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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

Players finishing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond have discovered a small but notable casting detail: Jason Kelley, known for voicing the Doom Slayer in DOOM: The Dark Ages (released earlier this year), is credited as Sergeant Ezra Duke in Nintendo’s latest entry. The credit appears in the game’s cast list, and Kelley himself responded to a … Read more

Lead On December 4, 2025 in Beijing, French President Emmanuel Macron met Chinese leader Xi Jinping to seek Beijing’s backing on Ukraine and to press for greater Chinese direct investment into Europe. Macron called for a clearer legal and policy framework to attract more Chinese capital, saying the current imbalance — a growing Chinese trade … Read more

Federal Border Patrol agents began moving into neighborhoods across the New Orleans metro area on Dec. 3, 2025, initiating a new enforcement action announced by the Department of Homeland Security. The administration said the operation is focused on violent criminals believed to be in the country illegally, and distributed a list of 10 people it … Read more

Lead: On Dec. 3, 2025, global equity markets advanced as Asian and European stocks led gains and US futures held onto earlier rises, a move traders linked to growing bets on upcoming Federal Reserve rate cuts. Europe’s Stoxx 600 climbed, led by technology and autos, while Asian markets pushed to their strongest levels in over … Read more