Leaders of the “Coalition of the Willing” supporting Ukraine will hold a follow-up videoconference on Thursday, with President Zelensky participating, the French presidency said. European countries are struggling to make up for halted US aid, as overall support for Ukraine has dropped in 2025. While France, Germany, and the UK have increased contributions, Italy and Spain have cut or stopped aid. The European Commission plans to use frozen Russian assets for a major Ukraine loan package, but the proposal faces resistance, especially from Belgium. FRANCE 24’s Dave Keating has the details.
from www.france24.com
03 World
When Pete Hegseth was made Donald Trump’s secretary of war, there was shock and consternation. Since then he has put highly classified plans to bomb Yemen on a group chat and ordered executions of Venezuelans in the sea, reportedly insisting they “kill everybody”, even when the survivors who were seen clinging to a boat could pose no threat.
The former Fox News talkshow host holds one of the most powerful jobs in the world and has come to it with a clear ideology. He wants to bring his “warrior culture” to the US military. Joseph Gedeon, a breaking news reporter for the Guardian US, tells Nosheen Iqbal:
His whole thing is about what he calls the warrior ethos. His whole message is that America fights with one hand tied behind its back because of lawyers, oversight and cultural distractions.
Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, appeared publicly for the first time in nearly a year Thursday, waving to supporters from her Oslo hotel balcony. Her daughter accepted the award on her behalf Wednesday, as Machado arrived in Norway only hours later, ending a long period in hiding under Maduro’s regime.
from www.france24.com
Iceland joins 4 other countries in boycotting Eurovision over Israel’s participation Jewish Telegraphic Agency
from news.google.com
US senators warn of China-cartel links forming a global ‘Silk Road of crime’ South China Morning Post
from news.google.com
How Chinese criminal networks fuel illicit markets across the Americas Brookings
from news.google.com
Trump sanctions Venezuelan model over alleged support for Tren de Aragua– www.washingtonexaminer.com
President Donald Trump leveled sanctions against a major Venezuelan model and influencer over her alleged support for the Tren de Aragua gang.
Jimena Romina Araya Navarro, also known as Rosita, is a famous Venezuelan model, influencer, and DJ who performs at clubs internationally. She’s known for her sizable social media presence, boasting over 3.5 million followers on Instagram, where she posts videos showcasing her glamorous lifestyle. She’s also “romantically linked” to the leader of TdA, Niño Guerrero, and one of the most notable members of the entertainment industry to provide critical support for the deadly TdA.
The designated foreign terrorist organization is known for crimes, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, sexual exploitation of women and children, money laundering, and murder-for-hire, according to the Treasury Department.
Silenced by China, Hong Kong struggles to voice its grief over the Tai Po fire disaster Taipei Times
from news.google.com
The president spoke with reporters on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where he is due to host an honors ceremony. Asked for an update on the Ukraine peace talks, which have accelerated in the last week, Trump aired out his dissatisfaction with Zelensky.
“I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal. That was as of a few hours ago,” he said. “His people love it, but he hasn’t [read it].”
Trump also said he believes Russia’s “fine” with the plan, though added they would “rather have the whole country” of Ukraine.
“But I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it. So, someday you’ll explain that one to me,” the president added.
Trump’s comments are surprising given that negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian delegations in Florida last week were described positively by both sides.
Without oversight from elected federal MPs, Canada’s Department of Immigration had research done to investigate a national ID system using digital passports for domestic use and how such a system would be enforced.
According to Access to Information documents, a senior analyst wrote in a staff email, “One of the things that came up in our discussions with Canadian Digital Services is the assumption the passport would be used within Canada as an identity document.”
“This warrants a policy discussion,” the staff email added.
MPs have soundly rejected any national ID system as both dangerous and costly.
The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy was published last week, setting out the U.S.’s broad foreign policy direction for the remainder of his term. It focused on ending what it calls a “perpetually expanding NATO,” establishing “conditions of stability within Europe,” and encouraging European allies to “stand on [their] own feet” in security matters.
The document also warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” citing migration, censorship of speech, declining birthrates, and what it described as a loss of national identity and self-confidence.
Days after the official release, however, the Defense One website reported that a longer, unreleased version of the NSS had circulated in Washington. According to the site, the unpublished version contained far more explicit political goals for reshaping Europe’s future and reducing the influence of the European Union. Defense One wrote that the extended draft urged the United States to “Make Europe Great Again,” proposing that Washington realign its attention toward a select group of governments ideologically closer to the Trump administration.
China Erupts: Furious Workers Riot As Factories Collapse Under Trump’s Tariffs AOL.com
from news.google.com
Artificial intelligence is putting the creative professions through a round of creative destruction. Generative tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Sora have handed millions of amateurs the means to produce competent art, prose and even studio-quality video at or next to nothing. Disney’s just-announced $1 billion investment in OpenAI, and its plan to let Sora users conjure up scenes featuring more than 200 Disney, Marvel and Star Wars characters, will push the trend further. A teenager with a smartphone may soon generate a convincing Pixar-style short without ever lifting a pencil.
But the same tools are unsettling the people who built careers around those once-scarce skills. If anyone can summon photorealistic imagery or Hollywood-grade effects on command, what happens to illustrators, designers, or voice actors who spent decades perfecting craft?
Thai prime minister gets royal approval to dissolve Parliament and hold elections early next year The Washington Post
from news.google.com
CCP Media Signals Leadership ‘Can Rise and Fall’ as Douyin Users Defy Censorship Vision Times
from news.google.com
Colombia Fighters Tied To Sudan Genocide Spark Sweeping U.S. Crackdown LatinAmerican Post
from news.google.com
Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. Venezuela’s government this week said the US seizure constituted a “theft.” The White House National Security Council did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The US has assembled a target list of several more sanctioned tankers for possible seizure, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
The US Justice Department and Homeland Security had been planning the seizures for months, according to two of the people.
A reduction or halt in Venezuelan oil exports, the main generator of revenue for the Venezuelan government, would strain the Maduro government’s finances.
The tariffs will apply to goods from China and other nations. Washington has been pressuring Mexico to move away from dealing with China.
from www.nytimes.com
Members of the Scottish Parliament, which is the latest Western legislative body to consider expanding assisted suicide, rejected efforts in committee to restrict the practice with young people, disabled people, and others.
Liam McArthur, a member of the body, introduced a bill last year that would “allow terminally ill adults in Scotland, who are eligible, to lawfully request, and be provided with, assistance by health professionals to end their own life.”
The legislation is moving through the committee process.
Some of his colleagues introduced a bill restricting the more shocking cases of assisted suicide, under which patients can legally opt to have a doctor take their lives.
Brain implant developer Paradromics has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to test its device in an early-stage human trial, the company announced Thursday.
The Austin-based company is aiming to give a digital voice to people who have lost the ability to speak due to severe motor impairment. The trial will assess the long-term safety of the Paradromics device, as well as its ability to enable synthesized speech and text communication.
Paradromics is one of several companies—which include Neuralink, Synchron, Precision Neuroscience, and Cognixion—working on technology to control computers and other devices using brain waves. Known as brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, these systems capture brain signals associated with movement intention and translate them into commands.
President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Burmese nationals.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now concluded that conditions in Burma have stabilized enough for citizens to return.
The move continues the administration’s broader effort to scale back TPS programs that have been repeatedly extended under previous administrations.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the decision returns the program to its intended purpose.
Noem said Burma has made “notable progress in governance and stability,” pointing to the end of its state of emergency, plans for elections, ceasefire agreements, and improvements in local governance.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, was designated for TPS in May 2021 by then–Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
President Trump is making sure American children are safe again.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced the results of Memphis Safe Street’s task force recent crackdown on crime.
Bondi while speaking to members of the press revealed 3,100 arrests were made by the task force and 121 missing children were found.
Watch Bondi make the announcement here:
Here’s a backup if needed:
🚨 HOLY CRAP! AG Pam Bondi confirms the location of 121 MISSING CHILDREN in Memphis, the m*rder rate has been “cut in HALF” and the crime rate is the lowest in 20 YEARS now that the feds have gotten involved
3,100 arrests and 500 illegal weapons seized
TRUMP SUCCESS 🇺🇸🔥 pic.twitter.com/5KyR59x3Zp
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 25, 2025
WASHINGTON has formally declared Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organisation.
The move strikes at the core of tyrant Nicolás Maduro’s power structure and labels his inner circle as “narco-terrorists”.
Late-term abortions can reportedly be performed without a medical reason in Canada, contrary to previous reports.
“There does not have to be a specific medical concern that is named” in order to get an abortion after the first trimester, said TK Pritchard, the executive director of Abortion Care Canada.
Pritchard’s response was in reference to videos taken secretly by Alissa Golob, co-founder of RightNow, a pro-life organization, when she was about five months pregnant. Golob was interested in learning whether she could receive a late-term abortion, “No questions asked, specifically for no medical reason,” according to the National Post.
Canada’s healthcare crisis has entered a new and disturbing phase as the Liberal government funnels a billion dollars to fund care in foreign nations while Canadians at home are being euthanized because they cannot get the treatment they need to survive.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s latest move, pledging over a billion Canadian dollars to fund healthcare overseas, has become the tipping point for many who have watched Canada’s single-payer system crumble for years.
The announcement landed as the country continues to face a wave of avoidable deaths, including cases where desperate citizens are offered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) instead of the care they were promised.
Protests erupt in China’s Guizhou province over cremation mandate The Guardian
from news.google.com
BRUSSELS (AP) – European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to deepen integration of the bloc’s defense industry with Ukraine as a U.S. peace plan remains in flux and Russia’s unconventional warfare operations rattle the 27-nation bloc.
European Parliament legislators voted 457-148, with 33 abstentions, to approve a 1.5-billion euro ($1.7 billion) program, with 300 million euros ($345 million) slated for the Ukraine Support Instrument.
Raphaël Glucksmann, an EU lawmaker from France’s S&D party, said that the defense program “will enable us to build a more resilient and sovereign Europe” through partnering with Ukraine to build a cutting-edge military industrial complex.
“This is key to making sure we can protect our democracies effectively and autonomously,” he said.
Ukraine’s defense industry “needs us,” EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius told EU lawmakers before the vote in Strasbourg, France, without mentioning the ongoing peace negotiations to end the war. “But we need Ukraine’s defense innovations even more.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has warned the Western Balkan country faces a major crisis as its largest oil refinery prepares to shut down unless US sanctions authorities approve an operating license by Thursday.
The Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) refinery is currently operating in “warm circulation” — a reduced-capacity mode — and has four days until complete shutdown unless approval comes from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, Vučić said in an address to the nation.
“It will take 14 days to restart, but in reality it will be more than that. Count on 20 days or more,” he said. “That means the refinery would not be operating until the New Year and even after that.”
President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping by telephone on Monday and said he has accepted an invitation from Xi to visit Beijing in April for a face-to-face meeting.
The Chinese government officially announced the phone call between Trump and Xi first, describing it as an upbeat and friendly conversation about issues including Ukraine, Taiwan, and international trade.
“As far as I know, the call was initiated by the U.S. side, and the atmosphere was positive, friendly, and constructive. Communication between the two heads of state on issues of common concern is very important for the stable development of China-U.S. relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Tuesday morning.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Xi stressed during the call that China’s authority over Taiwan is an “integral part of the postwar international order,” and suggested the U.S. and China should “jointly safeguard the victory of World War 2.”