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There have been dozens of drone sightings over New Jersey since 18 November. The drones are flying above critical infrastructure, including reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments and military installations. A U.S. Army base in northern Morris County has already had at least 11 drone sightings. Some lawmakers criticised the government's handling of the matter. New York City Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged the concerns over the drone sightings and assured the public that the city is working closely with federal, state and local agencies to investigate the incidents.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on 4 December. He suffered from spondylolisthesis, a severe spine condition that left him unable to take care for his health until he was in his 20s. His posts on Reddit describe his pain and the healthcare system's inadequate response to it. A lookalike contest took place in Washington Square Park just days after the murder. It underlined an obsession with a murder suspect that has gripped social media since the killing.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s lawyer, Aaron Siri, has been helping interview candidates for top health jobs in the incoming Trump administration. He's also filed a petition on behalf of Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit that challenges the safety of vaccines and vaccine mandates. If confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary, RFK Jr. will have to answer questions about his involvement in this issue when he goes to Capitol Hill next week to meet with senators considering whether to confirm him.
President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic. He also pardoned 39 Americans convicted of non-violent crimes. The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan is one of the inmates whose sentences were commuted as his term in office comes to a close. In 2010, Conahan was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy along with former judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and shared $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups.
Travis Pete Timmerman, 29, from Missouri, was detained after crossing into Syria by foot on a Christian pilgrimage seven months ago. He was released by the "liberators" who arrived in Damascus a day after President Bashar al-Assad fled the capital. The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham secured his release. U.S. officials are working to confirm his identity and provide him with support of the State Secretary Antony G. Tice. US military has flown an American citizen out of Syria.
TikTok has 170 million monthly users in the U.S. and its Chinese owner, ByteDance, needs to sell the app by January 19 or face a ban on its operations in the United States. Two congressmen have called for the removal of the Chinese video app TikTok from app stores in the US. The company filed for an emergency injunction asking that the ban not take effect before the US Supreme Court has a chance to review its appeal of last week's ruling upholding the forced sale.
Bashar al-Assad has left Syria and fled to Moscow. Russia is trying to secure the future of its key military bases in Syria while making inroads with the country's new rebel leadership. Analysts say Russia's Middle East ambitions are likely to continue. The fate of Russia's forces and bases will depend on the fate of the airfield at Hmeimim and the naval facility at Tartus. There are also other key flashpoints that could affect the balance of power in the region.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on December 4, 2024. Karen Friedman Agnifilo has been retained to represent Mangione against murder charges. She served as the second-in-command in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office from 2014 to 2021 under former DA Cyrus Vance. He was arrested Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a witness spotted him in a McDonald's. On Tuesday he was arraigned in Blair County and yelled at the media during his court appearance.
Nancy Pelosi, 84, was hospitalized in Luxembourg after falling down the stairs during a congressional delegation trip to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. The former speaker will likely require surgery for a hip injury. She is working from the hospital and regrets that she can't attend the rest of the CODEL engagements to honor the courage of American servicemembers. Her uncle Johnny fought in World War II. On Thursday, Pelosi's team announced that she would be traveling to Belgium and Luxembou.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the safe recovery of Austin Tice, a former Marine turned journalist who was kidnapped by jihadist militants in 2012 while reporting in Syria. Tice's siblings have increased hope that their brother is alive in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham offered on Thursday to cooperate directly with the United States to search for missing American journalist Austin Bennett Tice. The U.S. has been communicating indirectly with the rebel group through Turkey.
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President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law on December 3 and lifted it on December 4. The main opposition Democratic Party is preparing a new impeachment motion against Yoon, with a vote expected as soon as Saturday. The People Power Party (PPP) has thrown its support behind attempts to impeach President Yoon over his ill-fated decision to declare martial law that sparked a political crisis and widespread public anger in the country. PPP had initially refused to back impeachment, hoping instead Yoon would resign from office.
On December 8, 2024, armed rebels took the Syrian city of Damascus and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee the country. John Haltiwanger will be joining Amy as co-anchor of SitRep. He covered U.S. politics and foreign affairs for GZERO Media, Business Insider, and Newsweek before joining FP. There are signs of progress for a Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal. China is flexing its muscles in the Taiwan Strait. Syria will now become a shared American–Turkish colony.
Mekong giant catfish are one of the largest and rarest freshwater fish in the world. They can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 660 pounds. The species' population has plummeted by 80% in recent decades due to overfishing, dams and other disruptions. Cambodia has placed tough restrictions on fishing in the vast river to try and reduce the number of endangered aquatic species killed. Conservationists in Cambodia on Friday celebrated the discovery of six highly endangered Mekong giant Catfish in the Mekong River.
Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), one of the key rebel groups that toppled President Bashar al-Assad, named a new interim prime minister Mohammad al Bashir. He will lead a caretaker government until March 2025 and until constitutional issues are resolved. The emerging transitional government in Syria faces a daunting road ahead as it looks to unite a vast coalition of rebel groups and appeal to Western nations concerned about whether the country will suppress minority communities or become a haven for violent extremists. Many are calling for quick and decisive action from the West.
Bashar al-Assad stepped down as Syria's president and fled to Moscow on Sunday. Russia is trying to secure the future of its key military bases in Syria while making inroads with the country's new rebel leadership. The fall of the Assad regime threatens to erode Russia's influence in the Middle East. It also threatens Russia's operations in Africa, where Moscow has spent years building its foothold. Analysts say it will depend on the outcome of the war against Ukraine.
Francois Bayrou, 73, was appointed France's new prime minister on Friday. The appointment follows the ousting of Michel Barnier's government last week in a historic no-confidence vote. France's budget deficit is now at 6.1 percent of GDP. Francois Léotard died on April 25 at the age of 81. Russia targeted infrastructure in Gaza and killed an Israeli post office worker there. iReport.com will send you a link to each day's World Brief.
Russia launched its latest massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Friday morning, using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure. Dozens of drones were also used in the attack. Russia has been systematically targeting Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure in recent months in a bid to sow chaos in the country ahead of winter. The alignment on the strikes between Trump and the Kremlin will cause alarm in Ukraine. Texas has sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine. It appears to be the first challenge in the U.S. to a state shield law that's intended to protect prescribers in Democratic-controlled states.
Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights on Sunday morning. Israeli occupation forces exploited the fall of the government by bombing Syria and occupying additional Syrian territories. Israel launched half a dozen airstrikes on Syrian targets and parked tanks inside Syria’s borders in violation of a 50-year ceasefire pact. The US has struck targets associated with Islamic State (IS) in central Syria, while Turkey attacked US-backed Kurdish forces. A deal for the Kurdish forces to withdraw from the northern city of Manbij was reportedly struck on Monday after an advance by Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
Mohammed al-Bashir will be the new prime minister of Syria until March 1st. He is a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda. G7 leaders will meet on Friday to discuss the situation in Syria. The interim government has vowed to institute the "rule of law" after years of abuses under ousted president Bashar al-Assad. Israel stated its intention to create a “sterile defensive zone” inside Syria’s southern border.
As Syrians celebrate the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, tens of thousands of people are still missing. Human rights experts are urging preservation of evidence of the torture and death of political prisoners as the doors of the country’s prisons are finally opened. Since March 2011 the crisis in Syria has claimed more than 580,000 lives and displaced nearly 13 million people. The overthrow of the Assad government by opposition forces this week presents a historic opportunity to transition away from decades of repression.
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Elon Musk is trying to stop OpenAI from moving to a for-profit business structure. The AI company released its version of events amid a brewing legal feud with Musk. In the last year, Musk has twice sued OpenAI in an effort to stop the startup from adopting a more traditional business structure as he perfects his competitor, xAI. Since Musk announced the debut of his OpenAI competitor in July 2023, the startup has released its Grok chatbot and is raising $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation.
Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of United Healthcare, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Friday. It was published three days after a gunman shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of a Manhattan hotel. Witty's first public comments since last week's fatal shooting were to express his appreciation for Thompson and his team at United Healthcare. He also acknowledged that the U.S. health-care system is flawed and needs reform.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut the policy rate by 25 basis points at its meeting on Dec. 18. The market pricing for real terminal policy rate has shifted around 60 bps higher since September. Speculators are betting on three or four rate cuts in 2025, while speculators assign a 93% probability of just two or three cuts. There's a wide gap between market sentiment and the Fed's likely stance. Traders betting big on aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate cuts might be in for a brutal reality check next week.
McKinsey & Company agrees to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work to help opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma boost the sales of OxyContin. Former McKinsey senior partner, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for deleting documents from his laptop after he became aware of investigations into Purdue Pharma. McKinsey apologizes for its work for Purdue Pharma and says it's “deeply sorry” for that. The company will pay $765 million in 2021 for a similar situation.
Elon Musk received a settlement offer from the SEC on Tuesday. The deadline has been extended to Monday, December 16th. If he doesn't respond within 48 hours, he could be charged with various counts. The investigation revolves around Musk's $44 billion buyout of Twitter in 2022. Gary Gensler is set to resign when President-elect Trump takes office. Elon Musk is now one of Donald Trump’s top advisers. He shared a letter sent by his lawyer Alex Spiro to the SEC. It was written over a reported 48-hour deadline to respond to an offer to pay a fine or face charges.
Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort. The meeting comes less than two months after Trump said he spoke to Cook by phone and soon after Apple lost its last appeal in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. Trump has said he has spoken with Cook about the company's long-running tax battles with the European Union. Other tech leaders who have sought to improve their standing with Trump during his first term include OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will donate $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration fund. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also plans to give $1m to the inaugural fund. Jeff Bezos is slated to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago next week. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has an upcoming meeting scheduled with Trump. Time magazine named Trump its Person of the Year. Elon Musk spent $277 million to help get Trump elected.
Porsche SE, Volkswagen's top shareholder, may write down the value of its stake in Europe's top carmaker by up to 20 billion euros ($21 billion) because of high costs, fierce Asian competition and a prolonged conflict with powerful unions over plant closures and wage cuts. Porsche SE owns 31.9% of Volkswagen’s equity and 53.3% of its voting rights. It also expects an impairment of 1 billion to 2 billion euros on its 12.5% stake in luxury carmaker Porsche AG. The investment vehicle, jointly owned by the Porsche and Piech families, now expects its group result after tax in 2024 to be “significantly negative”.
Donald Trump's presidential transition team is considering consolidating or eliminating key financial watchdogs, including FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve. Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump argue that a significant rollback of regulatory powers could foster a more business-friendly environment for cryptocurrencies. Some in Trump's circle view the current regulatory framework affecting the banking and crypto sector as overly burdensome. In interviews, Trump's advisers have questioned the feasibility of consolidating bank deposit insurance functions into the Treasury Department. The FDIC was created during the Great Depression nearly 100 years ago and insures deposits up to $250,000 per depositor. Eliminating the FDIC would require authorization from Congress.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is charged in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4. Up to $60,000 in reward money was offered for tips leading to a break in the case. On Dec. 9, Mangione was arrested while eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The arrest came after a customer spotted a man who matched the shooting suspect's description and a worker called 911. After the arrest, some people on social media claimed that the McDonald's worker might not automatically receive the $60K reward. However, the federal and local rewards programs operate with different rules.
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Astro Bot has won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024. It beat Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Black Myth: Wukong, Metaphor: Refantazio, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Balatro. Astro Bot also picked up three other awards - Best Family Game, Best Action/Adventure and Best Game Direction. Indie hit Balatro won three awards including Best Mobile Game. Black Myth winning the Play award. Geoff Keighley-hosted event kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Google has expanded access to the business version of its AI-powered NotebookLM app for enterprises. The company also updated its podcast-like Audio Overview feature, which allows users to interact with the AI hosts and ask questions out loud. It's part of Google’s broader strategy to establish itself as a leader in AI applications for productivity and enterprise solutions. This is emblematic of the growing competition among Big Tech firms to dominate the AI industry. A few months ago, Google's note-taking app debuted an Audio Overviews feature that generates a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on information you have shared with the app. Now, using your voice, you can speak to them and they will listen attentively and respond.
Pearl Abyss has released a new gameplay video from its upcoming open-world action-adventure game, Crimson Desert. Crimson Desert is set in the same universe as the MMO Black Desert. Players will lead a band of battle-hardened mercenaries against those who seek their downfall. The battles fought will forever alter the course of history and the fate of the lands. Pearl Abyss uses many fun features from the game, such as implementing a stamina bar that strongly resembles the one in Breath of the Wild.
Best Buy has launched a three-day holiday sale. It offers huge savings of up to $1,700 on OLED TVs, laptops, appliances, tablets, games consoles and more. Some of the highlights are Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic for $180, Bose QuietComfort Headphones for $199, Sony WH-1000XM5 for $249, Dyson 360 Vis Nav Robot Vacuum for $999, Arlo 2K indoor security camera for $800 and Therabody Theragun Prime Massage Gun for $110.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to be released before March 31, 2025. It will have a bigger screen, slightly larger Joy-Con controllers and a USB-C port up top. A Chinese manufacturer has sent a 3D printed mockup of the console to a YouTuber. Another Chinese third-party accessory manufacturer has shared images of its upcoming Nintendo Switch2 accessory. The new images were shared by Towkay Vortex on Facebook. He wants to order the case first. This week has already been full of Nintendo Switch leaks.
Apple started rolling out iOS 18.2 to anyone in the public beta last week. The update is significant because it's the first time you can access the Apple Intelligence features teased at WWDC. It includes ChatGPT integration through Siri, the introduction of GenMoji and the space to play around inside the aptly named Image Playground. There are also two-stage shutter abilities for Camera Control and AI-infused inbox sorting inside the Mail app as well as details about Places.
Lexus introduced an all-new GX for 2024 model year, but the company is already making a few tweaks to the model for 2025. The rugged luxury SUV will now come standard with Lexus’s memory settings system and the power tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel. It's also more expensive for the upcoming model year starting at $65,285 for 2025 (all prices include the $1,350 destination charge). Every GX has the same twin-turbocharged 3.4-litre V-6 engine. Off-road trims get a 1-inch lift and onboard air compressor.
BBC has complained to Apple after its notification summarization tool generated a false headline about the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York. BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world and its audiences can trust any information or journalism published in their name, including notifications. Earlier this week, Apple launched the "Apple Intelligence" tool in the UK which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise and group together notifications. The summary falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, the man arrested following the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thomans, had shot himself.
ChatGPT has added video and screen sharing to its advanced voice mode. Santa mode is a festive preset voice for ChatGPT that users can access by tapping or clicking the snowflake icon next to the app prompt bar. It will be available only until January, so not everyone will get to try it right away. Users in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, or Liechtenstein won't be able to access it at first. OpenAI is halfway through its 12 Days of Announcements. Every day until December 20 the company is making a new product or feature announcement.
Sora, an artificial intelligence (AI) video generator program created by startup OpenAI in 2021 has been officially released to the public under the new name of Sora Turbo. The launch triggered an online frenzy among users, causing the company to temporarily halt new account creations after it was overwhelmed by traffic. It allows for faster video creation, higher quality videos and a host of video editing features. Unlike traditional AI programs which produce written responses, this one creates high-quality videos based on a user’s text input.
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