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Lead: Cyclone Ditwah left a trail of flooding and destruction across Sri Lanka in early December 2025, with officials reporting more than 480 confirmed deaths as waters recede. Initial government estimates place reconstruction costs between $6 billion and $7 billion, an onerous burden for a nation still recovering from a 2022 economic collapse and decades … Read more
Paramount Skydance lawyers sent a Dec. 3, 2025 letter to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav alleging the company’s sale process is unfair and ‘‘tainted,’’ and that it appears to favor Netflix. The dispute follows second-round bids submitted on Dec. 1, 2025 from Paramount Skydance (an all-cash offer for the whole company), Netflix and Comcast … Read more
Lead: New research published in Communications Earth & Environment links a major volcanic event around 1345 to the arrival of the Black Death in Europe beginning in 1347. The study finds evidence that large sulfur injections into the stratosphere cooled climates, triggering crop failures and a Mediterranean famine from 1345–1347. Those shortages prompted Italian city‑states … Read more
Lead: On December 4, 2025, Israeli forces conducted strikes on sites in southern Lebanon identified as Hezbollah positions, and issued evacuation notices to nearby villages. The warning specifically referenced Jibaa and Mahrouna and ordered residents to move at least 300 meters away from designated target areas. The incidents follow earlier clashes in the border region, … Read more
On Dec. 4, 2025, the U.K. government announced fresh sanctions and summoned Russia’s top diplomat in London after a judicial inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin authorised the 2018 Novichok operation that led to the death of Dawn Sturgess. The inquiry tied the same operation to the March 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent … Read more
Lead: Paramount, led by David Ellison, sent a forceful letter to the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) board this week alleging the studio’s sale process is “tilted and unfair,” raising fresh tension in a crowded bidding contest. The correspondence, delivered via Paramount’s lawyers at Quinn Emanuel, questions whether Netflix has received preferential treatment as second-round offers … Read more
Consumer Reports’ 2026 Brand Report Card, released on Dec. 4, 2025, shows Tesla rising sharply in U.S. brand rankings, moving from No. 18 last year to No. 10 this year. The shift follows improvements in several reliability measures and sustained strength in powertrain performance across Tesla’s line, Consumer Reports said. The organization attributes part of … Read more
Lead On December 4, 2025, Bloomberg reported that Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is preparing significant reductions to the company’s metaverse program. Executives are considering cuts as large as 30% to the business unit that includes Horizon Worlds and the Quest virtual-reality line, and those reductions could involve layoffs as early as January. Company … Read more
Rolling Stone’s year-end roundup, published in 2025, collects the publication’s chosen 100 standout songs that defined a turbulent and inventive year in music. The list spans mainstream chart smashes and underground breakthroughs, highlighting veterans and emergent voices from across genres and geographies. Notable entries include tracks by Miley Cyrus, Four Tet, The Kid Laroi and … Read more
On 5 December at 17:00 GMT in Washington DC, FIFA will stage the draw that places 48 teams into 12 groups for the 2026 World Cup. The ceremony mixes live entertainment and speeches with a technically complex allocation process: teams are assigned to four pots, confederation rules are enforced and a computer system prevents impossible … Read more
U.S. equity markets were largely unchanged on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2025, as investors positioned for the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 10 policy decision and digested fresh labor-market data. Traders continued to price a high probability of a 25 basis-point cut at the Fed’s final meeting of the year while corporate layoff announcements pushed the 2025 total … Read more
Lead: Two survivors of the U.S. military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel on Sept. 2, 2025, attempted to climb back onto their boat before it was struck a second time, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News. The source said the survivors appeared to be trying to salvage narcotics and were communicating … Read more
On 14 June in Salt Lake City, a safety volunteer, Matthew Scott Alder, 43, has been charged with one count of manslaughter after he fired at a man carrying a rifle at a No Kings protest and a bystander was killed. Alder told investigators he believed the armed man, identified as 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa, was … Read more
Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in New Delhi on Thursday for a compressed, roughly 30-hour visit — his first trip to India since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago. The visit, set against an intermittent US-led push for a negotiated end to the war, comes amid heightened US–India tensions over … Read more
Lead: On December 4, 2025, the People’s Bank of China set the daily yuan fixing at 7.0733 per dollar, a level 164 pips weaker than the Bloomberg survey average, signaling a deliberate push to slow recent yuan appreciation. The fixing, which defines the onshore yuan’s trading band at ±2%, showed the widest gap versus market … Read more
