining the European Union. Officials said that about 90% of the issues between Ukraine and Russia have been resolved.

The decision comes amid mounting international pressure over the humanitarian toll of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected one of Israel’s legal challenges seeking to block an investigation into its actions in the genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza, dealing a blow to Israel’s efforts to derail the case. In their decision issued on Monday, judges refused to overturn a lower court decision allowing the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes in Israel’s war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel does not recognise the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and has repeatedly denied committing war crimes in Gaza. Judges rejected that argument, ruling that the original notification issued in 2021 – when the ICC formally opened its investigation into alleged crimes in occupied Palestine – already covered later events.

OpenAI has hired Google's Albert Lee to lead corporate development, a spokesperson for the artificial intelligence startup confirmed to CNBC. Lee previously led corporate development for Google Cloud and Google DeepMind. He worked on several of Google's high-profile acquisitions, including its $32 billion purchase of the cloud security startup Wiz, which the company announced in March. Most recently, OpenAI earlier this month announced a definitive agreement to acquire Neptune, a startup that helps with AI model training. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced Slack CEO Denise Dresser will serve as its chief revenue officer.

The case could see him taken out of the United States and potentially landing back in China eventually. “I’m really, really worried that things will be very bad for him if he is made to return,” Guan’s mother, Luo Yun, told AFP in Chinese. “If he has a chance to remain in the United States, he’ll at least be safe,” she said. Guan left China after filming the videos, eventually entering the United States following travels through South America. He’s still young, and has a long life ahead,” said Guan’s mother.

A super-complaint has been filed against police forces in England and Wales over years-long delays in investigating sexual offences. More than 37,000 sexual offence investigations have taken longer than three years to conclude over the past decade, campaigners said. The super-complaint accuses police of routine de-prioritisation of some sexual offence cases, poor collaboration with the Crown Prosecution Service, and staffing, resourcing and case management issues. The super-complaint highlighted the case of a woman who reported childhood sexual abuse, including rape, to the police in December 2014. The organisations’ complaint comes at a time of unprecedented delays and challenges across the criminal justice system, particularly in sexual offence cases.