Month: January 2026

The Hunterian Museum in London is a collection of anatomical specimens, both animal and human, and while it’s a fascinating place to visit for some, it warns that many tourists may find it upsetting

Nestled in a leafy London square, encircled by stunning Georgian architecture, stands the 200-old Royal College of Surgeons building. Despite its impressive columns and elaborate exterior stonework, few would guess that behind these historic walls lies one of Britain’s most macabre museums.

The Hunterian Museum houses a vast array of anatomical specimens – both animal and human – guaranteed to fascinate, educate, and shock visitors in equal measure. It also serves as a monument to medical trailblazers, featuring artworks and sculptures that chronicle the lives of those who revolutionised modern surgery.

Many galleries in this free-to-visit attraction boast towering shelves stretching from floor to ceiling, each crammed with jars containing fascinating and extraordinary specimens, reports the Express. Most originate from the animal kingdom, showcasing an array of dissected beings preserved for scientific research.

Yet controversially, the collection also features human remains, including foetuses, potentially making for an unsettling experience unsuitable for those of a sensitive disposition.

A warning on their website cautions: “Viewing human remains can evoke powerful emotions which some visitors can understandably find difficult. Visitors should consider whether visiting the Hunterian is right for them.”

The museum asks that visitors avoid photographing human remains or sharing such images on social media. They continue: “Many of the preparations of human tissue on display in the Hunterian Museum were gathered before modern standards of consent were established. We recognise the debt owed to those people – named and unnamed – who in life and death have helped to advance medical knowledge.”

For decades, heated debate surrounded the exhibition of Charles Byrne’s skeleton, a gentleman renowned for his extraordinary stature, measuring roughly 7 ft 7 in at the time of his death. Even as Charles lay dying, he anticipated that body snatchers would target his remains, leading him to explicitly request burial at sea.

Despite his desperate wishes, his skeleton was acquired by the museum, where it remained on show for more than 200 years. Only in 2023, after many prolonged campaigns, was it finally taken down.

Additional exhibits feature teeth extracted from troops who battled at Waterloo and a pair of false teeth that previously belonged to Winston Churchill. There’s a macabre relic from Britain’s first mummy dissection in 1763, featuring a severed foot preserved under a glass case.

The Evelyn Tables are another eerie yet captivating exhibit. At first glance, they might be mistaken for a piece of modern art hanging on the wall.

However, these are among the oldest anatomical preparations in Europe, created to educate students about the human body. Each wooden slab showcases a different part of the body, such as arteries, nerves, and veins.

These were dissected from a human body, assembled, and then varnished, ensuring their preservation for many years.

But perhaps the most spine-chilling exhibits are the surgical tools used prior to the invention of anaesthesia, when surgery was a gruesome and bloody affair. Seeing an 18th-century amputation kit or a dental set really brings home the sheer terror of undergoing a procedure back then and makes you grateful for modern medicine.

READ MORE: ‘Oldest house in London’ still standing today despite Great Fire of LondonREAD MORE: 109-mile-long tunnel maze hidden beneath city that could save it from climate change

The Hunterian Museum welcomes visitors from Tuesday to Saturday, between 10am and 5pm. Entry is free, but it’s advisable to book a slot online, as it can get busy at peak times.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday weakened one of the nation’s most aggressive efforts to combat climate change, releasing new fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks that handed a victory to the oil and gas industry.

The new rule, from the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department, will almost immediately be plunged into litigation as environmental groups and states with stricter standards, led by California, plan to challenge it.

“We intend to make sure the backsliding doesn’t reach California’s doorstep,” California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Tuesday in announcing the state’s plan to go to court to defend its tougher standards.

If the administration’s policy survives those fights, it would spare automakers from having to meet ambitious gas mileage and emissions requirements put in place in 2012 under President Obama. It is among the biggest steps the administration has taken to reverse an existing environmental policy.

The final rule is a dialed-down version of the one the administration originally planned. Instead of proposing zero improvements in fuel efficiency in coming years, it would require automakers to increase fuel economy across their fleets by 1.5% a year, with a goal of achieving an average of about 40 miles per gallon by 2026. That’s still a major departure from current rules, which mandate annual increases of 5%, reaching an average of 54 mpg by 2025.

Nearly 900 million more tons of carbon dioxide are expected to be released under the new rule than under the Obama-era standards, a result of less efficient cars burning an additional 78 billion gallons of fuel.

“We are delivering on President Trump’s promise to correct the current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. The administration’s plan, he said, “strikes the right regulatory balance that protects our environment and sets reasonable targets for the auto industry.”

Environmentalists and public health advocates said the change would likely contribute to thousands of premature deaths and asthma attacks. They criticized the decision to make the new standards final in the midst of a global pandemic, arguing that the rollback would damage public health at a time when thousands of people are gravely ill and the nation’s economy is in tatters.

But after repeatedly postponing the release of the new rule as it scrambled to justify the change, the administration faced deadlines that may have forced its hand.

For one, the longer the government delayed the new rule, the less effect it would have. Although Trump had initially announced that the new standards would affect vehicles in model year 2020, those cars were built under the Obama-era stringent fuel efficiency standards and are already on the road.

Unless the administration finalized its rollback by April 1, it was in danger of missing the deadline to apply the new standards to the 2022 model year.

Additionally, under the Congressional Review Act, new rules issued after May 19 could be invalidated by the next Congress.

The new standards will apply nationwide. Although California has historically set its own tougher car pollution rules, the Trump administration last year moved to strip the state of that authority. California and many of the other states that have adopted its clean-car standards have sued the administration over this change, and that issue likely won’t be resolved until next year at the earliest.

Just hours after the administration unveiled the final rule Tuesday, Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, disclosed that Volvo was in talks with the state to reach a voluntary emissions agreement. Four other automakers — Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW — have already made a deal with the state that would preserve emissions standards that are not as tough as the Obama standards, but are significantly more ambitious than Trump’s proposal.

The change in fuel-economy standards has been in development since the early days of the administration, when two lobbying groups representing automakers asked then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to relax the Obama-era standards.

The administration’s original proposal would have frozen fuel-economy standards at this year’s levels. That met a furious response from officials in California and several other states as well as unexpected resistance from some auto companies, which worried the administration was going overboard and dragging them into years of court battles with states.

Karl Brauer, an analyst for the research firm Cox Automotive, said that Trump’s rule had put automakers in an impossible position. If they opposed the rollback, their investors would be unhappy. If they endorsed it, they would be branded as anti-environment.

The rollback will likely make it easier to sell cars by making them cheaper, he said, but automakers are concerned it may not survive legal scrutiny or the next election.

“I think automakers will feel a lot of uncertainty until Nov. 3,” Brauer said.

“The auto industry has consistently called for year-over-year increases in fuel efficiency,” said John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of the world’s largest car companies. “Looking to the future, we need policies that support a customer-friendly shift toward these electrified and other highly efficient technologies.”

Trump has boasted that his plan would save lives, improve the economy and lower the cost of new cars.

In a phone call with reporters on Tuesday, senior EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials said their analysis showed that lowering the cost of a new car would allow more Americans to replace aging vehicles with newer, safer ones. That turnover in the nation’s fleet would prevent more than 3,300 traffic fatalities, according to the government’s projections, as well as 46,000 post-crash injuries.

They also emphasized the rollback’s estimated cost savings for automakers — as much as $100 billion over the lifetime of the vehicles built under the new rule.

But while administration officials said the change would help drivers and the environment, the government’s analysis was not as optimistic.

Its estimates showed that while loosening fuel-economy standards could shave about $1,000 off the price of a new car, drivers would have to buy more gas than they would have under the current rule.

David Friedman, vice president of advocacy for Consumer Reports, said his group’s projections show that each vehicle sold under the Trump rule will cost its owner on average $2,100 more, even if gas prices continue to fall.

Automakers and their suppliers could also suffer. The government’s analysis shows that American car companies could experience a loss of thousands of jobs by making dirtier cars that would be locked out of many overseas markets.

The change is also expected to result in significantly more greenhouse gas emissions, which trap the sun’s heat, worsening the effects of climate change. Hotter temperatures contribute to more smog, which can damage the lungs and cause other serious health problems.

“Of all the bad things President Trump has done to the environment, this is the worst,” said Dan Becker, head of the Safe Climate Campaign, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group. “He is rolling back the biggest single step any nation has taken to fight global warming, cut oil use and save money at the pump.”

In a February report to Wheeler, the agency’s science advisory board warned that the technical analysis underpinning the government’s draft proposal was so flawed that it had possibly led the EPA to the wrong conclusion.

“In other words,” the board wrote, “the standards in the 2012 rule might provide a better outcome for society than the proposed revision.”

Phillips reported from Washington and Mitchell from Los Angeles.

Bob Chesney’s initial UCLA football staff is going to have a familiar feel to anyone who follows James Madison.

After hiring offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy and defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler, the new Bruins coach also is bringing along five other assistants who helped the Dukes reach the College Football Playoff: offensive line coach and run game coordinator Chris Smith, cornerbacks coach Eddie Whitley Jr., safeties coach Anthony DiMichele, defensive line coach Sam Daniels and special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Drew Canan. While most of the assistants will retain their titles, Whitley now will coach defensive backs and Daniels defensive ends with the Bruins.

Chesney is retaining two UCLA assistants in safeties coach Gabe Lynn and running backs coach A.J. Steward, with Lynn transitioning into a role coaching nickel backs. Chesney also is bringing in another assistant with Big Ten experience in Legi Suiaunoa, the former Michigan State defensive line coach who will fill the same role with the Bruins.

Vic So’oto will be the Bruins’ linebackers coach after spending the last four seasons at California in a variety of roles. A former NFL linebacker who spent two seasons as USC’s defensive line coach, So’oto took a job as Cal’s outside linebackers coach in 2022. The next season he added the role of special teams coordinator to his title before becoming the Golden Bears’ co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach last season.

Rounding out Chesney’s staff is wide receivers coach Colin Lockett, who spent last season in the same role at New Mexico. Lockett has plenty of experience on the West Coast after serving as a graduate assistant at Oregon in addition to being a defensive backs quality control coach at Washington and a graduate assistant at San Diego State. Lockett also knows the Southern California high school recruiting scene well after spending three seasons as a defensive backs coach at St. John Bosco High.

Steward also offers deep connections throughout the West after previously working at Kansas, Baylor, Oregon State, Arizona, Brigham Young and Rice. Suiaunoa and Steward overlapped at Oregon State for two of Suianoa’s six seasons as an assistant with the Beavers.

In another nod to continuity, Chesney is hiring Chris Grautski, his director of athletic performance at James Madison, to become head strength coach at UCLA.

“In organizing our first-year staff, it was imperative that we find coaches who fit a mold unique to UCLA football that will allow for immediate success,” Chesney, who is expected to complete his staff soon, said in a statement. “This group possesses a great blend of competency, diversity and passion, and a track record of winning. Our infusion of West Coast ties will be essential in elevating UCLA’s brand, not just in Southern California, but across all of college football. Most importantly, this coaching staff will create an environment of competition and toughness that will challenge our student-athletes to become their absolute best on and off the field.”

Most of Chesney’s hires have strong ties to their boss.

Canan has been part of Chesney’s staff for more than a decade, starting at Assumption College in 2014 before following Chesney to Holy Cross, James Madison and now UCLA. Smith spent five seasons working under Chesney at Holy Cross before leaving to become an assistant offensive line coach with the NFL’s New York Giants in 2023 and later rejoining Chesney at James Madison in 2024.

Whitley has the distinction of having worked for both Chesney and predecessor Curt Cignetti as part of Whitley’s six seasons at James Madison, which made him the longest tenured coach on the Dukes’ staff this season.

DiMichele has worked alongside Chesney for the last four seasons after joining his staff at Holy Cross in 2022 and following him to James Madison. Daniels was a newcomer to Chesney’s staff when he was hired before the 2024 season at James Madison, his alma mater.

Jan. 2 (Asia Today) — South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday during a four-day visit to China aimed at advancing talks on Korean Peninsula peace, economic cooperation and issues including restrictions on Korean cultural content in China, the presidential office said Friday.

National Security Office Director Wi Sung-lac told a briefing at the Blue House that Lee will travel to China from Sunday through Wednesday at Xi’s invitation, visiting Beijing and Shanghai.

Wi said the summit on Monday will include talks, a signing ceremony for nearly 10 memorandums of understanding and a state banquet. He said the main agenda will center on peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

“People’s livelihoods and peace cannot be separated,” Wi said, adding that both countries share an interest in peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. He said Seoul plans to strengthen strategic communication with Beijing and urge China to play a constructive role in helping address Korean Peninsula issues.

Wi said the two sides will also seek progress on what South Korea calls China’s restrictions on Korean cultural content. He said China’s official position is that no such ban exists but that South Korea sees it differently and will pursue broader consensus on cultural exchanges.

Wi said Lee’s team will also raise concerns about Chinese structures in the West Sea, also known as the Yellow Sea. He said the issue was discussed during a South Korea-China summit in Gyeongju in November and working-level consultations have continued.

A K-pop concert that had been discussed in connection with the trip is unlikely to take place this time, Wi said.

Lee will attend a South Korea-China business forum on Monday, the presidential office said. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to have lunch with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and meet Zhao Leji, the chairman of China’s national legislature.

On Wednesday, Lee plans to visit the former Shanghai headquarters of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Wi said the visit will mark the 150th anniversary of independence activist Kim Gu’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Shanghai provisional government building, and is intended to honor the independence movement and the countries’ shared historical experience.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Egypt has been ranked as the leading African country in global soft power influence for 2024, according to a report by Business Insider Africa. The report, based on the Global Soft Power Index published by Brand Finance, places Egypt 39th worldwide with a soft power score of 44.9 points.

South Africa and Morocco follow Egypt in the continent’s rankings, securing second and third place with scores of 43.7 and 40.6 points, respectively. The index also noted that “Egypt secures the gold for its ‘rich heritage’” while the UAE ranks number one in the Middle East and 10th globally. Globally, the US leads with a record-high score of 78.8 points, an increase from 74.8 in 2023.

The Global Soft Power Index assesses the perceptions of all 193 UN member states, evaluating countries based on eight pillars: business and trade, international relations, education and science, culture and heritage, governance, media and communication, sustainable future, and people and values.

Soft power is defined as a country’s ability to influence others through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion. Countries like Egypt are leveraging diplomacy, culture, and education to enhance their global reputation and build goodwill.

Meanwhile, China which sits on third place on the global index has been expanding its influence in Africa over the past decade and is currently hosting the China-Africa forum, with African leaders keen to explore investment and loan opportunities. China, the world’s number two economy, is Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $167.8 billion in the first half of this year.

READ: Egypt’s Al-Azhar condemns Israeli offensive in occupied West Bank

Will Smith and his company Treyball Studios Management Inc. are being sued by an electric violinist who is claiming wrongful termination, retaliation and sexual harassment — allegations denied by the actor-rapper-producer in a statement from his attorney.

Brian King Joseph alleges in a lawsuit filed earlier this week that Smith hired him to perform on the 2025 Based on a True Story tour, then fired him before the tour began in earnest in Europe and the U.K.

Joseph, who finished third in Season 13 of “America’s Got Talent,” went onto Instagram in the days before filing his lawsuit and posted a Dec. 27 video saying that he had been hired for “a major, major tour with somebody who is huge in the industry” but “some things happened” that he couldn’t discuss because it was a legal matter.

Electric violinist Brian King Joseph, seen performing at an awards show last October, is suing for wrongful termination, retaliation and sexual harassment.

(Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images for Media Access Awards)

But, he said, “Getting fired or getting blamed or shamed or threatened or anything like that, simply for reporting sexual misconduct or safety threats at work, is not OK. And I know that there’s a lot of other people out there who have been afraid to speak up, and I understand. If that’s you, I see you. … More updates to come soon.”

In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and reviewed by The Times, Joseph alleges that he and Smith struck up a professional relationship in November 2024, after which Joseph performed at two of Smith’s shows in San Diego and was invited to perform on several tracks for Smith’s “Based on a True Story” album, which was released March 28.

After the performances in San Diego, Joseph posted video of a show on Instagram with the caption, “What an honor to share the stage with such legends and a dream team of musicians. From playing in the streets to sharing my music on stages like this, this journey has been nothing short of magic — and this is just the beginning. Grateful beyond words for every single person who made this possible.”

While working on the album, the lawsuit alleges, “Smith and [Joseph] began spending additional time alone, with Smith even telling [Joseph] that ‘You and I have such a special connection, that I don’t have with anyone else,’ and other similar expressions indicating his closeness to [Joseph].”

Joseph soon joined Smith and crew for a performance in Las Vegas, the lawsuit says — on March 20 at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay — with Smith’s team booking rooms for everyone involved. Joseph left his bag, which contained his room key, in a van that took performers to rehearsal, and then the bag went missing for a couple of hours after he requested someone get it for him, the suit says.

When Joseph returned to his room late that night, according to the complaint, he found evidence that someone had entered his room without his permission.

“The evidence included a handwritten note addressed to Plaintiff by name, which read ‘Brian, I’ll be back no later [sic] 5:30, just us (drawn heart), Stone F.,’” the document says. “Among the remaining belongings were wipes, a beer bottle, a red backpack, a bottle of HIV medication with another individual’s name, an earring, and hospital discharge paperwork belonging to a person unbeknownst to Plaintiff.”

Joseph worried that “an unknown individual would soon return to his room to engage in sexual acts” with him, the complaint says.

It adds that Joseph, “concerned for his safety and the safety of his fellow performers and crew,” alerted hotel security and representatives for Treyball and Smith, took pictures, requested a new room and reported the incident to police using a non-emergency line. Hotel security found no signs of forced entry, and Joseph flew home the next day.

Several days later, rather than being called on to join the next part of the tour, a Treyball representative told him the tour was “going in a different direction,” the lawsuit says, and that his services were no longer needed. The representative “redirected the blame for the termination onto [Joseph], replying, ‘I don’t know, you tell me, because everyone is telling me that what happened to you is a lie, nothing happened, and you made the whole thing up. So, tell me, why did you lie and make this up?’ [Joseph], shocked at the accusation, had nothing further to say,” as he believed the reports and evidence from Las Vegas spoke for themselves.

Joseph alleges in the lawsuit that as a result of events in Las Vegas and in the days immediately afterward, he suffered severe emotional distress, economic loss and harm to his reputation. He also alleges that the stress of losing the job caused his health to deteriorate and that he suffered PTSD and other mental illness after the termination.

“The facts strongly suggest that Defendant Willard Carroll Smith II was deliberately grooming and priming Mr. Joseph for further sexual exploitation,” the lawsuit alleges. “The sequence of events, Smith’s prior statements to Plaintiff, and the circumstances of the hotel intrusion all point to a pattern of predatory behavior rather than an isolated incident.”

The Times was unable to reach publicists or a lawyer for Will Smith because of the holiday. However, Smith attorney Allen B. Grodsky told Fox News on Thursday that “Mr. Joseph’s allegations concerning my client are false, baseless and reckless. They are categorically denied, and we will use all legal means available to address these claims and to ensure that the truth is brought to light.”

Joseph’s attorney, Jonathan J. Delshad, recently filed sexual assault civil suits against Tyler Perry on behalf of actors who say they were not hired for future work by the billionaire movie and TV producer after they rejected his alleged advances.

Joseph is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and payment of attorney fees in an amount to be determined at trial.

The Based on a True Story tour played 26 dates in Europe and the U.K. last summer. Nine of the acts were headlining gigs, while the rest were festivals.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday formally named Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce President Lee Grissom as senior policy adviser for economic development.

Grissom, 49, resigned from the chamber on Tuesday after heading the business group for 17 years. Over that period he oversaw the chamber’s growth from 1,400 to 3,700 member firms and helped mold the organization into an influential force in city politics.

In his new job, Grissom will advise the governor on economic planning as well as issues relating to the state’s efforts to attract and retain jobs.

Grissom has experience in that area, having served on the Governor’s Council on California’s Competitiveness, a blue-ribbon group that surveyed the problems of doing business in California contrasted with other states.

The Offensive Most Valuable Player of the Rose Bowl game easily could have gone to Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza. The Indiana quarterback finished the game with more touchdown passes than incompletions , threw for 192 yards and spread the ball to three teammates on scoring plays during their 38-3 rout of Alabama.

Instead, the sportswriters and broadcasters awarded center Pat Coogan and the rest of the offensive line. After it was announced, the biggest celebration came from Mendoza, who jumped with excitement, smiled from ear to ear and pumped his fist as he swarmed his center with the rest of his teammates.

Just another assist from a leader.

“We work really hard every single day because not only do we enjoy football, we also enjoy winning,” said Mendoza, who completed 14 of 16 passes. “And we know what that takes. So every single day we’re always going to put our best foot forward.”

Coogan was the first offensive lineman to win the award since Norm Verry won it for USC in 1944.

“It’s all a credit to my teammates and my coaching staff for just believing in me and the ability to make my calls and diagnose a defense and fully entrusting in me and my abilities,” Coogan said.

Against the Crimson Tide, Indiana had its love for the game fully displayed on both sides of the field. The defense held Alabama to a field goal and 23 rushing yards while forcing two fumbles and recovering one.

The crucial recovery came as the Tide approached Hoosiers territory as the second quarter was coming to a close. With Indiana ahead 10-0, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson ran on third and seven toward Indiana’s 40-yard line. Instead of gaining a first down, Simpson fumbled on a hit by Hoosiers cornerback D’Angelo Ponds. On its next drive, Indiana scored to make it 17-0.

Ponds earned the Defensive MVP award for his pivotal hit and thanked defensive coordinator Bryant Haines for their preparation.

“He did a good job scheming [Alabama],” Ponds said. “He knew what they liked to run, their tendencies and stuff like that.”

The coaching staff set the standards for Indiana and it all started with head coach Curt Cignetti, Coogan said.

“The complacency factor, the [fear] to death of complacency, the never-ending journey of improving, taking it day-to-day, taking each day as the most important day in the history of the program,” he said. “It all starts with [Cignetti], and he makes sure all of our eyes are focused forward and we’re all thinking alike as he always says.”

Cignetti called the game a great team victory for Indiana against an opponent with great tradition and history, but there’s still football to be played.

Up next, the Hoosiers go up against Oregon at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Jan. 9. This will be the Big Ten teams’ second meeting this season.

“Good to have another rematch against Dante Moore and a great Oregon team next week,” Mendoza said.

It’ll be the third time Mendoza faces the Oregon quarterback. The first time they met was in 2023 at the Rose Bowl, when they played for Cal and UCLA, respectively. Mendoza came out victorious 33-7.

In October, they matched up again, this time with their current teams. Again, the Hoosiers quarterback came out on top, 30-20.

But can lightning strike twice in a season?

“It’s very hard to beat a really good football team twice,” Cignetti said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Indiana will take its unblemished record to Atlanta to face Oregon and hope the Hoosiers’ chemistry carries them to Miami Gardens for a shot at the national championship.

“We are efficient because we have good players with high character,” Cignetti said. “They’re great team guys and really good leaders, and they listen and they buy in.”

Jan. 1 (Asia Today) — Kim Tae-woo, director of nuclear security research at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said the security outlook on the Korean Peninsula remains grave as North Korea continues missile activity and China advances new weapons systems.

In a column, Kim pointed to North Korea’s missile launches late last year and its unveiling of what he described as a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine under construction. He also cited reports of a Chinese hypersonic glide vehicle test.

Kim said the White House in December released a four-chapter National Security Strategy that he described as notably different in tone and language from past versions. He said it explicitly embraces “America First” and frames policy around U.S. national interests.

Kim said the strategy argues that post-World War II U.S. leaders wrongly believed taking on global burdens served U.S. interests. He said it criticizes free trade for weakening U.S. industry and portrays alliances in transactional terms, arguing some allies shifted security costs to Washington or drew it into conflicts not tied to core U.S. interests.

Kim wrote that the strategy’s stated goals include U.S. survival and security, neutralizing external threats and unfair trade, maintaining the strongest military and nuclear arsenal, developing next-generation missile defense, sustaining a dynamic economy, protecting industrial and energy capacity and preserving leadership in science, technology and soft power.

He said the document defines core U.S. interests as maintaining dominance in the Western Hemisphere, protecting freedom of navigation and supply lines in the Indo-Pacific, restoring what it calls Western civilization’s identity and self-reliance in Europe, preventing hostile forces from dominating Middle Eastern energy and preserving U.S. leadership in cutting-edge science.

Kim said the strategy lists U.S. political institutions, economic innovation, financial leadership, technological and military strength, alliance ties, geographic advantages and natural resources as key tools. He said it also lays out guiding principles including a focus on core security interests, “peace through strength,” a preference for non-intervention and demands for greater allied defense spending.

On regional policy, Kim said the strategy describes the Western Hemisphere as a zone where the United States will seek to maintain dominance, prevent external threats and block illegal immigration, drug trafficking and human trafficking, while expanding partnerships and, if needed, redeploying forces to address urgent threats.

For Asia, Kim said the strategy emphasizes economic security and military deterrence while criticizing past assumptions that integrating China into the global economy would lead it to accept a rules-based order. He said it targets China’s state-led industrial practices, intellectual property theft and efforts to restrict access to resources such as rare earths. He added that it also says the United States will not accept persistent trade deficits with allies including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and European partners.

On deterrence, Kim said the document maintains existing U.S. declaratory policy on Taiwan and calls deterring conflict in the Taiwan Strait a U.S. interest, arguing this requires conventional military superiority and greater allied cost-sharing and roles. He said it also warns that rival control of the South China Sea would pose a serious threat to U.S. interests and calls for cooperation from Asian nations from India to Japan to keep sea lanes open.

Kim said the Europe section urges European countries to reclaim identity and self-reliance and criticizes what it calls weakening economic weight and lax immigration policies. He said it presses Europe to pursue strategic stability with Russia, treat NATO less as an ever-expanding alliance and open markets to U.S. goods while offering fair treatment to U.S. companies.

Kim said the Middle East and Africa sections are comparatively brief, focusing on burden-sharing and limiting long-term intervention. He said the document argues the Middle East’s strategic value has declined due to increased U.S. oil production, while emphasizing preventing hostile control of energy and maritime routes such as the Strait of Hormuz, countering terrorism, supporting Israel and expanding the Abraham Accords. On Africa, Kim said it calls for selective engagement tied to resource security.

Kim argued the strategy no longer reflects the image of the United States as an “Uncle Sam” defender of liberal democracy and human rights. He said it does not emphasize strengthened combined defense and extended deterrence, and he wrote that it does not mention North Korea’s nuclear program or the North Korean threat. He said South Korea appears only a few times, largely in contexts that call for greater allied defense burdens and fair trade.

Kim said South Korea has limited options, even if concerns grow about the reliability of U.S. commitments after what he described as a blunt statement that the era of America carrying the world order is over. He wrote that South Korea should treat a “changing America” as the new normal, keep the alliance as the cornerstone of its security and approach talks on tariffs, investment and alliance modernization as critical.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.

This week’s second caption reads:

In a building called the “Blue Cube” on the military airbase, a group of Air Force officers and enlisted men montior the flight of the space shuttle. From this location the space shuttle is controlled after it is launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Typically the Air Force only monitors space flights with classified military cargo and equipment. | Location: Near San Jose, California, USA.

Also, a reminder:

Prime Directives!

• If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there’s always somebody that isn’t going to agree with you. 
• If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can’t handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
• No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don’t interact with folks you don’t like. 
• Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That’s as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don’t like what you see.  
• So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn’t going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it’s probably best to just move on. 
• Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn’t mean reporting people who don’t share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.

THE daughter of Tommy Lee Jones was arrested over an alleged domestic violence dispute just six months before she was found dead in a hotel.

Emergency services were called to the Fairmont in San Francisco in the early hours of Thursday, where paramedics found Victoria Jones unresponsive and later pronounced her dead, TMZ reported.

It has now been revealed that Victoria was arrested in June for domestic battery and domestic violence involving elder abuse for an alleged incident that occurred at the Carneros Resort and Spa in Napa, California.

The mugshot from her arrest shows the 34-year-old former child actress red eyed and dishevelled.

She pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to appear in court later this month.

Victoria Kafka Jones was the daughter of the actor Tommy and his ex-wife Kimberlea Cloughley, who divorced in 1996. 

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Sadly, Victoria was found lying on the ground of the 14th floor of the swanky hotel on New Year’s Day.

A harrowing 911 call has revealed a possible cause of death as an overdose.

Dispatch logs indicate that the call came in at 2.52 am on Thursday, prompting crews to rush to the hotel.

After assessing Victoria, medics pronounced her dead at the hotel, officials said.

Dispatch audio from Broadcastify, obtained by TMZ, described it as a “code 3 for the overdose, color change.”

TMZ reported the call was also logged as an overdose response.

A San Francisco cop who had previously dealt with Victoria told The Post she had struggled with substance abuse issues and suspected her death was “fentanyl-related.”

It remains unclear whether Victoria was staying at the hotel or why she was on the 14th floor.

Page Six has reported a string of other run-ins Victoria had with the law.

In April this year, Victoria was arrested for obstructing a peace officer, using/being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a narcotic controlled substance, for which she also pleaded not guilty.

The earliest criminal encounter is thought to be 2011 when she was arrested for theft in the amount of $50 to $500 in San Antonio, Texas — though the charges ended up being dismissed.

DAD’S ‘FIRING’

Victoria acted as a child, appearing in Men in Black II and later The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. 

She also made a one-episode appearance on One Tree Hill.

Speaking about his daughter while promoting The Three Burials, Tommy said, “She’s a good actress, has her SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card, speaks impeccable Spanish. 

“When she was a baby, I told Leticia, her nurse, to speak to her in Spanish,” he said.

He also recalled a clash over an early call time on set in a resurfaced interview in which he joked that he had to fire his young daughter.

“She had to get up at 5 am for her part. One morning, she wouldn’t get out of bed,” he said.

“I said, ‘Honey, this is work.’ But she wouldn’t budge. So I fired her. Then, without telling me, the production staff went over and woke her and rushed her out to the set just in time.”

Although she stepped away from acting, Victoria still appeared with her father at public events, including the premiere of Just Getting Started in 2017 and the opening ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival that same year.

Fans also flooded social media with condolences, with one writing, “Condolences. Really sad way to lose someone, especially a family member, on the first day of the year as well.”

“No father should ever have to bury their daughter. I hope Tom has a lot of love around him during this tough time,” another fan added.

“Heartbreaking. 34 is far too young. Condolences to the family.”

Hundreds of thousands of Brits are expected to rush to book summer breaks to beat the winter blues as travel firms brace themselves for a ‘Sunshine Saturday’ holiday spending splurge

The travel industry predicts a record number of holiday bookings on Saturday as families dream of sunshine getaways.

The post-Christmas lull – and gloomy weather – is expected to prompt thousands of Brits to take the plunge and book a summer break. As a result, the first Saturday after the new year has traditionally been dubbed “Sunshine Saturday”, with this year’s forecast to be the busiest single day of the year for travel firms.

Travel companies expect demand to be 5% higher in the twelve months between October 2025 and September 2026 compared to the same period the previous year. Last January saw 4.3million people book ATOL-protected holidays, with even higher numbers expected in coming weeks. If trends continue as projected, industry chiefs reckon more than 200,000 more holidaymakers will be booking in January.

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It came amid separate predictions for where Brits will be holidaying in 2026. According to the website TravelSupermarket using analysis of online searches, Gozo leads the way, potentially transforming Malta’s quieter sister island from an afterthought to a must-visit destination. Sri Lanka followed, along with South Africa’s Cape Town, the Greek island of Zante, and dream destination of Mauritius.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which runs the ATOL financial protection scheme, is urging consumers to check they are covered and to read the small print on bargain holiday deals.

Selina Chadha, group director for consumers and markets at the CAA, said: “Sunshine Saturday is seen as the busiest day of the year for people booking holidays as travellers look for bargain deals on their next getaway. With more people looking to book their holiday, it’s important to check your package holiday for ATOL protection. Whether you’re searching for a summer or winter break, you’ll have peace of mind that you won’t lose money if your travel company collapses.”

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel said: “Booking a package is the best way to protect your next holiday abroad, as the ATOL scheme ensures you won’t be left out of pocket, or worse, stranded abroad if your holiday company were to go bust.

“Package holidays also offer far greater protection than booking a trip yourself. You’ll be covered both financially and legally by the package travel regulations, which means the holiday operator is responsible for sorting out any problems, from disruption caused by wildfires and bad weather to the hotel being closed or not being up to scratch. Remember, though this weekend is advertised as a prime time to grab a holiday bargain, don’t feel pressured into booking in a hurry.

“Consider your options and shop around to make sure you’re getting the right holiday for you, at the right price. If you are flexible on destination, there are offers throughout the year.”

ATOL’s top 10 tips to protect your 2026 holiday bookings:

• Research your travel company and planned trip before you book, particularly if it is a company you haven’t travelled with before, and shop around with other providers to check it really is a good deal.
• Check the web address is legitimate and has not been altered by slight changes to the domain name.
• Don’t reply to unsolicited messages, emails, texts, social media or calls with holiday offers. Links and attachments in emails may lead to malicious websites or download viruses.
• Book travel insurance as it can provide extra protection if the holiday doesn’t work out quite as intended. The type of cover will vary so always carefully check the insurance terms and conditions for full details of cover.
• Make sure your package holiday is ATOL protected. Consumers can easily check if their holiday provider is ATOL protected by using the Check for ATOL tool on our website.
• Look out for hidden costs and charges. For example, if you want to amend the booking before you travel or if you need to pay for extra baggage.
• Use a credit card for holiday bookings if possible. A credit card may provide additional protection for your trip, under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
• Stay updated on international travel requirements for where you’re heading. This includes passport validity, visas, and entry restrictions.
• Keep essential documents safe. Save and organise bookings, receipts, copies of passports and insurance documents for easy access during your trip.
• Plan your packing – to avoid queues at security and fly safe, make sure you don’t put the wrong things in your bag.

CALIFORNIA HAS sometimes been referred to as “the Great Exception,” but for better and worse, this term applies quite well to all of our United States.

We commenced our independence as the nation that overthrew a government of men for a government of laws. William Blake wrote poems about us; the French Revolution was in part inspired by us. Like all institutions, we often fell short of our best possibilities, but bit by bit, falteringly and over decades and centuries, we improved ourselves. Belatedly and grudgingly, we abolished slavery; still more belatedly, we admitted that equality of representation included women as well as men. There are places on this Earth that have not yet achieved this much.

Nor did we rest there. I have visited any number of countries where free speech is not even a dream. In America, I can rail against my government to my heart’s content, knowing that there will be no midnight knock at my door. If some bully in uniform does pick on me, I have a decent chance of legally escaping his clutches.

Not only has America striven intermittently to be fair and even good, it remains an excellent place to make and keep money. It is, as they say, the locus of the easy life. And so, in spite of Native American genocide, Jim Crow, ruthless monopolism, etc., we became and for a very long time remained an ideal for ourselves and others.

I remember an old man from what used to be called Czechoslovakia; he escaped the communist regime by skiing over many mountains, and he finally found haven in California. I ate at his restaurant 40 years later. He told me that he had always dreamed of living in America. He still considered America the best place on Earth. In so many countries — from Kazakhstan to Colombia to Afghanistan — I have met people like him, people who long to be saved by going to America.

I remain grateful to have been born an American. As I get older, I admire our Constitution more and more. But what I love the most about my experience of American-ness is our famous individualism. Not everyone needs to like me, but I assume, with some correctness, that my eccentricities will be tolerated. I am my own person — and sometimes lonely for that, but that is the price that an American pays. I am, as you are, an exception in a crowd.

We are Americans, and so until recently, we knew that we were the best. Because so many people wanted to be us, we could act as we pleased — and we did, because we were the Great Exception; we were America the Blessed. Hence our complacent belief, so long borne out by the facts, that American movies and American brands would always sell. Hence also our comforting faith that the Kyoto Protocol did not apply to us, so that we could spew out all the greenhouse gases we liked, and use a pig’s share of the world’s resources. (Just this week, I learned of the U.S.’ new plan for energy independence: coal plants, subsidized for the next 25 years.)

Being America the Perfect, we invented the doctrine, even before 9/11, that we could seize war criminals in any part of the globe and whisk them off to The Hague. Of course, we insisted that should we ever commit war crimes, we would remain immune to prosecution in that court. Well, after all, how could Americans do any wrong?

Our current administration of torturers (this word sounds so shrill, so preposterous in relation to the America I believe in, that I have to remind myself over and over that it is literally accurate, that this president and his two attorneys general have quite literally legalized torture) has gone further in this direction than I ever could have imagined. President Bush’s modus operandi is this: Bull your way ahead. If you meet obstacles, overcome them with arrogant bluster. If this fails, proceed to vicious, mendacious brutality.

I wish I could blame him alone for the degradation of the America I loved. Unfortunately, Americans not only voted for this man, but after he proved himself to be a criminal, they reelected him. As one of my friends replied when I asked why we should attack Iraq when Iraq had done nothing to us: “Why not attack Iraq?”

We were Americans, you see. Why not do whatever suited our whims?

And now what? “They hate us,” we whisper to one another in amazement. In another decade, we might even begin to wonder about the degree of our exceptionality. What if we had to follow the rules that everyone else does?

Well, why not put off that pain as long as possible? It’s much more fun to remain the Great Exception.

Alas, while we hunker down behind the drawbridge, awaiting our next 9/11, we don’t even take the trouble to be united. Exceptionalism undermines us from within.

Alaskan towns are tilting in the melting permafrost, but who cares down in the Lower 48? Republicans and Democrats hate each other. Automobiles isolate us. Generations of advice-givers have made us believe that profit best defines the successful life, and so the white-collar crooks of Enron and the ghetto thugs who murder as they please celebrate their own exceptionalism against the rest of us.

Exceptionalism may be understandable and even excusable, but it should not be eternally acceptable. All-white juries have unjustly convicted black defendants in this country, and that makes me ashamed; but the notion that a 21st century criminal trial cannot be fair unless at least some jurors are the same race as the defendant is of a piece with the idea that men and women will never understand each other, that Muslim cab drivers can refuse to pick up passengers who carry liquor and that right-to-life pharmacists can refuse to fill a desperate woman’s prescription for the morning-after pill.

Let’s pander while Rome burns! I’m not worried; I’ll never catch fire. Like each and all of us, I’m my own favorite exception.

Tight end Tyler Higbee is on track to return on Sunday for the season finale against the Arizona Cardinals.

Safety Quentin Lake will be back for the playoffs. Star receiver Davante Adams also could be held out till then.

The Rams, coming off consecutive losses to the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons, might appear to be limping toward their seventh postseason appearance in nine seasons under coach Sean McVay.

But a team that was regarded by many as the class of the league midway through the season should be at or near full strength when they play an NFC wild-card game next weekend.

“We’re getting healthy at the right time,” McVay said Friday.

Lake agreed.

“The league and the world kind of knew where we were at when we were at full strength,” Lake said. “We’re getting guys back at the right time and I feel like we’re going to hit our stride at the right time.”

The Rams, who at one time were seeded No. 1 in the NFC, are currently seeded No. 6.

If the San Francisco 49ers lose to the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday, and the Rams defeat the Cardinals on Sunday at SoFi Stadium, the Rams will climb to No. 5.

Regardless, McVay reiterated Friday that starters would play against the Cardinals, though how much remains to be seen.

Several starters are questionable because of injuries, including running backs Kyren Williams and Blake Corum because of ankle injuries and left tackle Alaric Jackson because of a knee injury that kept him out of last Monday’s loss to the Falcons.

Right guard Kevin Dotson, who also sat out against the Falcons because of an ankle injury, will not play Sunday, and his status for the wild-card round remains uncertain.

The Rams also at some point will make a decision regarding veteran right tackle Rob Havenstein. The 11th-year pro has been on injured reserve since mid-November. Warren McClendon Jr. has played well in his place, but Havenstein would give McVay flexibility if Jackson were injured and McClendon moved to the left side.

The Rams’ 27-24 loss to the Falcons did not result exclusively because of injuries, but the holes left by missing starters were apparent and in some cases glaring.

Veteran tackle D.J. Humphries struggled in Jackson’s place, and guard Justin Dedich is not as big and strong as Dotson. Falcons running back Bijan Robinson ran roughshod through a defense that was missing Lake.

Rams offensive tackle Alaric Jackson, right, blocks Detroit Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson during a Rams win on Dec. 14.

(Harry How / Getty Images)

“There is a reason why those guys that have been missed are starters,” McVay said, speaking generally, “because they give us the best chance to play at the optimum levels.”

Rams tight ends have played well during Higbee’s absence, but McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford are eager for the 10th-year pro’s return.

Higbee caught 20 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns in nine games before he was injured during a Nov. 16 victory over the Seahawks.

He is looking forward to getting back into the flow on game day.

“Just try to be myself, bring the energy, bring the physicality and try to make some plays when it’s my turn,” Higbee said.

Stafford has deftly utilized tight ends Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen and Terrance Ferguson. Now he said he will welcome back Higbee, “the ultimate team player,” who helps bind teammates.

“Everybody calls him a glue guy,” Stafford said, “probably an understatement.”

Lake, a team captain, also brings more than talent to the field, which the Rams formally recognized this week when they awarded him a three-year extension that includes more than $25 million in guarantees.

Lake has been sidelined since suffering a left elbow injury that required surgery. He began practicing this week, and said he would be ready for the playoffs.

“The doctor was saying, ‘You came back pretty fast, but if you feel good and you have all the strength and range of motion, go ahead and cut it loose.’

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Adams sat out the last two games because of a hamstring injury, but he still leads the NFL with 14 touchdown catches.

Adams was limited in practices this week.

“We want to make sure that we’re getting everything ready to roll and being smart with him because of the position that he plays and the stress that that hamstring takes with some of the different things that we activate with him,” McVay said.

Star receiver Puka Nacua is among those happy to see Higbee, Lake and Adams on the practice field again.

“It’s fun to have all those guys out there,” he said. “I’d say their presence is definitely missed.”

Jan. 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order stopping a semiconductor chips deal between U.S. and Chinese companies citing national security concerns.

The $2.92 million deal would have seen HieFo Corp., a Delaware-based company operated out of China, acquire the semiconductor chips and wafer fabrication businesses of New Jersey’s EMCORE Corp. The two companies announced plans for the deal in 2024.

“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that HieFo Corporation, a company organized under the laws of Delaware (HieFo) and controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump’s order reads.

The executive order, issued under the Defense Production Act, prevents HieFo from having any interest or rights in Encore assets and orders HieFo to divest from Encore within 180 days. The divestment is expected to be overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Decline in sales comes amid outrage of Elon Musk’s political forays, end in US electric vehicle tax breaks.

Tesla has lost its place as the top global seller of electric vehicles to Chinese company BYD, capping a year defined by outrage over CEO Elon Musk’s political manoeuvring and the end of United States tax breaks for customers.

The company revealed on Friday that it had sold 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, compared with BYD’s 2.26 million vehicles. The sales represented a 9 percent decline for Tesla from a year earlier.

Tesla, founded in 2003, had for years far outpaced traditional automakers in its development and sale of electric vehicles. However, the market has become increasingly crowded with competitors, with China’s electric vehicle market bounding ahead.

Musk’s embrace of US President Donald Trump in 2024 and subsequent spearheading of a controversial “government efficiency” panel (DOGE) behind widespread layoffs of federal workers has also proved polarising. The political foray prompted protests at Tesla facilities and slumps in sales.

The company’s fourth quarter sales totaled 418,227, falling short of the much-reduced 440,000 target that analysts recently polled by FactSet, an investment research firm, had expected.

Musk left DOGE in May, in what was largely viewed as an effort to reassure investors.

Tesla was also hard hit by the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September. Trump’s opposition to electric vehicles has contributed to a strained relationship with Musk.

Despite the downward trends in sales, investors have generally remained optimistic about Tesla and Musk’s ambitious plans to make the company a leader in driverless robotaxi services and humanoid robots for homes.

Reflecting that optimism, Tesla stock finished 2025 up about 11 percent.

Tesla has also recently introduced two less expensive electric vehicle models, the Model Y and Model 3, meant to compete with cheaper Chinese models for sale in Europe and Asia.

Musk entered 2026 as the wealthiest person in the world.

It is widely believed that the public offering of his rocket company, SpaceX, set for later this year, could make the 54-year-old the world’s first trillionaire.

In November, Tesla’s directors awarded Musk a potentially historic pay package of nearly $1 trillion if ambitious performance targets were met.

Musk scored another huge win in December,when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling, awarding him a $55bn pay package that had been paused since 2018.

Conversely, Tesla is at risk of temporarily losing its licence to sell cars in California after a judge there ruled it had misled customers about the safety of its driverless taxis.

CAROL VORDERMAN has posed with her rarely-seen lookalike daughter and son and revealed one of them has a very impressive job.

THE former Countdown star, 65, is known for keeping her children out of the spotlight but in a rare instance, she decided to share snaps of herself with her children on social media.

She took to Instagram to post a series of snaps, with the first one showcasing the proud mum with her two children, Katie and Cameron.

In the picture, the trio look directly into the camera and smile from ear to ear as she wrote over it: “Me any my “babies”.”

In another photo, Carol smiled with Katie and in a third, the Pride of Britain Awards presenter took a selfie in a furry coat with a curly hairstyle.

Sharing her New Year’s post, she captioned it: “I rarely show pics of my children as you know, but I’m sitting here at the beginning of 2026 and thinking of the extreme joy to come this year, and just how bloody lucky I am because not only do we love the other but we really like each other too.”

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Carol went on to reveal what her children have been up to, before telling her followers what Katie does as her career.

She continued: “Katie @katie.science has Space Pharma company called Bio Orbit and their big rocket launch this Summer which is VERY exciting. She’s winning European and global awards too.

“And Cam and I muddle along so happily at home in Bristol. He’s doing brilliantly too but in a completely different sphere of work to Katie.

“This year has brought our big extended family even closer on holidays and all sorts and to have the family and friends I have is beyond anything I could have ever wished for my younger self all those decades ago.

“Stuff of my dreams xxx. Anyway I’m here planning parties and holidays and a LOT of fun… with some cracking work too xx,” the ITV star signed off.

Her loyal followers flocked to the comments section to wish her well as one said: “Go Carol – the best mum any child could wish for.”

Another person expressed: “What a really lovely mother you are!”

Somebody else gushed: “Lovely – they look like mini-me versions of you.”

Yet another penned: “Happy New Year to you all! Have a fabulous 2026.”

While a fifth added: “Proud mum picture rightly so as well. God bless you all @carolvorders.”

Katie and Cameron are Carol’s children with former husband Patrick King, a professional cricketer whom she married in 1990 and divorced in 2000.

Her post comes after revealing she’s been suffering from a “chronically debilitating” illness.

She revealed the diagnosis while commenting on Coronation Street star Sally Dynevor’s Instagram post.

Carol wrote: “Morning Sally. I’ve done the same this year with a full body MRI and all clear thankfully.

“Having the special blood test for 70 cancers this week. Early detection where possible is now my mantra. The costs have come down dramatically for these services but they are sadly still a lot for most people.”

She then added: “I was struck with sudden and chronically debilitating rheumatoid arthritis almost a year ago and it’s taken a long time to get the meds right, so I no longer take my health for granted in any way xx

“Sending huge love and thanks ?? to you for spreading the word and your honesty in all these matters. It helps no end of us mere mortals.”

Reporting from NEW YORK — The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.

The detail came as several media outlets reported on Thursday that federal prosecutors had granted immunity to National Enquirer chief David Pecker, potentially laying bare his efforts to protect his longtime friend Trump.

President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty this week to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the tabloid were involved in buying the silence of a porn actress and a Playboy model who alleged affairs with Trump.

Several people familiar with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they signed nondisclosure agreements, said the safe was a great source of power for Pecker, the company’s chief executive.

The Trump records were stored alongside similar documents pertaining to other celebrities’ catch-and-kill deals, in which exclusive rights to people’s stories were bought with no intention of publishing to keep them out of the news. By keeping celebrities’ embarrassing secrets, the company was able to ingratiate itself with them and ask for favors in return.

But after the Wall Street Journal initially published the first details of Playboy model Karen McDougal’s catch-and-kill deal shortly before the 2016 election, those assets became a liability. Fearful that the documents might be used against American Media, Pecker and the company’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, removed them from the safe in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, according to one person directly familiar with the events.

The AP cannot say whether the documents were destroyed or simply were moved to a location known to fewer people.

American Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pecker’s immunity deal was first reported Thursday by Vanity Fair and the Journal, citing anonymous sources. Vanity Fair reported that Howard also was granted immunity.

Court papers in the Cohen case say Pecker “offered to help deal with negative stories about [Trump’s] relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.”

The Journal reported Pecker shared with prosecutors details about payments that Cohen says Trump directed in the weeks and months before the election to buy the silence of McDougal and another woman alleging an affair, porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels was paid $130,000, and McDougal was paid $150,000.

Although Trump denies the affairs, his account of his knowledge of the payments has shifted. In April, Trump denied he knew anything about the Daniels payment. He told Fox News in an interview aired Thursday that he knew about payments “later on.”

In July, Cohen released an audio tape in which he and Trump discussed plans to buy McDougal’s story from the Enquirer. Such a purchase was necessary, they suggested, to prevent Trump from having to permanently rely on a tight relationship with the tabloid.

“You never know where that company — you never know what he’s gonna be —” Cohen says.

“Maybe he gets hit by a truck,” Trump says.

“Correct,” Cohen replies. “So, I’m all over that.”

Pecker is cooperating with federal prosecutors now, but American Media previously declined to participate in congressional inquiries.

In March, in response to a letter from a group of House Democrats about the Daniels and McDougal payments, American Media general counsel Cameron Stracher declined to provide any documents, writing that the company was “exempt” from U.S. campaign finance laws because it is a news publisher and it was “confident” it had complied with all tax laws. He also rebuffed any suggestion that America Media Inc., or AMI, had leverage over the president because of its catch-and-kill practices.

“AMI states unequivocally that any suggestion that it would seek to ‘extort’ the President of the United States through the exercise of its editorial discretion is outrageous, offensive, and wholly without merit,” Stracher wrote in a letter obtained by the Associated Press.

Former Enquirer employees who spoke to the AP said that negative stories about Trump were dead on arrival dating back more than a decade when he starred on NBC’s reality show “The Apprentice.”

In 2010, at Cohen’s urging, the National Enquirer began promoting a potential Trump presidential candidacy, referring readers to a pro-Trump website Cohen helped create. With Cohen’s involvement, the publication began questioning President Obama’s birthplace and American citizenship in print, an effort that Trump promoted for several years, former staffers said.

The Enquirer endorsed Trump for president in 2016, the first time it had ever officially backed a candidate. In the news pages, Trump’s coverage was so favorable that the New Yorker magazine said the Enquirer embraced him “with sycophantic fervor.”

Positive headlines for Trump were matched by negative stories about his opponents, including Hillary Clinton: An Enquirer front page from 2015 said “Hillary: 6 Months to Live” and accompanied the headline with a picture of an unsmiling Clinton with bags under her eyes.

Bristol: Rees-Zammit, Boshoff, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ravouvou; Jordan, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Chawatama, Rubiolo, Owen, Grondona, Harding (c), Mata.

Replacements: Thacker, Lahiff, Kloska, Taylor, Grondona, Marmion, Worsley, Heward.

Sale: Carpenter, O’Flaherty, du Preez, Ma’asi-White, Wills; Ford, Quirke; Rodd, Cowan-Dickie, Harper, Bamber, van Rhyn (c), Vermeulen, Dugdale, T Curry.

Replacements: Jibulu, McIntyre, Bell, Burrow, Gilmore, Warr, Louw, Wehr.

Yellow Card: Ma’asi-White.

Referee: Joe James.

Millions of Americans are facing a huge increase in the amount they have to pay for health insurance.

A dispute about government subsides for healthcare was one of the major issues that led to a 43-day shutdown of the US government last year – the longest in history.

But even when the shutdown ended, Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on and extension of the the subsidies.

As the clock struck midnight on January 1 – the health costs for 24 million people rose dramatically

So, what’s the impact for those in need? And how much politics is involved?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Lindsay Allen – Health Economist and Policy Researcher at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University

Neel Shah – Physician and Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic

Rinah Shah – Political Strategist and Geopolitical analyst

Palestinian rights advocates are praising New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for revoking pro-Israel municipal decrees within hours of his inauguration, a move that was promptly condemned by the Israeli government.

On Thursday, his first day in office, Mamdani wiped out all the executive orders his predecessor, Eric Adams, implemented after September 26, 2024, the day Adams was charged with bribery.

One of the orders restricted boycotts of Israel and prohibited mayoral appointees from issuing contracts “that discriminate against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens, or those associated” with the US ally.

It was signed by Adams less than a month ago and was seen by critics as an attempt to create controversy for the incoming Mamdani administration.

Another now-nixed decree adopted a controversial definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which advocates say can be used to censor and penalise speech critical of Israel.

Nasreen Issa, a member of the Palestine Youth Movement – NYC, said Israel and its supporters have long pushed for the “criminalisation of dissent”.

“So, Mamdani’s rejection of this is a positive step towards protecting the rights of New Yorkers and the dignity of Palestinians,” Issa told Al Jazeera.

Afaf Nasher, the head of the New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), also applauded Mamdani for revoking an “unconstitutional order restricting the ability of New Yorkers to criticize the Israeli government’s racism or boycott Israel’s human rights abuses”.

“This unconstitutional, Israel First attack on free speech should have never been issued in the first place,” Nasher said in a statement.

Nasher further slammed the IHRA definition, saying that the “overly broad” guidelines frame disagreement with Zionism as anti-Semitic.

“The order would have also unconstitutionally limited boycotts against only Israel,” Nasher said.

Palestinian rights supporters have long rejected the IHRA definition, which heavily focuses on Israel. The definition provides 11 examples of anti-Semitism, six of which involve Israel.

They include “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “applying double standards” to Israel.

“I think it’s wonderful that Mayor Mamdani took measures on day one to reinforce our rights to free speech, which included our right to criticize and oppose Israeli apartheid and genocide,” said YL Al-Sheikh, a Palestinian-American writer active in the Democratic Socialists of America.

“The IHRA being implemented as government policy isn’t about combatting antisemitism but about stifling dissent and this should be something all Americans oppose.”

Israel weighs in

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs decried Mamdani’s moves on Friday, saying that the newly inaugurated mayor is showing “his true face”.

“This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” it said in a post on the social media platform X.

Separately, Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, deployed Islamophobic language to criticise Mamdani’s decision.

He called the mayor a “Hamas sympathiser” and drew a connection between him and the Muslim mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“When a Muslim Brotherhood Islamist whose slogan is ‘Globalize the Intifada’ takes control of New York City or London, these are exactly the decisions you get,” Chikli wrote on X.

Neither Mamdani nor Khan has any known connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Issa said the intense Israeli response is not about the mayor’s policy moves but is rather aimed at controlling the narrative.

“Israel’s main approach – at the highest level, at the level of the Foreign Ministry – has been to push for the criminalisation of protected speech through these warped definitions of anti-Semitism like the IHRA,” she said.

“Since they’re losing in the court of public opinion, the response now is to push for the criminalisation of dissent.”

Issa also called Chikli’s attack on Mamdani “blatant Islamophobia, racism and disinformation”.

“They’re trying to promote these accusations that have no basis in reality whatsoever,” Issa told Al Jazeera.

“But from their perspective, any support for Palestinians, any opposition to Israel’s genocide or the conduct of its military – whether in Gaza or the West Bank, over the last two years, over the last decades – none of that is acceptable.”

Al-Sheikh said it was “absurd” that Israel is trying to impose its preferences on local policies in New York.

“Even Americans who aren’t Palestinian or pro Palestine can see this is strange and inhibits our rights,” Al-Sheikh said.

“It’s also weirdly counterproductive on Israel’s part since it only makes Mamdani look better. A single policy paper that said you can’t criticise a country was repealed and now they claim it is the end of the world, but ‘you should be allowed to criticise any country you want’ is the universal American position.”

Israel was not alone, however, in denouncing Mamdani’s actions. The administration of President Donald Trump also issued a warning to the Mamdani administration.

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said her office would be vigilant “to ANY AND ALL violations of religious liberties” in New York.

“We will investigate, sue, and indict as needed,” Dhillon wrote in a social media post.

Palestine solidarity activists often stress that criticising Israeli abuses should not be conflated with attacking Judaism.

Mamdani’s rise

Mamdani has been a vocal critic of Israeli policies against Palestinians, prompting accusations of anti-Semitism from Israel’s supporters.

But he has repeatedly promised to protect Jewish residents. During his inauguration ceremony, he pledged to continue the Mayor’s Office to Combat Anti-Semitism (MOCA), an Adams-era development, and he told reporters his administration would “celebrate and cherish” Jewish New Yorkers.

The new mayor, 34, took the oath of office on a copy of the Quran at the turn of the new year, becoming the first Muslim mayor of America’s largest city.

The Democratic socialist, who formerly served as a state legislator, had minimal name recognition when he first announced his candidacy late in 2024.

But he steadily grew his base of support with a message focused on affordability and housing.

Last June, he defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo to win the Democratic nomination, in one of the most stunning political upsets in recent US history.

Mamdani then defeated Cuomo again in the general elections in November, after the ex-governor relaunched his campaign as an independent with Trump’s support.

Adams was elected as a Democrat in 2021, but his administration faced numerous scandals during its four-year term, including accusations that Adams had entered into a quid pro quo with representatives from the Turkish government.

Earlier in 2024, Trump’s Justice Department dropped the federal bribery charges he faced. Adams had launched a re-election campaign as an independent, but he ultimately suspended his bid and backed Cuomo before the elections.

While Mamdani’s platform was largely focused on local issues, some of his supporters have argued that his vocal support for Palestinian rights helped propel his campaign amid the growing anger at Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.