World

McErlean said securing a second season with M-Sport “means everything” after a solid rookie campaign.

After a late deal to drive in the WRC, McErlean finished seventh on his debut in Monte Carlo and equalled that result in Finland and the Central European Rally.

“I’m incredibly grateful to M-Sport and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy for continuing to believe in me and giving me the chance to build properly,” McErlean said.

“To have another season at this level means a lot. I’m in a completely different place mentally compared to this time last year, stronger, clearer, and ready to enjoy the challenge ahead.

“2025 was all about learning, learning the car, the championship, the rhythm of Rally1, and what it really takes, mentally and physically, to operate at this level week in, week out.

“We made real progress across the season, and I could feel things starting to click more and more as the year went on.”

Millener said McErlean’s progression in his first season was “very clear to see”.

“It’s great to be able to give them the opportunity to continue this upward trajectory.

“Away from the events, they have both become much-valued members of the team and I’m really looking forward to working with them again.”

The deals for McErlean and Armstrong strengthen the links between M-Sport and Motorsport Ireland, and the remainder of the Cumbrian’s outfit’s line-up will be announced in due course.

Dec. 16 (UPI) — The two suspects in the deadly mass terror attack in Bondi Beach in Sydney over the weekend spent most of November in the southern Philippines, where they allegedly received military-style training from Islamic militants.

The Philippine Bureau of Immigration told ABC News on Tuesday that the father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, arrived in the Philippines from Australia on Nov. 1, giving Davao on the southern island of Mindanao as their destination.

“They left the country on Nov. 28, on a connecting flight from Davao to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination,” said Immigration Bureau spokesperson Dana Sandoval.

Australian national security officials said investigators were now looking at the duo’s links to an international jihadist network after a senior counterterrorism officer said the pair underwent terrorist training on the island.

The development came hours after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared that the pair were motivated by “Islamic State ideology” after the discovery by police of flags of the jihadist group and improvised explosive devices in the suspects’ car.

Philippine and Australian officials said they were working together to establish exact details of where the pair stayed and their movements with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her Philippine counterpart Maria Theresa Lazaro vowing to “keep each other closely informed” of progress in the investigation into Sunday’s attack targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah.

“The Philippines stands firmly in solidarity with Australia and underscores strong Philippine-Australia cooperation in security and law enforcement matters. We reaffirm our support for efforts that protect communities from intolerance, hatred, and violence,” said Lazaro.

The largely Muslim region of the predominantly Catholic country has been a base for Islamic militants for decades after terror camps relocated there from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the 1990s, with the Philippine military at war with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front before that.

In 2017, ISIS fighters laid siege to the city of Marawi in Mindanao for five months, prompting the central government in Manila to launch an all-out military offensive to regain control.

A New South Wales health department spokesman said 22 people were still being treated for their injuries in the hospital, nine of whom were in a critical condition following the shooting attack in which 15 people were killed.

The victims included children, survivors of the Holocaust and two rabbis.

Authorities said Akram Naveed, who was shot and wounded by police, had regained consciousness in the hospital. The elder Akram was shot dead by police at the scene.

Even the most accomplished actors sometimes feel out of their depth on a movie.

Gwyneth Paltrow, who returns to the big screen this fall as an Old Hollywood star trying to make a new start in “Marty Supreme,” was “way out over her skis” in her early 20s when she played a Park Avenue wife opposite older co-star Michael Douglas in “A Perfect Murder.” Jennifer Lopez, who showcases her triple-threat skill set in the musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” felt a “huge” responsibility to get it right when portraying Tejana icon Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic about the late singer. And Emily Blunt, who goes toe-to-toe with Dwayne Johnson in the mixed martial arts saga “The Smashing Machine,” had to avoid being typecast as the go-to “acerbic British bitch” after the success of 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada.”

These and many more tales from inside the maelstrom of megawatt stardom were the subject of The Envelope’s 2025 Oscar Actresses Roundtable, where Paltrow, Lopez and Blunt were joined by Sydney Sweeney, who transformed physically and emotionally to play boxing legend Christy Martin in “Christy”; Tessa Thompson, who tries to keep up appearances as the title character in “Hedda,” Nia DaCosta’s acclaimed new adaptation of “Hedda Gabler”; and Elle Fanning, who plays an American star struggling to find her way into a Norwegian art film in “Sentimental Value.”

In conversation with Times critic Lorraine Ali, the six performers discussed how they deal with bad press, resist being put in career boxes and inhabited some of the most-talked-about film roles of the year.

Jennifer, you play the title role in “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a story set in Argentina during a military dictatorship. It takes place in a political prison where the men imagine themselves in a glamorous, sweeping musical. As producer on the film, why was it important for you to tell this story now?

Lopez: It’s never been more relevant, which is really scary. Manuel Puig wrote the novel in the 1970s about these two prisoners during the uprising in Argentina. It really is a love story about seeing the humanity in another person, like two very different people with different political views. One is queer, and the other is a political revolutionary. The two of them were like oil and water. But they escaped into the [fantasy of] a movie, which is “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” They slowly come together and see each other’s souls instead of who they were on the outside. I think with everything that’s happening in the world right now, especially in this country, with Latinos and queer communities being targeted, demonized — there’s never been a more important time to say, “Look at me on the inside. Stop with all of this divisiveness. See people for who they are.”

Gwyneth, “Marty Supreme” is set in the 1950s. You play Kay Stone, a faded starlet. Who did you base her on?

Paltrow: She’s an amalgam of a few ideas, but principally Grace Kelly, who also had this amazing movie career and was this incredible star, and then walked away from it for marriage. My character does the same. When I was looking at photographs [of Kelly during] her films, and then photographs after she got married, it was like the light dimmed. She lost something. My character had a very rough road to get to stardom, so she walks away from this big career to marry an unsuitable but very wealthy man. And then her son dies, so she has a lot of tragedy.

Sydney, “Christy” is the story of Christy Martin, a pioneer in popularizing women’s boxing in the 1980s and 1990s. You really transformed for the role. Can you talk about that transformation?

Sweeney: Her story is probably one of the most important stories I’ll ever get to tell, so I felt that immense importance. I needed to fully transform myself. I trained every day for three months leading up to shooting. I put on 35 pounds. And I got to spend time with her, and now she’s like one of my best friends. I just kinda lived and breathed Christy for the entirety of the whole thing.

There’s so much violence in her world, particularly outside the ring. Was the real-life Christy there when you shot the domestic abuse scenes between her and her husband, Jim Martin (played by Ben Foster)?

Sweeney: To protect her, we didn’t have her on set when we were shooting the last part of the movie where the domestic violence came into play. The following Monday, we had her come to set, and the entire crew stood up and just started applauding. It was so beautiful. Then after that, she was on set all the time. We would be in the ring, and she’d be sitting [outside the ring], and I’d hear her say, “Hit her with the left hook, Sydney!”

Lopez: She was coaching from the sidelines?

Sweeney: Oh, yeah. We were having a blast. And in the fights, we actually fought. My No. 1 thing with all the girls was that I don’t want this to be fake because so much of Christy comes to life in the ring. I didn’t want to have [the camera] at the back of my head or have to cut to fake the punches. Every single one of those girls, they’re badasses. They punched me, and I punched them. We had bloody, broken noses. I had a concussion.

Blunt: Sydney broke someone’s nose.

Sweeney: I got a concussion. I’m not going to confirm [what else happened]. But I definitely caused some, uh, bruises and blood.

Emily, with “The Smashing Machine,” you play Dawn Staples, girlfriend to Mark Kerr, who was a pioneer in the field of MMA fighting. How much did you know about that world before taking on the role?

Blunt: I knew very little, and I was moved that Mark Kerr was my first window into [MMA] because he is such a juxtaposition to the violence of the world. This is a man who headbutted people to oblivion, and when you meet him, he’s like [subdued tone], “Hi, how are you?” He’s so nice. And I said to Mark one day, “How did you do that?” And he goes, “I know, it was nasty.” He’s just so sweet and dear and eloquent. But I think he was sort of filled with this uncontrollable rage that he hardly knew what to do with, and he struggled so much with his own demons. The movie is more about struggle and fragility than it is about fighting.

Tessa, “Hedda” is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play “Hedda Gabler” and you play the title role. Your castmate, Nina Hoss, said the role of Hedda Gabler is for women actors what Hamlet is for men. Do you agree?

Thompson: I like to say that Hamlet is the male Hedda, just because I think it’s a nice reversal. But people say that because the truth is that we don’t have that many [roles] that are canonical in the same way that Hedda Gabler is, so it feels like this behemoth. It’s one of the parts in theater that feels like a mountain to climb. There’s a kind of complexity to the character that has compelled audiences and actors for centuries … which is the case with both [Hedda and Hamlet]. But I think the comparison is kind of boring, frankly. I remember an actor saying to me, “Oh, I learned in drama school you have to have your Hedda ready.” And I did not have my Hedda ready, but I got it ready.

The wardrobe and sets in “Spider Woman,” “Hedda” and “Marty Supreme” are beautiful. Did you swipe mementos when the films wrapped?

Paltrow: No, you can’t.

Lopez: I mean, you can.

Paltrow: I tried the Birkin bag from “The Royal Tenenbaums” [but I could not], so I took the loafers instead.

Blunt: Not the same. Not quite.

Thompson: [To Gwyneth]: I was almost you [in “Tenenbaums”] for Halloween, but I couldn’t get it together in time and I wanted do you justice. But one day …

Paltrow: Next year. I’ll lend you the loafers.

Elle, in “Sentimental Value,” you play a Hollywood star who’s cast in an art–house European production. In reality, you were shooting the massive production “Predator: Badlands” when you joined “Sentimental Value,” a smaller European film. Were the parallels with your character, Rachel, apparent at the time?

Fanning: I got a call that “Joachim Trier has a part for you and would like to talk over Zoom, and here’s the script.” I was like, “Oh, my gosh, Joachim Trier [who made] ‘The Worst Person in the World.’” I would’ve said yes to one line. But I was already doing “Predator.” I was about to go off to New Zealand, but it’s very important for Joachim to rehearse, so he [wanted me] to come to Oslo. I wasn’t sure which movie I could do, and I wanted to do both. So, of course, there were parts to the character that I could relate to. I kept thinking, “There’s a lot of meta-ness going on in this film,” particularly for my character, being the Hollywood actress coming to Oslo for the first time, working with a Norwegian director. And coming off of this action-packed film to go to this very intimate, emotional foreign film, they fed into each other in ways that I didn’t expect them to.

How do you all deal with rough reviews?

Paltrow: I try to never read anything about myself, full stop, ever. Period.

Lopez: Wait, not anything about yourself? Ever? Period? Because I don’t read reviews of my films either, but people will bring it to you it when it’s good and you’re like, “Oh, nice.” But there’s other things they’ll bring you …

Paltrow: Sometimes I’ll come upon it.

Lopez: And you want to die.

Paltrow: Want to die. Like when someone forwards you a link to something really horrible about yourself, and they’re like, “Oh, this is bull—.” I do try to avoid [that kind of stuff]. I deleted Instagram.

Blunt: Me too.

Lopez: You need to cleanse every once in a while.

Sweeney: Sounds nice. I can’t do that.

How do you push the negative stuff about you or your personal life aside and focus on your work?

Sweeney: It helps when you love what you do. Like, if you’re loving the characters that you get to play, you’re loving the people you get to work with, and you’re proud of what you’re doing, then it’s just outside noise. When we walk on set, the world kind of disappears and we get come to life in a different kind of way. Those are the moments and the relationships that matter. Everything else is just people we don’t know.

Paltrow: [To Lopez] I want to hear your answer to this question.

Lopez: From the very beginning, for whatever reason, I’ve been a lightning rod for nice things and a lot of negativity. And it’s hard because you say to yourself, “These people don’t get me. They don’t see me. They don’t understand me.” Then all of a sudden they do. And then they don’t again. Even from when I was very young, I would always say, “I know who I am. I’m a good person. I know what I’m doing. People wouldn’t hire me if I wasn’t good at what I do.” I was always affirming myself and keeping my feet on the ground. Luckily, I had a great mom and dad who really instilled in me a sense of self. And what Sydney was saying, I’d have to block out the noise so I can put my head on the pillow at night and go, “I did good today. I was a good person. I was kind to people. I worked really hard. I’m a good mom.” That has always helped me through.

Thompson: Not having your sense of self or identity entangled in this other self that belongs to the public seems like such a healthy thing. I’m still trying to figure out my balance with that. When I was acting in some projects, I felt like I was delivering a lump of clay that got sculpted by somebody else. So if someone was harsh on the final [product], I was like, “Well, I didn’t sculpt it. I’m just the material.” But now that I produce, it’s a completely different thing. It’s building it from the ground up and feeling so much responsibility to the people that you’ve made it with. You made a baby and sent it into the world, and you just hope it doesn’t get misunderstood.

Gwyneth, you’re stepping back into the film world with “Marty Supreme” after seven years doing other things, such as Goop. Were you nervous coming back into the fold?

Paltrow: I [had been] doing things like “Iron Man” and “The Avengers,” which are totally fun, but it’s like doing a TV show where you go back in and you know the character. It’s not that difficult. So it had been a really long time, and I was like, “How did I used to do this? How are you, like, natural?” And then I did the camera test and I was really nervous. I felt like a fish out of water. And then luckily the first scene that I shot for real was a scene in the movie where she’s rehearsing a play. And I started in the theater, and I did a million plays before I ever did a film. The camera was far away, and I had my mom’s voice in my head. She’s like, “You’re on the boards, you know, just let the energy come through your body.”

Can wardrobe and styling help you embody the emotional core of a role?

Blunt: Dawn’s got a vibe for sure. It was that very overt ’90s, overglamorized thing, and everything was so revealing. I feel like my t— looked like two heads by the time they were done with the Wonderbra. They were just up under my chin. That helps you stand different, walk different. And the nails helped me. She had this incredibly long, square, chunky French tip manicure, and she’d talk with her hands. And the spray tan and the wig. It’s all fabulous. It’s such an amazing thing to look at yourself and go, “Who’s that?”

Thompson: [In “Hedda”], the construction of those dresses in the ’50s, there’s so much boning. We had Lindsay Pugh, who’s a brilliant costume designer. I also started looking up the starlets of the time and what their waist sizes were. It was like 20 or 21 inches. They were extreme. In the beginning, when we were constructing the dress, I was like, “I’m going to try to get down to that Dior-like silhouette,” which is impossible. Then we [fell in] love with the idea that the dress doesn’t actually fit her, because she’s inside of a life that doesn’t fit her. But the sheer sort of circumference of the dress makes her a woman who comes into a room and takes up space. A big part of [a woman’s] currency was their beauty and their body. That felt very foreign to me to inhabit. I didn’t recognize or had maybe suppressed the idea of using that part of me to gain power in the world.

The 2025 Envelope Oscar Actresses Roundtable: Top row, left to right, Tessa Thompson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Elle Fanning. Bottom row, left to right, Sydney Sweeney, Jennifer Lopez and Emily Blunt.

Hollywood likes to put people in boxes, particularly women. What boxes has it tried to stuff you in?

Fanning: I was in “Maleficent” and I played Sleeping Beauty, so like Disney princess in pink. Blond.

Blunt: But look at that face. Come on!

Fanning: But I can be mean too! In “The Great,” [I played] Catherine the Great, she was a queen, but she was raunchy. It was such a delicious show in that way. People were like, “Whoa.” They were surprised [seeing me like] that.

Blunt: If there’s a movie that takes off, you will have to carve out space away from that. I remember after “The Devil Wears Prada,” I got offered every acerbic British bitch. I’m like, “I should not do that for a while.”

Paltrow: When I stepped back to be an entrepreneur around 2008, I really confused and upset people. Nobody understood what I was doing, and I faced a lot of criticism and confusion over the course of the 17 years since I sent out my first Goop newsletter. I really do think that women, we are so incredibly multifaceted. We are all the archetypes. We’re not just a mother, or an artist, or an intellectual. We’re all the things. So I’ve always kind of tried to make it my mission to say, like, “No, don’t put us in boxes. We get to define who we are.”

Blunt: Was it hard for you to keep going and ignore it?

Paltrow: It was really hard. Some days I was like, “Why did I do this? The headwinds are so extreme and I’m so misunderstood. I had a perfectly good job. People did my hair. Why on earth did I do this to myself?”

Thompson: And you also did it before there was a cultural appreciation for people doing multihyphenates and starting businesses.

Lopez: I think our generation started thinking, like, “We need and want to do other things.” Even when I started acting and I had done my early films, “Out of Sight” and “Selena,” and then decided I wanted to record music, and it was such a big deal. People were like, “They’re never going take you seriously as an actor ever again.”

Paltrow: And you had the No. 1 movie and the No. 1 album in the same time, right?

Lopez: It was in the Guinness Book of Records. But that’s the thing, everybody’s always trying to tell you: “You can only do this,” or “You can only do that.” I had my perfume line. I had my clothing lines. I have my J Lo beauty now. You have to just do what feels good for you. It doesn’t mean it’s for everybody. Somebody wants to just act their whole life, that’s beautiful too. That’s fantastic. I still want to direct. I still want to write more books. And I don’t ever feel like there’s somebody who can say to me, “No, you can’t.”

Blunt: Say that to Sydney and she’ll break their nose.

Dec. 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is suing the BBC for $10 billion, alleging it intentionally misrepresented a speech he gave before the Jan. 6 storming of Capitol Hill in order to influence the result of the 2024 presidential election.

The lawsuit was filed in a Florida court on Monday, more than a month after Trump threatened to bring litigation against Britain’s public broadcaster over the editing of a speech he gave to supporters in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance.

Trump’s lawyers described the documentary’s depiction of him as “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory and malicious,” alleging it was aired “in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”

The suit is for $5 billion in damages, plus interest, costs, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and other relief the court finds appropriate.

The BBC declined to comment Tuesday but vowed it would fight the case.

“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” said a spokesman.

The Panorama documentary aired in Britain on Oct. 28, 2024, just days ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The BBC stresses it was not broadcast in the United States and that it did not make it available to view there.

In the documentary, video of Trump’s speech was edited to piece together two comments the president made about 50 minutes apart, while omitting other parts of his speech.

“[T]he BBC “intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers around the world by splicing together two entirely separate parts of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021,” his lawyers state in the lawsuit.

“The Panorama Documentary deliberately omitted another critical part of the Speech in such a manner as to intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”

The claim refers to the splicing together of excerpts lifted from the video that made it sound as if Trump was inciting his supporters to march on the Capitol and fight:

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” was what viewers of the program saw, when Trump’s actual words were, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

It wasn’t until 50 minutes later in the speech that Trump made the comments about fighting.

The infraction went unnoticed until early November when The Telegraph published an exclusive on a leaked internal BBC memo in which a former external ethics adviser allegedly suggested that the documentary edited Trump’s speech to make it appear he directed the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.

Following the report, the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, and head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned.

BBC chairman Samir Shah immediately apologized for what he called an unintentional “error of judgment.”

After Trump wrote the BBC demanding a correction, compensation and threatening a $1 billion lawsuit, the corporation formally apologized and issued a retraction that was the lead story across all of its news platforms on television, radio and online — but said it strongly disagreed “there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

To win the case, Trump’s legal team would need to convince the court the program had caused Trump “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”

The BBC has said that since the program was not broadcast in the United States or available to view there, Trump was not harmed by it and the choices voters made in the election were not affected as he was re-elected days after.

However, Trump’s legal team alleges the BBC had a deal with a third-party media company that had rights to air the documentary outside of the United Kingdom.

The blunder has reignited a furious national debate about the BBC’s editorial impartiality and the institution itself, which is funded by a $229 annual license that households with a TV must pay.

It also comes as the future of the BBC is under review, with the renewal date of its royal charter approaching on the centenary of its founding in 2027.

Trump has won out-of-court settlements in a series of disputes with U.S. broadcasters, although largely at significantly reduced sums than those sought in the original lawsuit.

In July, CBS settled a $20 billion claim out of court for $16 million over an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris that aired four weeks before the election on Nov. 5.

ABC News paid Trump $15 million and apologized to settle a defamation suit over comments by presenter George Stephanopoulos that incorrectly stated Trump was “liable for rape.”

In 2022, CNN fought and successfully defended a $475 million suit alleging it had defamed Trump by dubbing his claim the 2020 election was stolen from him as the “Big Lie.” The judge ruled it did not meet the legal standard of defamation.

He has live cases pending cases against the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

A WORLD famous destination, often referred to as the unofficial eighth Wonder of the World, could be getting a new theme park.

The Ontario government has launched a new Destination Niagara Strategy which is a multi-billion dollar plan to transform Canada‘s top tourist spots into even better destinations.

As part of the strategy, Niagara Falls could become the ‘Las Vegas of the North’ with the possible creation of a new theme park.

Other plans include redeveloping the Ontario Power Generating Station into a new tourist destination.

A huge wheel ride that visitors can see the falls from is also part of the project – and could be similar to the London Eye with views of the River Thames.

The Niagara Parks Marina will be updated, with plans of opening a restaurant, shop and outdoor patio area.

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Work is already being carried out to convert the historic Toronto Power Generating Station in a five-star hotel – a first in the area.

The hotel is on the banks of the upper Niagara River and will have a craft brewery, museum, a spa, art gallery and a theatre.

In addition to this, there could be “multiple world-class casinos”, as well as “entertainment and top-tier dining options”.

Niagara’s casinos already attract over five million people and generate around €500million (£373million) every year.

The report states that it would “create new, world-class attractions, boost local arts and culture and improve the region’s transportation network.”

It hopes to welcome as many as 25million visitors a year, and double the region’s tourism.

It could even create $3billion (£2.3billion) for Ontario’s GDP.

Premier Doug Ford said: “Niagara is home to the world-famous Niagara Falls, one of the most iconic tourism destinations on earth, along with a host of world-class restaurants, wineries, hotels, cultural events and so much more.

“Our Destination Niagara Strategy will unlock the region’s full potential, supporting workers and creating new opportunities for tourists and families from Ontario and around the world to come and experience the best that the region has to offer.”

Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West said: “This transformative investment in Niagara as a world-class, four-season tourism destination is another example of how our government is protecting Ontario.

“This critical support for our regional tourism strategy will not only attract more visitors from coast to coast across North America, but from around the globe.”

In the future, the destination could see even more new attractions and visitor experiences – though details are limited.

More money will be invested in cultural events too and improving transport options in the region.

Also in the years ahead, there could be a new Niagara River Line attraction, which would be an electric tram through Queen Victoria Park.

Visitors would board capsules that would be suspended, allowing them to see Niagara Falls from a new angle.

Back in August, a new Niagara Takes Flight experience opened.

The $25million (£18.7million) flying theatre experience allows visitors to go on a journey along the Niagara River corridor, soaring across 34.8 miles of parkland including Lake Ontario and the edge of Lake Erie.

A recent visitor said: “This was the most fun we had at Niagara Falls!

“This simulation makes you feel as if you are really experiencing this adventure!”

In other theme park news, these are all the UK rides and attractions that we lost in 2025 and the exciting ones coming in 2026.

Plus, a new £875million theme park dubbed ‘Transylvanian Disneyland’ is set to open in Europe.

I think about Rob Reiner almost every time I put on my socks.

I am old enough to remember the famously hilarious (and largely improvised) bit from “All in the Family” in which Reiner’s Mike “Meathead” Stivic and Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker argue about the correct order of donning footwear — both socks first (Archie’s method) or sock/shoe, sock/shoe (Mike’s).

The straight-faced back and forth was, and is, a pitch-perfect exhibition of how much time and energy we waste judging, and arguing about, personal differences that are none of anyone’s business and matter not at all.

I also think about Reiner whenever my now-adult children and I sit down for a movie night. When all other suggestions fail, at least one of his films — ”Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “Misery” — will achieve consensus, in large part, because of that same understanding.

Reiner was, above all, a compassionate filmmaker, willing to excavate all manner of conflict and tension in search of the essential humanity that connects us all.

Reiner helped shape the culture of my youth and early adulthood with such brilliant empathy that his random appearances on television — as Jess’ (Zooey Deschanel) father in “New Girl” or, more recently, Ebra’s (Edwin Lee Gibson) business mentor on “The Bear” — sparked immediate reflexive delight, as if a beloved uncle had shown up unexpectedly at a family dinner.

It helped, no doubt, that I share his political leanings. Reiner’s advocacy for gay marriage and early education were well-known, as was, in recent years, his unvarnished criticism of President Trump, who Reiner, like many others, considered a danger to democracy.

That criticism should have prepared me for the chilling invective unleashed by some, including Trump, in the wake of the news that Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their home on Sunday night, victims of a knife attack, and that their son Nick, who has a history of drug addiction, was in police custody.

Even as the millions who were touched by Reiner’s work struggled to process their shock, grief and horror, Trump responded with a post in which he claimed that the Reiners’ murders were “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”

Horror unfolds around the world on a daily basis. This weekend, a father and son opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, killing 15 and wounding many others; a gunman killed two and wounded nine at Brown University; and two members of the Iowa National Guard were killed and three others injured by gunmen in Syria.

Even so, between the shocking news of the Reiners’ deaths, the possible involvement of their son and the unhinged and cold-hearted response of the president of the United States, it is difficult to know how to react, short of tearing out one’s hair and screaming up to an indifferent sky.

No person’s life means intrinsically more than any other — many people are killed by violence each and every weekend, often by family members; that we seem to have become inured to mass shootings is another sort of horror.

But Reiner’s work, in film, television and politics, affected millions around the world personally and culturally. In “All in the Family,” his young leftie was far from the hero of the piece — Mike’s values were more humane and progressive than the bigoted Archie’s, but he could be just as narrow-minded as his father-in-law and just as capable of change.

As a director, Reiner championed independent filmmaking, which is to say smartly written movies that told interesting stories about characters that were recognizable in their humor and humanity (which is one reason he was so successful in adapting Stephen King’s work, including the novella “Stand by Me” is based on and “Misery”).

His political activism too was grounded in the desire to make life better for those historically marginalized by policy and culture. He campaigned against tobacco use and for Proposition 10, which increased the tax on cigarettes, and funded early education. In 2009, he used his considerable influence to co-found the American Foundation for Equal Rights and successfully fought to legally challenge Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

As an artist and a public figure, he put his money where his mouth was and remained invariably sincere, a powerful and compelling trait that has become increasingly rare in a time of the sound-bite inanities, muddy thinking, obvious contradictions and outright falsehoods that threaten our public and political discourse.

Reiner mastered many mediums and wielded a broad palette but his signature artistic trait was empathy. No story was too small, or too brutal, to be examined with kindness and an understanding that the most grave injustice we can commit is to choose apathy or revenge when connection and transcendence are always possible.

The news cycle surrounding the Reiners’ deaths is likely to get worse, as details emerge and reactions of all kinds continue. For a long while, it will be difficult to think of Reiner and his wife as anything but victims of a brutal crime of truly tragic proportions and the regrettable heartlessness that our political divisions have created.

Ironically, and mercifully, solace for this loss, and so many others, can be found in Reiner’s work, films and performances that are impossible to watch without feeling at least a little bit better.

As Hollywood and the world mourns, I will try to think of Reiner as I always have. After all, no matter the order, we all put on our shoes and socks one at a time.

And then, as his artistic legacy teaches us, we stand and try to do the best we can with whatever happens next.

SEOUL, Dec. 16 (UPI) — The likelihood of a renewed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has increased, even as Pyongyang presses ahead with nuclear weapons development, a South Korean think tank said Tuesday.

In an annual forecast released by the Foreign Ministry-linked Korea National Diplomatic Academy, analysts said Trump is expected to continue a top-down approach to North Korea under which leader-level talks could resume.

“The likelihood of a North Korea-U.S. summit has increased somewhat due to common ground in the two leaders’ desire to hold a summit, pursue peaceful coexistence and lower the priority of the denuclearization issue,” the report said.

Trump met Kim three times during his first term — in Singapore in 2018, in Hanoi in 2019 and briefly at the Demilitarized Zone later that year — but talks collapsed amid disagreements over sanctions relief and steps toward denuclearization.

Since returning to office, Trump has floated another summit with Kim on numerous occasions, telling reporters in October he “would love” to meet the North Korean leader during a visit to South Korea.

Kim has also signaled a willingness to resume diplomacy with Washington, saying he has “fond memories” of Trump, while warning that any discussion of giving up his regime’s nuclear arsenal would be off the table.

Despite the prospect of renewed diplomacy, the KNDA report said engagement with Washington is unlikely to slow Pyongyang’s military buildup.

North Korea is expected to “accelerate the production of nuclear materials and the development and deployment of new missile systems” in 2026 as it works to operationalize a broader range of nuclear strike capabilities, the report said.

The academy added that a seventh nuclear test remains a “military and technological necessity,” although Pyongyang is likely to exercise restraint as it weighs the impact on its relations with China and the United States.

North Korea last conducted a nuclear test in September 2017 at its Punggye-ri site. During a period of detente with Seoul and Washington the following year, Pyongyang demolished the entrances to two test tunnels in a highly publicized move.

Those steps have since been reversed, however. The U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea began restoring tunnels at the site in 2022, and a 2025 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment concluded the country is now “postured to conduct a seventh nuclear test at a time of its choosing.”

Prospects for inter-Korean relations remain dim, the report said, despite efforts by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to rehabilitate ties since taking office in June

Communication between Seoul and Pyongyang is unlikely to resume as the North continues to promote its “hostile two-state doctrine,” which defines the two Koreas as permanently separate adversaries.

“The likelihood of inter-Korean dialogue reopening is not high,” the report said.

Dec. 16 (Asia Today) — “Decade of the Spy” was a label used by U.S. media in the 1980s, when major espionage cases involving the former Soviet Union were uncovered year after year. In 2025, the phrase has resurfaced in a different context: most information is now digital, physical distance matters less, and the security environment has shifted toward a broader “all-against-all” competition.

Against that backdrop, South Korea is pushing amendments to Article 98 of the Criminal Act, commonly referred to as the Espionage Act. Enacted in 1953, the law has historically been applied primarily to North Korea, even as alleged espionage activity linked to other countriesh as increased. The proposed revision would allow espionage acts carried out on behalf of any foreign country to be prosecuted under the same statute.

But practitioners argue that changing the law is not enough. Bae Jeong-seok, an adjunct professor at Sungkyunkwan University’s Graduate School of National Strategy and a former National Intelligence Service counterespionage bureau chief with more than 30 years of experience, said revising the law is “normalization,” not a full upgrade of counterintelligence capacity.

In an interview with Asia Today on Dec. 8, Bae said counterespionage should be treated not only as a criminal matter but as a national security function that requires long-term operations and can carry diplomatic value.

-What structural limitations existed for counterespionage activities under the current legal framework?

“Today’s intelligence environment is not like the Cold War, when you mainly focused on one adversary. It involves many state actors. But in South Korea, activity linked to foreign intelligence services other than North Korea often could not be charged as espionage. It was handled under separate laws protecting military secrets or industrial technology. In counterintelligence, the core is recruiting sources and running counter-operations, including using double agents, to gather more information. If everything is treated only as a standard criminal case, it limits intelligence work that needs time and flexibility.”

-How does this revised espionage bill compare to major advanced nations?

“This is not ‘toughening’ the law so much as bringing South Korea in line with what many advanced countries already have. But legal tools to deal with influence operations are still limited. Efforts to shape public opinion, cultivate media ties, or influence policymaking can be hard to prosecute under traditional espionage charges. A separate reporting-based system like the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires disclosure of certain activities performed on behalf of foreign principals, is also needed.”

-What will change with this amendment?

“It can help deter and disrupt foreign intelligence activity. If recruiting agents or providing information to a foreign intelligence service is itself treated as espionage, authorities can investigate earlier and more directly. That reduces the risk of South Korean citizens being recruited. It also gives counterintelligence more room to run long-term operations instead of moving immediately to prosecution in every case.”

-What aspects of the amendment require further refinement?

“The most important point is allowing strategic decision-making. Counterespionage should not be limited to catching spies and quickly building a prosecution. It requires understanding how networks operate over time, then recruiting and turning sources. In some cases, captured agents can also be used as leverage in security and diplomatic channels. Without that kind of approach, you fall behind in modern intelligence competition.”

-Beyond legal amendments, what direction should counterespionage personnel, technology, and organizational culture take?

“Police are expanding counterespionage efforts, but the main responsibility should remain with the NIS, which has the specialized experience. Police, which have investigative authority, can focus on arrests and prosecution. Coordination between the two needs to improve. Over the long term, South Korea should consider a dedicated counterintelligence body. This work requires continuity, and the typical government job-rotation system is not well suited to long-term operations.”

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Dec. 15 (Asia Today) — Democratic Party leader Jeong Cheong-rae, whose party holds the presidency, on Monday called for a second, wide-ranging special investigation into an alleged insurrection case, raising questions about Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae after courts rejected arrest warrants for several figures tied to the probe.

Jeong made the remarks at a party Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, as the mandate of a special prosecutor was set to end. He said the special prosecutor made progress byre-arresting former President Yoon Suk-yeol and referring 24 people to trial, but argued the investigation was constrained by court decisions, including warrant denials.

Jeong said the rejection of warrants for figures such as Choo Kyung-ho was “difficult to accept,” and claimed it fueled suspicions that the judiciary was blocking steps that could lead to broader legal consequences for the People Power Party. He also said the circumstances raised questions about whether Chief Justice Cho may have been involved, citing a meeting on Dec. 3, the day martial law was declared.

Jeong said the Democratic Party would work with the government and presidential office to push for what he called a “second comprehensive special investigation,” and urged a tougher approach without leniency. He said a follow-up probe should also examine allegations involving first lady Kim Keon-hee and issues the current special prosecutor did not fully resolve.

He additionally questioned court case assignment procedures, citing media reports that the treason-related trial was assigned through unusual in-person discussions rather than random distribution. He said the party would pursue legislation to create a specialized court for sedition-related cases.

Jeong also criticized the People Power Party’s use of filibusters, including on bills he said were bipartisan or originally proposed by the party, and said the Democratic Party would seek revisions to parliamentary rules governing the tactic. He offered condolences to victims of a collapse at a construction site at the Gwangju Central Library and called fora thorough investigation.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Cameron Menzies angrily punched a drinks table after a five-set defeat by highly rated Charlie Manby in the first round of the PDC World Championship.

The 26th seed from Scotland hit the underside of the table three times before holding his hand up in apology to the Alexandra Palace crowd as he left the stage.

Menzies, 36, was pictured with blood pouring from a gash on his right hand.

He had led 1-0 and 2-1 in sets before 20-year-old English debutant Manby fought back and clinched victory with his seventh match dart.

Former Premier League champion Glen Durrant – commentating on the subsequent match for Sky Sports – said: “Charlie Manby is a superstar in the making. Sometimes you can build a player up at 20 years old. We thought it was going to be the match of the afternoon and it delivered.

“But it wasn’t the ending we all want to see. For Cameron Menzies, I think he will regret that for the rest of his life. It was not a good watch.”

Co-commentator Stuart Pyke added: “I agree, [it was] an extraordinary reaction but we saw him walking off stage and he did put up his hand in apology. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Players can be sanctioned under Darts Regulation Authority rules for aggressive, disruptive or abusive behaviour.

It is the second year running that Menzies has been knocked out in the first round after he broke down in tears during and following his exit to Leonard Gates last December.

Menzies later revealed his father Ricky had been ill in hospital at the time, and spoke before this tournament, external about the recent death of his uncle.

Dec. 15 (UPI) — Incoming spy chief Blaise Metreweli will use her first speech as head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, to warn of the grave threat from Russia, particularly from its use of hybrid warfare.

The agency’s first woman head was set to warn of what she called “an acute threat posed by an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia” and that its use of cyberattacks and drones meant “the frontline was everywhere.”

Metreweli, who took over from the outgoing “C,” Sir Richard Moore, on Oct. 1, will detail incidents of hacking and flying of drones near vital infrastructure by Russian proxies as examples of its use of hybrid tactics.

Russia has been waging this type of low-grade war on Ukraine‘s Western allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to analysts, flying drones into NATO airspace neighboring Ukraine, disrupting flights by allegedly flying drones near European airports and cutting undersea cables.

In Britain, this has included recruiting Britons to spy for it, allegedly paying individuals to carry out an arson attack on a factory in London owned by Ukrainians and pointing lasers at RAF jets tracking Russian spy ships.

Speaking at MI6 HQ in central London, Metreweli was expected to vow Britain would not let up its campaign to impede Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, noting recent sanctions imposed on Russian organizations and individuals the government believes were involved in information warfare.

“The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement; and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus,” she is expected to say.

As expected, Metreweli, who previously served as MI6’s technology and innovation lead, made famous by the character “Q” in the James Bond movie franchise, will stress the key role technology must play going forward.

She will urge intelligence officers to become technology experts “not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft.”

“We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python [the computer progamming language] as we are in multiple languages.”

In September, MI6 launched Silent Courier, a secure messaging platform on the dark web, enabling spies to anonymously upload information useful to British intelligence from anywhere in the world. A YouTube video tutorial accompanied the launch.

Britain was, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said “bolstering their efforts with cutting-edge tech so MI6 can recruit new spies for the United Kingdom — in Russia and around the world.”

The service also carried the following disclaimer from the Foreign Office.

“MI6 advises individuals accessing its portal to use trustworthy VPNs and devices not linked to themselves, to mitigate risks which exist in some countries.

“Do not use a name, phone number or other data linked to your real identity when creating this account,” it added.

Dec. 15 (UPI) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. officials in Berlin on Monday in an effort to reach a consensus on what any peace deal with Russia should look like.

The European leaders, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has yet to confirm his attendance, will seek to negotiate an alternative to the U.S.-Russia plan currently on the table with a stronger deal for Ukraine with better protections for its security.

The talks will also attempt to keep afloat an EU-brokered agreement to loan Ukraine some of the $246.7 billion of Russia’s assets frozen in European banks and other institutions to help it defend itself and take “forward peace talks from a position of strength,” amid mounting opposition to the plan.

The meeting follows five hours of talks on Sunday between Zelensky and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at the Federal Chancellery that Witkoff said were productive and would resume on Monday.

“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff posted on X on Sunday evening.

Zelensky was reported to have dropped demands for NATO membership, if it was what was required to end the war, in exchange for a bilateral defense agreement with the United States similar to an Article 5-like guarantee, along with other guarantees from Ukraine’s European partners.

Article 5 is a cast-iron guarantee, a collective defense principle enshrined in NATO’s constitution under which an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all members and triggers an obligation for each member to come to its defense.

Following the initial discussions on Monday, Merz’s spokesman confirmed the group would be widened to include “numerous European heads of state and government, as well as the leaders of the EU and NATO.”

The diplomatic focus will shift to Brussels on Thursday when the leaders of all 27 EU nations converge on the Belgian capital for a meeting of the European Council with Ukraine and European security topping the agenda.

Council President Antonio Costa said the summit would address how best to continue defending Europe’s interests and how to “strengthen Ukraine’s negotiating position,” a key element of which necessitated “increased pressure on Russia.”

Costa said that having already committed to providing for Ukraine’s urgent financial needs for 2026-2027, including funding for its military and defense, it was now time to decide how to implement it and that leaders must keep talking on Thursday until an agreement was reached.

Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled two options — both controversial — to provide Ukraine with $105.8 billion of the $158.6 it is estimated it will need in the two years through 2027 to keep the country running and being able to continue fighting Russia.

The so-called “reparations loan” option involving using frozen Russian assets only requires a two-thirds majority of EU states to vote for it. The second option under which the EU would use its budget to go borrow on the international capital markets is more problematic because it could be blocked by a single state.

Hungary and Slovakia have indicated they are opposed to either route, while Belgium, home to Euroclear, the clearing house where the majority of Russia’s frozen assets are held, has expressed strong worries that it could be taken to court by Russia were the frozen assets tapped or that it may scare off foreign investors.

Russia has protested that appropriating its assets amounts to theft but the EU says that is not the case because there was nothing to preclude Russia from reclaiming the funds in future — after it has paid war reparations to Ukraine.

Ukraine is set to run out of money early in the New Year.

Dec. 15 (Asia Today) — Song Eon-seok, floor leader of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party, called Sunday for appointing a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that political figures received money and gifts linked to the Unification Church, while also urging a separate probe into special prosecutor Min Jung-ki over claims of politically biased investigations.

Speaking at a press briefing at the National Assembly, Song said a special prosecutor was needed “to restore judicial justice” and argued that Min’s team should fully examine allegations involving Unification Church-related political funds, including claims tied to the opposition Democratic Party that he said have not been adequately addressed.

Song criticized Min’s investigation as politically motivated, accusing the special prosecutor of abandoning neutrality and fairness and operating as a tool for retaliation against the opposition. He said the special prosecutor’s office should be disbanded and investigated.

On the scope of any Unification Church-related probe, Song said investigators should not draw distinctions between ruling and opposition parties.

Asked whether allegations involving People Power Party figures should also be covered, Song said any individual accused of receiving money or valuables from the Unification Church should be investigated regardless of party affiliation.

Song also suggested the ruling party could coordinate with the minor Reform Party on advancing the special prosecutor proposal, saying cooperation was possible with any political force that shares its vision. He added the People Power Party plans to discuss the issue after Reform Party floor leader Cheon Ha-ram returns to South Korea.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Dec. 15 (UPI) — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that his government will seek to strengthen Australia’s already stringent gun laws after a father-and-son duo killed 15 people and injured 40 others on Sunday in one of the country’s worst-ever shootings.

“People’s circumstances change. People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity,” he told reporters during a Monday press conference.

The shooters have not been identified, although authorities have said the father was 50 years old and the son 24.

They are alleged to have opened fire late Sunday afternoon into crowds of people at the iconic Australian tourist destination. The 50-year-old father was shot and killed by police at the scene. The 24-year-old son has been hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Authorities are investigating the shooting as a terrorist attack targeting Australia’s Jewish community during Hanukkah celebrations.

Six firearms have been confiscated by the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which is investigating the shooting.

The NSW Police Force said in a statement Monday that three firearms and two improvised explosive devices were located at the scene following the shooting and are undergoing forensic examination.

Search warrants executed Sunday night at two homes, one in Bonnyrigg and another in Campsie, uncovered two additional firearms.

A sixth firearm and a third improvised explosive device were discovered Monday at the Bondi crime scene, NSW Police Force said.

Authorities said earlier Monday that the 50-year-old alleged shooter is a licensed firearms holder and that they are investigating to confirm that the six firearms confiscated are the six he is licensed to have.

Albanese said Monday that he will take to the National Cabinet later that afternoon a proposal to empower agencies to examine what can be done to strengthen Australia’s gun laws.

“If we need to toughen these up, if there’s anything we can do, I’m certainly up for it,” he said.

The identities of the alleged shooters have not been made public. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters that the 24-year-old son is an Australian-born citizen, and that the father had arrived in the country in 1998 on a student visa, which was then transferred to a partner visa in 2001. He has been on resident return visas since.

Asked what country the father was a native of, Burke declined to answer, saying he has not been cleared by police to make that information public.

Albanese said the son was known to police, and first came to their attention in October 2019.

“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” he said.

The probing of the son was the product of those he was associated with rather than anything he had done, he said, adding that the investigation was conducted over a six-month period.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon earlier Monday told reporters that “there was very little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities.”

“The person had a firearms license for a number of years for which there were no incidents,” he said.

Dec. 15 (Asia Today) — Japan’s shipbuilding industry is moving to rebuild after a prolonged slump, with the government establishing a 1 trillion yen ($6.42 billion) support fund and preparing a mid- to long-term industrial strategy dubbed the “Shipbuilding Revitalization Roadmap,” according to the report.

Tokyo is also promoting an “All Japan” framework that links the shipping and shipbuilding sectors, redefining shipbuilding as a national strategic industry. The shift is being closely watched by South Korea’s shipbuilders as Japan seeks a policy-driven pivot after its presence weakened amid aggressive competition from China and South Korea.

Japan was a global shipbuilding powerhouse in the early 1970s, accounting for about half of worldwide shipbuilding volume. After the oil crisis, however, large-scale facility investment largely stalled for more than 50 years due to volatility in shipping markets and uncertainty in ship demand. During that period, South Korea and China rose to the center of global shipbuilding through government-led investment and support, the report said.

Japan’s share of global merchant-ship orders remains in the single digits, the report added. The rebuilding drive stems from a growing view in government and industry that shipbuilding is not only a competitiveness issue but also a matter of national infrastructure.

The initiative goes beyond financial injections for individual companies, the report said. The government has set a goal of doubling annual shipbuilding volume over the next decade, while prioritizing a stronger production base and the recovery of technological and design capabilities.

A key feature is an effort to tighten coordination between shipbuilders and shipping lines. The report pointed to agreements between major shipping groups and shipbuilding and design firms to standardize designs for next-generation fuel vessels, aiming to link domestic industries from the ordering stage through operations and improve competitiveness.

The approach differs from South Korea’s export-driven shipbuilding model,which competes globally for orders from shipowners, the report said. Japan, bycontrast, is positioning its alliance with domestic shipping as a core pillarof its industrial strategy.

While South Korea already holds top-tier competitiveness and leads globalorders in high-value-added vessel types, Japan’s current move reflects a changein national-level perceptions of shipbuilding, the report argued.

Japan is framing shipbuilding not simply as an export industry but as afoundational sector supporting maritime logistics, citizens’ livelihoods,economic activity and national security. The policy push raises questions abouthow the state can ensure the industry’s sustainability despite its cyclicalvolatility, the report said.

It remains too early to judge whether Japan’s reconstruction drive will deliver tangible results. But the report said the Japanese government and industry have returned shipbuilding to the center of national strategy – a signal that the East Asian shipbuilding landscape may be shifting again.

-Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Dec. 14 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that his country may give up its dreams of NATO ascension, at least temporarily, for an end to the war and security guarantees from the United States and Europe, reports said.

Zelensky, who has said that NATO ascension is unlikely because of Russian opposition, held that Ukraine would still seek security guarantees similar to the bloc’s Article 5 clause for mutual protection for members under attack.

His comments were made to journalists in a private WhatsApp chat and were reported by The New York Times and Financial Times.

“This is already a compromise on our part,” Zelensky said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host talks Sunday between Zelensky, as well as Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at the Federal Chancellery.

Zelensky added that he has not yet received a response from the Trump administration on revised peace proposals sent last week, the reports said.

Under that peace plan, The New York Times reported, Ukraine said any decision to give up Ukrainian territory would need to be put to a vote and it removed a measure put in place by American negotiators preventing it from ever joining NATO, indicating that Zelensky holds on to hope Ukraine could join the defense alliance in the future.

Yuri Ushakov, the foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said on state television Sunday that Russia would have “sharp objections” if the United States adopted any Ukrainian or European suggestions for the plan.

Both Ukraine and Russia have seemingly rejected a proposal from the Trump administration that would create a sort-of demilitarized zone in parts of eastern Ukraine that it still holds, requiring only Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the buffer area.

Zelensky said Sunday he did not consider it fair that Russian troops were not also asked to withdraw deeper into the occupied territories.

“We stand where we stand,” he said. “That is precisely a ceasefire.”

Kumar’s scoring was inferior to Veenstra’s, but his finishing proved crucial, boasting a 75% checkout success and hitting all his last seven doubles.

“I don’t know what to say right now. I’m overwhelmed, I’m happy,” said Kumar, who is nicknamed ‘The Royal Bengal’.

“If you dream it, anything is possible. I’ve dreamed of this ever since I saw Dennis Priestley win the World Championship (in 1994).”

Asked about what his victory could do for darts in India, he said: “I’ve opened the floodgates to a billion of them.

“I’m sorry, 10 years down the line if you have eight people in the World Championship walking on to Bollywood music, don’t blame me.”

Veenstra hit five 100-plus finishes, with his highest coming at 144. Kumar was not as flamboyant with his scoring, but proved to be incredibly consistent as the crowd roared him on.

Three-time BDO world champion Glen Durrant said on Sky Sports: “It was one of the greatest games I have ever commentated on.

“It’s not just the quality of the match, it’s the impact for Nitin Kumar and what it does for Indian darts.”

Two seeds exited the competition on Sunday – world number 23 Dimitri van den Bergh and 27th-ranked Ritchie Edhouse.

Belgium’s Van den Bergh was out of sorts from the first dart and was comfortably beaten 3-0 by Scottish debutant Darren Beveridge.

In the afternoon session, Edhouse was knocked out by Jonny Tata, who was also making his first appearance.

Former European champion Edhouse was stunned 3-0 by the New Zealander, to taste defeat at this stage for the fourth time in a row.

But the same fate did not follow fellow seed Joe Cullen after he eased past Bradley Brooks with a 3-0 win.

The world number 32 was in fine form to produce his second-highest average on the world stage with 99.33.

Another debutant, Englishman Dom Taylor, progressed to the second round with a 3-0 win over Sweden’s Oskar Lukasiak.

Meanwhile, the evening session saw the Netherlands’ Lukas Wenig beat Wesley Plaiser 3-1 while England’s James Hurrell beat Stowe Buntz by the same scoreline.

Dec. 14 (UPI) — A Hong Kong court is scheduled to deliver its verdict Monday in the national security case against media founder and former publisher Jimmy Lai, one of the city’s most prominent pro-democracy figures and the founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily.

Lai, 78, whose Chinese name is Lai Chee-ying, is charged alongside several companies linked to Apple Daily, including Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited, according to the court’s docket.

Prosecutors allege that Lai conspired to collude with foreign forces, an offense punishable by as much as a life sentence in prison under Hong Kong’s national security law.

Court records show the case is listed for verdict at 10 a.m. local time in the Court of First Instance at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building.

The Hong Kong Judiciary issued special public seating and ticketing arrangements for the hearing, citing high demand. According to court notices, admission tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning 45 minutes before the hearing, with overflow seating and live broadcasts provided in multiple courtrooms.

The case has also drawn international attention, with governments and press freedom groups warning that the prosecution reflects a broader erosion of civil liberties and press freedom in Hong Kong since the national security law was imposed in 2020.

Lai has pleaded not guilty to two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” and a separate count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, The New York Times reported. He has been jailed since his arrest five years ago.

Dec. 14 (UPI) — Chileans head to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff election in which the son of a Nazi party member, who has pledged to build a border wall to keep migrants out of the country, is the leading candidate.

Far right former congressman Jose Antonio Kast, 59, built his campaign on a promise to remove tens of thousands of undocumented migrants from the country. He faces Jeannette Jara, 51, a former labor minister in the administration of center-left president Gabriel Boric.

Jara, the leading candidate of the left-wing coalition, finished the first round of polling with 27%, but right-wing candidates, including Kast, secured more than half of the votes.

Kast is a known admirer of Chilean military strongman Augusto Pinochet, and a staunch opponent of abortion rights and same sex marriage.

The campaign has featured a bitter fight between Jara and Kast, with each attacking the other’s ability to address crime, migration problems and a lagging economy.

Jara has pledged to attract more investment in the country and to secure the border while also addressing health care needs. Kast has campaigned on corporate tax cuts, deregulation and departing undocumented migrants.

Both are using the approval rating of the outgoing Boric’s approval rating, hovering at 30%, as a platform for their campaigns, pledging to improve on the job he has done.

Chile has seen a sharp upturn in murder and other violent crime in recent years as international criminal groups have stepped into a country that has long been considered relatively docile.

The feat has spread to other Latin American countries, including Costa Rica and Ecuador.

Boric is considered to have failed to fulfill most of his stated agenda to strengthen public services. He also failed to address problems brought on by organized crime, election watchers have said.

Voters have called for more migration reform, tighter security and for the country to distance itself from Boric’s failed policies.

A mass shooting at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach in the Australian city of Sydney has killed at least 11 people and wounded 29 in what was a grisly, rare occurrence for the country.

Authorities said the “terrorist” incident on Sunday was “designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah” as hundreds of people gathered for an event called Chanukah by the Sea.

Countries around the world condemned the deadly attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

The Australian leader condemned the “targeted” attack, saying: “What was unleashed today is beyond comprehension.”

Albanese also addressed the Jewish community directly.

“As prime minister, on behalf of all Australians, to the Jewish community: We stand with you, we embrace you and we reaffirm tonight that you have every right to be proud of who you are and what you believe,” Albanese said. “You have the right to worship and study and work and live in peace and safety.

“You should never have to endure the loss that you have suffered today. We will dedicate every resource required to make sure you are safe and protected.”

New Zealand

In neighbouring New Zealand, Chris Luxon, its prime minister, reiterated the two countries’ close bond.

“Australia and New Zealand are closer than friends. We’re family. I am shocked by the distressing scenes at Bondi, a place that Kiwis visit every day. My thoughts and the thoughts of all New Zealanders are with those affected,” Luxon said.

United States

The US “strongly condemns” the attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia,” he wrote in a post on X.

United Nations

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the “heinous” shooting.

“I am horrified and condemn today’s heinous deadly attack on Jewish families gathered in Sydney to celebrate Hanukkah,” he posted on X.

“My heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this first day of Hanukkah.”

Israel

Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the attack as “cruel”.

“Our brothers and sisters in Sydney have been attacked by vile terrorists in a very cruel attack on Jews who went to light the first candle of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach,” Herzog said in a statement.

“Time and again we called on the Australian government to take action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism that is plaguing Australian society,” he also said in a post on X.

At least one Israeli national is among those who have been killed in the shooting, according to a statement by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

It also said that an Israeli national was wounded.

Palestine

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the shooting and said it “reiterates its firm rejection of all forms of violence, terrorism and extremism, which contradict humanitarian values”.

It expressed its “full solidarity” with “friendly Australia”.

United Kingdom

Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, stated: “Deeply distressing news from Australia. The United Kingdom sends our thoughts and condolences to everyone affected by the appalling attack in Bondi Beach.”

Britain’s King Charles

Charles, the ceremonial head of state for Australia, reacted to the deadly shooting in Bondi Beach.

“My wife and I are appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack on Jewish people attending Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach,” the king said in a statement posted on X.

Germany

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, said he was shocked by the incident.

“The anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach during Hanukkah leaves me utterly shocked. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. This is an attack on our shared values. We must fight anti-Semitism – here in Germany and around the world,” Merz said.

France

Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, said his country would continue to fight against anti-Semitism.

“France extends its thoughts to the victims, the injured and their loved ones. We share the pain of the Australian people and will continue to fight relentlessly against anti-Semitic hatred, which hurts us all wherever it strikes,” Macron said.

The Netherlands

Dick Schoof, the Dutch prime minister, stated: “Shocking and alarming reports from Australia of a horrific attack in Sydney that has left many people dead or injured. I have conveyed my sympathy and support to Prime Minister Albanese on this dark day for Australia.”

Finland

Alexander Stubb, Finland’s president, extended his condolences to Australia’s Jewish population.

“Tonight’s terrorist attack on the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach was shocking and devastating. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims as well as the whole Jewish community in Australia,” Stubb said.

Iran

Tehran denounced the “terror” incident, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

“We condemn the violent attack in Sydney, Australia. Terror and killing of human beings, wherever committed, is rejected and condemned,” Baghaei said on X.

European Union

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “shocked” by the shooting.

“I send my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims.”

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the “appalling act of violence against the Jewish community must be unequivocally condemned”.

Norway

Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s prime minister, said he was “shocked by the horrific attack at Bondi Beach, Australia, during a Jewish Hanukkah event”.

Italy

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, said she “firmly” condemns “any form of violence and anti-Semitism”.

“Italy expresses its sorrow for the victims, stands in solidarity with their relatives, the injured and the Jewish communities, and renews its friendship towards the Australian people,” Meloni said.

Spain

Jose Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, said he was “horrified” by the attack.

“My solidarity with the victims and their loved ones, with the people and government of Australia. Hate, anti-Semitism and violence have no place in our societies.”

Republic of Ireland

Helen McEntee, Ireland’s foreign minister, said: “I want to express my shock and horror at the anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish community celebrating first day of Hanukkah. … All my thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones and the people of Australia.”

Qatar

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the attack and extended its condolences to the families affected.

“Qatar renews its position condemning violence, terrorism and criminality whatever the motives,” the ministry said.

Turkiye

The Turkish Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the attack.

It offered condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and to the Australian people, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

“As Turkiye, we reiterate our principled stance against all forms and manifestations of terrorism and our commitment to cooperation in combating this global threat,” the ministry said in a statement.

Lebanon

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said: “Just as we condemn and reject attacks on any innocent civilian in Gaza, southern Lebanon, or any region of the world, we condemn, by the same principle and duty, what happened in Sydney.

“The responsibility for these tragedies lies with the systems that spread ideas of hatred, extremism, rejection of the other, and the violent pursuit of religious, ethnic, or political monopoly systems … Just as it falls on what fuels those contexts of injustice, oppression, and absence of justice in our current world.”

UK’s chief rabbi

The UK’s chief rabbi has called the shooting an “unspeakable tragedy”.

In a social media post, Ephraim Mirvis, who serves as the head rabbi for the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, said: “Absolutely heartbreaking news is emerging of an unspeakable atrocity.”

The rabbi called for people to “join me in praying for everyone affected by this heinous act.”

Australian National Imams Council

A major Australian Muslim organisation condemned the Bondi Beach shooting as a “horrific” act of violence.

“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those who witnessed or were affected by this deeply traumatic attack,” the Australian National Imams Council said in a statement.

“This is a moment for all Australians, including the Australian Muslim community, to stand together in unity, compassion, and solidarity,” it added.

Muslim World League

The Muslim World League said it “strongly condemns the terrorist attack targeting a gathering of Australian citizens in Sydney”.

In a statement, the international non-governmental Islamic organisation quoted its Secretary General Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa as saying that Muslim people “reject terrorism and violence in all their forms”.

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the kingdom condemns the “terrorist attack” in Sydney and reaffirmed its stance against all “forms of violence, terrorism and extremism”.

The kingdom said it wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

United Arab Emirates

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry said the country “strongly condemns such criminal acts” and maintains its consistent rejection of “all forms of violence and terrorism” aimed at undermining security and stability.

“The Ministry also expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims, and to the government and people of Australia, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured,” it said in a statement.

Jordan

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, with ministry spokesperson Fouad al-Majali affirming the country’s full solidarity with “friendly Australia” and its rejection of “all acts of violence and terrorism” that seek to destabilise security.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani

Mamdani called the attack a “vile act of anti-Semitic terror”.

“Another Jewish community plunged into mourning and loss, a holiday of light so painfully reduced to a day of darkness,” he said. “This attack is merely the latest, most horrifying iteration in a growing pattern of violence targeted at Jewish people across the world.”

Great Britain’s Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale claimed gold in the mixed team event at the Snowboard Cross World Cup in Cervinia, Italy.

Nightingale, 24, finished third in the men’s run to put the British team in a strong position before Bankes, 30, produced a stunning run on her return from injury to win the women’s race and clinch gold for the team.

Austria claimed silver ahead of France, who won bronze.

Bankes won the Crystal Globe as overall winner in 2021-22 and 2022-23 but sustained a broken collarbone in April as she chased a third individual Snowboard Cross World Cup title in four years.

She was ruled out of the final races of last season at Mont Sainte Anne, Canada and needed two rounds of surgery to correct the injury, missing all of pre-season.

“To see all the hard work from this summer’s training paying off from Huw as well as this being Charlotte’s first race back since injury, this was quite the victory,” said GB Snowsport head coach Pat Sharples.

Bankes was knocked out of the women’s event at the quarter-finals stage on Saturday.

Sunday’s victory alongside Nightingale marks the pair’s third World Cup podium in the mixed team event – two golds and one silver – and sits alongside the gold medal they won at the 2023 World Championships.

Glasgow Warriors’ stunning comeback victory over Toulouse in the Investec Champions Cup will do wonders for their confidence, says fly-half Adam Hastings.

Franco Smith’s side looked to be heading for a heavy defeat as the six-time European champions raced into a 21-0 half-time lead.

Warriors caught fire in the second half to turn the game on its head, running in four unanswered tries to deliver arguably the greatest European win in their history.

“It was just mental,” Hastings, who was named player of the match, told BBC Scotland.

“For [the fans] to come out on a night like this, a sell out, and just get behind us, it means the world.

“It’s huge for the mental side of it as well, the confidence that we got, because we’ve had a few scoldings in Europe over the past couple of years, and it’s just good that a statement result like that, especially at home as well.”