Author: Justin M. Larson

The row between Europe and Washington about what you can do online just ramped up.On Christmas Eve, the White House imposed visa bans on five public figures in Europe. It’s all about what European officials describe as the regulation of online harm and what America’s officials consider censorship.”If you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil,” said Sarah Rogers, the US under secretary of state for public diplomacy, as the bans were announced.The highest profile figure facing travel restrictions is Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for regulating social media and a key…

The debut followed the North’s first test of a new surface-to-air missile and the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-powered attack sub for a port call in South Korea. Source link

She was given the “hardest job under heaven”: upholding birth limits enforced by often brutal local officials. She came to support softening the policy, then abolishing it. Source link

Nasry Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential election, after weeks of delays following technical problems and allegations of fraud. The conservative National Party candidate – backed by US President Donald Trump – won with 40.3% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), edging out Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party, who got 39.5%. In a post on X, Asfura said, “Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged all parties to respect the result “so that Honduran authorities may ensure a peaceful…

Recent U.S. actions against ships near Venezuela may embolden other countries to seize or detain ships, legal experts said. Source link

Nasry Asfura, a conservative, was endorsed by President Trump in a contentious vote that took weeks to conclude. Source link

That’s according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which announced on Tuesday that it is scaling up to deliver aid to more than 210,000 people displaced by the violence after a new offensive by armed group M23 reignited hostilities earlier this month. “This hunger crisis risks spiraling without urgent action,” said Cynthia Jones, WFP Country Director for the DRC.   She added that even the families who have provided shelter to those forced to flee are already living at emergency levels of food insecurity, “sharing their last food with displaced neighbors—pushing all of them closer to utter desperation.” Deprived of water and medicine  Since the violence broke out in South Kivu, health…

Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring France’s colonisation of the North African state a crime, and demanding an apology and reparations. The law also criminalises the glorification of colonialism, state-run TV reports.The vote is the latest sign of increasingly strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, with some observers saying they are at their lowest since Algeria gained independence 63 years ago.France’s colonialisation of Algeria between 1830 and 1962 was marked by mass killings, large-scale deportations and ended in a bloody war of independence. Algeria says the war killed 1.5 million people, while French historians put the death…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A new Android banking trojan called Sturnus is shaping up to be one of the most capable threats we have seen in a while. It is still in early development, but it already behaves like a fully mature operation. Once it infects a device, it can take over your screen, steal your banking credentials and even read encrypted chats from apps you trust. The worrying part is how quietly it works in the background. You think your messages are safe because they are end-to-end encrypted, but this malware simply waits for the phone…

Ahead of the 28 December polls, Secretary-General António Guterres called on all Central Africans to participate peacefully in the vote and urged authorities to ensure that the elections are conducted in a “peaceful, orderly, inclusive and credible manner,” according to a statement issued on Wednesday by his spokesperson.He also appealed to all political actors and stakeholders to refrain from actions that could incite violence or undermine confidence in the process, stressing the importance of safeguarding the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the electoral period. Historic voteSunday’s elections will be unprecedented in scope, combining four ballots –…

In English football, clubs are able to fine a player up to two weeks’ wages for a misdemeanour. French law forbids any deductions from a worker’s salary. Sports teams therefore make a small portion of it an ethics bonus. The base wage and the ethics bonus are in effect a player’s total salary. In 2021 it was claimed in some reports that Neymar received extra money for clapping the fans, but the details paint a different picture.Neymar was expected to behave responsibly to sponsors and referees. He had to turn up to training on time and was barred from placing…

Three people – including two police officers – have been killed in an explosion in Moscow, Russian authorities have said. Two traffic police officers saw a “suspicious individual” near a police car on the city’s Yeletskaya Street, and when they approached the suspect to detain him, an explosive device was detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said. The two police officers died from their injuries, along with another individual who was standing nearby. The blast took place close to the location where a senior Russian general was killed in a car bombing in the capital on Monday.Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A quiet town in western Denmark is quickly becoming a testing ground for the future of housing.Skovsporet, described as Europe’s largest 3D printed housing project, is now taking shape in Holstebro. When finished, the development will deliver 36 student apartments built faster than many single-family homes.The project sits near VIA University College and serves students in the area. NordVestBo, an affordable housing organization focused on student living, commissioned the development. SAGA Space Architects designed the project in collaboration with 3DCP Group and COBOD. From the beginning, the goal stayed simple and ambitious.…

Two British campaigners are among five people denied US visas after the State Department accused them of seeking to “coerce” American social media platforms into suppressing viewpoints they oppose.Imran Ahmed, an ex-Labour adviser who now heads the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Clare Melford, CEO of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), were labelled “radical activists” by the Trump administration and banned from entering the US.A French ex-EU commissioner and two senior figures at a Germany-based anti-online hate group were also denied visas.French President Emmanuel Macron led European condemnation of the move, describing it as “intimidation”.The US billed the…

SCOCS – BasquetebolAlfie Hallett’s local basketball club paid tribute to himTributes have been paid to a 13-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed in central Portugal on Tuesday.The boy, named locally as British national Alfie Hallett, died in the parish of Casais in Tomar after being found with “several injuries caused by a bladed weapon”. According to Portuguese police a suspect was found with similar injuries and died in a possible gas explosion, which also injured one of the National Republican Guard (GNR) officers.The UK Foreign Office said it was “in contact with local authorities following an incident in Portugal”.Alfie’s basketball…

Since the cease-fire took effect, Israel says it has targeted only militants. But death can come for Gazans while on a family outing or sleeping in a tent. Source link

Hacked communications and a social media analysis reveal how former regime leaders are trying to arm fighters and exert influence as far away as Washington. Source link

Vitaly ShevchenkoBBC Monitoring Russia editorFrancisco Richart/SOPA Images/LightRocketUkraine’s police evacuation group White Angels evacuates civilians from the village of Krasnopillya in Sumy regionFifty-two residents of a Ukrainian village have been taken to Russia by invading forces in a cross-border raid on the village of Hrabovske, authorities in Kyiv say. Thirteen Ukrainian soldiers were also captured in the border village in the northeastern Sumy region.The attack occurred at night on Saturday, when about 100 Russian troops attacked the village, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military Joint Forces Task Force. The civilians were first rounded up in a church and then…

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has given details of an updated peace plan that offers Russia the potential withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east that Moscow has demanded.Giving details of the 20-point plan agreed by US and Ukrainian negotiators in Florida at the weekend, Zelensky said the Russians would give their response once the Americans had spoken to them.Describing the plan as “the main framework for ending the war” Zelensky said it proposed security guarantees from the US, Nato and Europeans for a co-ordinated military response if Russia invaded Ukraine again.On the key question of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, Zelensky said…

A former EU commissioner has hit back after receiving a U.S. visa ban for alleged censorship.The Trump administration imposed visa bans on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner behind the Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, accusing them of censoring U.S. social media platforms.”The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.He added that “these radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states—in each case targeting…

The country’s production of nuclear warheads has slowed, but its missiles may be poised to strike back fast in case of an attack, an annual assessment found. Source link

While the new restrictions on firearms have broad support, new police powers to crack down on some protests were criticized as limits on civil liberties. Source link

Britain’s BP has agreed to sell a 65% shareholding in lubricants business Castrol for $6 billion, months on from the oil giant seeking a buyer for the unit.The deal comes as the company looks to launch a strategic reset, including a green strategy U-turn and the divestment of $20 billion of assets by the end of 2027. The sale values Castrol at $10.1 billion.Energy companies, including India’s Reliance Industries and Saudi Arabia’s oil behemoth Aramco, as well as private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Lone Star Funds, had all been touted as suitors for BP’s Castrol unit in May,…

LONDON — European markets are expected to open in flat to negative territory as investors take stock of the volatile year during Christmas Eve’s shortened trading session. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX were last seen edging below the flatline, while France’s CAC was 0.1% lower according to data from IG Group.The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.3% higher on Tuesday, notching a new record closing high, buoyed by Copenhagen-listed Novo Nordisk’s booming share price after it gained FDA approval for the first-ever GLP-1 pill. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi on Tuesday announced it will acquire U.S. company Dynavax in a deal…