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In recent days, as the United States House of Representatives approached a potential vote about releasing the Epstein files, President Donald Trump pivoted on the hot-button topic.

Trump and members of his administration had sought to undermine efforts to release the files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And Trump has been dismissive of the push to make the files public, calling the case “pretty boring stuff” in July and repeatedly referring to it as a Democratic “hoax.”

Then, on November 16, he told House Republicans to vote in favour of the release.

His shift came after lawmakers cleared a significant hurdle on November 12, netting 218 signatures on a petition to force a vote on a bill to release the files within 30 days. The House is expected to vote on that bill this week. Previously, it was considered unlikely the legislation would pass in the Senate; it remains to be seen whether Trump’s latest statement will cause senators to reconsider.

Epstein moved in the same social circles as Trump in the 1990s, including attending parties at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private Palm Beach, Florida, club. The two were photographed together in social settings multiple times. They later had a falling out, a rift that some reporters dated to late 2007.

Palm Beach County prosecutors investigated Epstein after reports that a 14-year-old girl was molested at his mansion. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges related to soliciting prostitution from someone under 18. He received preferential treatment during the criminal investigation and served about a year in jail, largely on work release.

In 2018, The Miami Herald published an extensive investigation into the case, and the next year, Epstein was arrested on federal charges for recruiting dozens of underage girls to his New York City mansion and Palm Beach estate from 2002 to 2005 to engage in sex acts for money. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019, and investigators concluded he died by suicide.

We asked the White House why Trump changed his stance on releasing the files. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “President Trump has been consistently calling for transparency related to the Epstein files for years – by releasing tens of thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request” and calling for investigations into “Epstein’s Democrat friends”.

Here’s what Trump has said in 2024 and 2025 about releasing the Epstein files.

While campaigning in 2024, Trump said he would release the files

In June 2024, Fox and Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump if he would declassify various files, including those related to 9/11 and former President John F Kennedy.

“Would you declassify the Epstein files?” Campos-Duffy said.

“Yeah, yeah, I would,” Trump said.

The clip spread on social media, and Trump’s campaign account also shared it.

🚨 President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files pic.twitter.com/JalLWFkRDZ

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 3, 2024

During the same interview, Trump also said, “I guess I would.” He added, “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phoney stuff in there because there is a lot of phoney stuff with that whole world, but I think I would.”

On a September 2024 episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, during a discussion about releasing some of the Epstein documents, Trump said, “Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it.” He added that he’d be “inclined” to do it and said, “I’d have no problem with it.”

In 2025, Trump was dismissive of the Epstein files

Early in the second Trump administration, Trump officials –  including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who became the FBI director – said they supported releasing the files.

In late February at a White House event, Bondi released what she called the “first phase” of “declassified Epstein files” to conservative influencers. It largely consisted of documents that had already been made public.

In a July 12 Truth Social post, Trump expressed frustration about the Epstein files. Speaking to reporters on July 15 on the White House lawn, Trump said the files “were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama. They were made up by Biden.” We rated that claim Pants on Fire.

Trump said the FBI should focus on investigating other issues, such as voter fraud, and that his administration should “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about”.

In a July 16 interview with Real America’s Voice, a conservative outlet, Trump said, “I think in the case of Epstein, they’ve already looked at it and they are looking at it and I think all they have to do is put out anything credible. But you know, that was run by the Biden administration for four years.”

On August 22, a reporter asked Trump if he was in favour of releasing the files.

“I’m in support of keeping it open,” he said. “Innocent people shouldn’t be hurt, but I’m in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn’t care less. You got a lot of people that could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be, people – because he knew everybody in Palm Beach. I don’t know anything about that, but I have said to Pam (Bondi) and everybody else, give them everything you can give them because it’s a Democrat hoax.”

On September 3, a reporter asked Trump a question about efforts to release the Epstein files and if the Justice Department was protecting any friends or donors.

Trump said it was a “Democrat hoax that never ends” and “we’ve given thousands of pages of files”.

This month, Trump called for releasing the files

Trump came out in support of releasing the files after it became clear the House was headed in that direction.

The House Oversight Committee, on November 12, released about 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate.

Trump directed prosecutors to investigate Democrats and told Republicans to vote in favour of releasing the files.

Trump has often noted Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton. In a November 14 Truth Social post, Trump asked the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s involvement with Clinton.

Typically, prosecutors do not release files during an ongoing investigation, so Trump’s announcement raised questions about whether the Justice Department will withhold certain files even if Congress votes to release them.

When a reporter asked Trump on November 14 about releasing the files, he said, “I don’t care about it, released or not.”

Two days later, in a November 16 post, Trump said, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown.’’

The world’s largest aircraft carrier and its dozens of fighter aircraft are now in the Caribbean Sea, joining the largest U.S. military buildup in the region since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Meanwhile, the State Department announced Sunday that it plans to designate the drug cartel allegedly headed by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on Nov. 24, widening the aperture for potential military actions. These moves are the latest escalation of pressure on the South American leader, as the world awaits U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on what, if any, further military actions he will take.

Sunday night, Trump appeared to offer a carrot to Maduro, saying he would be willing to open up a dialogue with the embattled Venezuelan leader.

“We may be having some discussions with Maduro,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in West Palm Beach. “They would like to talk… I talk to everybody.”

Trump did not elaborate; however, in private, he has talked to aides about Venezuela’s huge oil reserves, estimated at 300 billion barrels, the largest in the world, The New York Times claimed in a recent article. Trump has reportedly had an offer from Maduro that would give the U.S. rights to much of that oil in return for forestalling military action. While the American president called off those talks, a senior administration official told the Times that they were not entirely dead. The deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and three of its escort ships, the official added, was a means to gain leverage over Maduro.

Trump on Sunday added that while he will notify Congress about what he will ultimately decide, he doesn’t need their permission to strike Venezuela.

“We’re stopping drugs from coming into our country,” the U.S. president continued. “I told [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio]  – go to Congress and let them know we’re not letting drugs come through Mexico, we’re not letting them come through Venezuela, and let Congress know about it. We don’t have to get their approval. But I think letting them know is good. The only thing I don’t want them to do is leak information… and they put our military at risk.” 

On Sunday, the administration also announced two major sticks it could use against Maduro.

The Ford and its escorts – the Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan, and USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) – arrived in the Caribbean, according to a Navy release. A U.S. official told The War Zone on Monday that the aircraft carrier was in the vicinity of Puerto Rico, which puts it roughly 700 miles north of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and the epicenter of the military buildup in the region.

The Ford brings with it a great deal of additional capability to the newly named Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the enhanced counter-narcotics operation for which these forces have ostensibly been gathered. There are four squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets, a squadron of E/A-18 Growler electronic warfare jets, a squadron of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne command and control aircraft, MH-60S and MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and a detachment of C-2A Greyhound carrier onboard delivery planes.

There were already seven Navy surface warships plus support vessels, a special operations mothership and aircraft, including F-35B stealth fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones, P-8 wartime patrol aircraft, AC-130 Ghostrider gunships and about 15,000 U.S. personnel deployed to the region. Beyond that, there are “site surveys ongoing to see if even more military assets should be sent to the region,” a U.S. official told The War Zone on Nov. 7.

As the Navy highlighted that the Ford had crossed into the Caribbean, Rubio on Sunday announced that he “intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), effective November 24, 2025.”

“Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary,” according to a State Department release. “Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government. Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”

.@StateDept intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Headed by the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro, the group has corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela and is responsible for terrorist violence conducted by and with other…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) November 16, 2025

Venezuelan political circles see the State Department’s move “as an ultimatum: a final window for Maduro to negotiate his exit or face what many see as the most serious U.S. threat to his rule to date,” The Miami Herald reported, “as the U.S. deploys the largest concentration of military assets in the Caribbean in decades.”

Trump on Sunday said designating Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization allows the U.S. military authority to target Maduro’s assets and infrastructure inside Venezuela.

“It allows us to do that, but we haven’t said we’re going to do that,” Trump explained. 

ÚLTIMA HORA | Trump dice que designación del Cartel de los Soles “permite” que Washington ataque los activos de Maduro en Venezuela.

“Nos permite hacer eso, pero no hemos dicho que vamos a hacer eso, y podríamos discutir (con Venezuela)”, aseguró. https://t.co/qgzJv2atKC pic.twitter.com/j6zeVpWIDp

— AlbertoRodNews (@AlbertoRodNews) November 17, 2025

U.S. Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez, a Republican from Miami and fierce Maduro critic, lauded the State Department action.

“Remember that by designating the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization, it allows us to attack them militarily within the framework of U.S. law,” he stated on X. “Then they can’t say they weren’t warned. It’s almost over.”

🚨#SOSVenezuela Acuérdense que al designar al Cartel de los Soles como una organización terrorista extranjera, nos permite atacarlos militarmente dentro del marco legal estadounidense.

Luego que no digan que no se les avisó.

Queda poco.

— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) November 17, 2025

While he said on Friday that he “sorta made up my mind” on what to do about Maduro, Trump appeared noncommittal on Sunday.

So far, U.S. kinetic actions against the cartels have been limited to strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats. On Nov. 15, the U.S. carried out the 22nd known attack, which combined have killed at least 80 people. The majority of those strikes were carried out by the MQ-9s and some by the AC-130 Ghostriders, as we have noted.

These attacks, however, have been criticized for being extrajudicial strikes without Congressional authorization. The administration has justified the strikes by declaring drug cartels to be “unlawful combatants,” and Trump has claimed, without proof, that each sunken boat has saved 25,000 American lives, presumably from overdoses. 

On Nov. 15, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,… pic.twitter.com/iM1PhIsroj

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) November 16, 2025

If expanded strikes on land targets occur after the November 24th horizon, they could be limited to strictly cartel and drug production target sets that do not include state facilities. These could include labs, logistical nodes, such as port facilities, and cartel personnel. Striking military installations and other state infrastructure that the U.S. believes actively facilitate the drug trade would be a further escalation. Going directly after the Maduro regime and its military capabilities as a whole would be the farthest rung up the escalation ladder.

For his part, Maduro seems to be wavering between acquiescence and bravado.

On Nov. 15, Maduro sang John Lennon’s iconic peace anthem “Imagine” during a rally with supporters. Maduro urged calm, repeating “Peace, peace, peace” while government officials made peace signs on stage.

However, at the same rally, Maduro showed defiance, essentially telling the Trump administration to mind its own business.

“The U.S. wants to rule the world but ignores its own millions without housing, food, education, or battling addiction,” the Venezuelan strong man proclaimed. “They want to ‘save’ others with weapons. First, save yourselves; we know what to do with Venezuela.”

Venezuelan President Maduro:

The U.S. wants to rule the world but ignores its own millions without housing, food, education, or battling addiction.

They want to “save” others with weapons.

First save yourselves; we know what to do with Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/ml1CoNfCeN

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) November 16, 2025

What will happen next is anyone’s guess. By law, Congress has seven days to review the State Department’s designation of Cartel de los Soles as an FTO. However, as we noted earlier in this story, Trump has hinted that he doesn’t need Congressional approval to attack Venezuela. In addition, it should be noted that Trump’s reported suggestions that potential adversaries want to talk are not necessarily a sign of impending calm.

On June 15, during the crisis about Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, Trump said Iran would “like to make a deal. They’re talking. They continue to talk,” adding that there was “no deadline” on the talks. Just six days later, the U.S. attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities in an operation dubbed Midnight Hammer.

As tensions in the Caribbean continue to simmer, we will provide updates when warranted.

Update 3:46 PM Eastern –

Speaking to reporters at the White House Monday afternoon, Trump was asked if he has ruled out putting U.S. troops in Venezuela.

“No, I don’t rule out that,” he answered. “I don’t rule out anything.”

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

More than 130 people suspected of being in the United States illegally have been detained in Charlotte, North Carolina, authorities said, as President Donald Trump’s nationwide deportation push intensifies. The raids took place over just two days.

Here is what we know:

What happened in Charlotte?

Federal agents swept into Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, escalating Trump’s widening immigration crackdown and turning the city into the latest focal point for large-scale arrests in Democratic-led areas. Charlotte is a Democratic-leaning city of about 950,000 people and a financial services hub.

Officers were seen outside churches, around apartment complexes, and along busy shopping corridors as the operation unfolded.

“We are increasing the presence of DHS law enforcement in Charlotte to keep Americans safe and remove threats to public safety,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on Saturday.

According to Homeland Security officials, 44 of the detainees have criminal records, including two described as gang members. The alleged offences include driving while intoxicated, assault, trespassing, larceny and hit-and-run. One arrested person, according to the commander leading the raids, is a registered sex offender.

President Trump and Secretary Noem will not back down from their mission to make America safe again.

North Carolina sanctuary politicians are protecting the nearly 1,400 criminal illegal aliens in Charlotte’s jails by REFUSING to turn them over to ICE, ultimately releasing these… pic.twitter.com/rM2kt3gLuB

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) November 17, 2025

What exactly is Operation Charlotte’s Web?

The DHS has labelled the raids Operation Charlotte’s Web, playing on the title of the famous children’s book, which is not about North Carolina.

The book, Charlotte’s Web, follows a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being killed, Charlotte writes messages in her web to try to save him.

But in Charlotte, the city, the web is not a saviour — it is the dragnet to catch immigrants.

“Wherever the wind takes us. High, low. Near, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please,” Gregory Bovino, the DHS commander leading the raids, said on X on Saturday, quoting from the iconic book.

“This time, the breeze hit Charlotte like a storm. From border towns to the Queen City, our agents go where the mission calls.”

‘Wherever the wind takes us. High, low. Near, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please.’ — Charlotte’s Web

This time, the breeze hit Charlotte like a storm. From border towns to the Queen City, our agents go where the mission calls.#DHS #CBP… pic.twitter.com/de0nqHn3vR

— Commander Op At Large CA Gregory K. Bovino (@CMDROpAtLargeCA) November 16, 2025

Yet the DHS decision to use a popular children’s book title for a campaign that is expected to break up several families has also faced criticism, including from the granddaughter of EB White, the author of Charlotte’s Web.

“He believed in the rule of law and due process,” Martha White said in a statement, referring to her grandfather. “He certainly didn’t believe in masked men, in unmarked cars, raiding people’s homes and workplaces without IDs or summons.”

What is driving the immigration raid?

Officials insist the surge is aimed at tackling crime, arguing — as the Trump administration has in other cities that have been targeted in similar raids — that local authorities have failed to ensure law and order.

However, local leaders have objected to the raids and pointed to police data, which shows that crime has been declining.

According to data released by the city, crime has dropped 8 percent from last year, with violent crimes down 20 percent.

However, Charlotte nevertheless grabbed national and global attention this summer when Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on a light-rail train, in an attack captured on video. The suspect is a US citizen, but the Trump administration repeatedly emphasised that he had been arrested more than a dozen times before.

The DHS also said the Charlotte raids happened because local officials did not honour nearly 1,400 requests to hold people for up to 48 hours after their release, which would have allowed immigration agents to take them into custody.

“I made it clear that I do not want to stop ICE from doing their job, but I do want them to do it safely, responsibly, and with proper coordination by notifying our agency ahead of time,” Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said in a statement, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a part of the DHS that has been leading anti-immigrant raids in multiple urban areas across the country. Charlotte falls in Mecklenburg County.

Tensions remain high. “Democrats at all levels are choosing to protect criminal illegals over North Carolina citizens,” state Republican chairman Jason Simmons said on Monday, even though ICE agents have also arrested several visa holders and permanent residents — all living legally in the US — during the raids.

Who is Gregory Bovino?

Gregory Bovino is a senior US Border Patrol official who has become a central figure in Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdowns in big cities. He has led the high-profile enforcement campaign in Chicago since September and has also been involved in operations in Los Angeles and now Charlotte.

Bovino has frequently served as the public face of these efforts — holding press briefings, giving interviews, and promoting arrest numbers as signs of success.

His approach has drawn controversy. Civil rights groups, local officials, and legal experts have criticised tactics used under his command, including aggressive arrests, the use of chemical agents against detainees, and the use of Border Patrol troops far from the US border. Several operations have faced legal challenges, and judges as well as local leaders have questioned whether federal agents are acting within their jurisdiction.

Regarding the use of chemical agents, Bovino told The Associated Press news agency that using chemical agents is “far less lethal” than what his agents encounter. “We use the least amount of force necessary to effect the arrest,” he said. “If I had more CS gas, I would have deployed it.” CS gas is a tear gas commonly used by federal agents.

What do we know about the communities affected?

Local reporting shows that Charlotte’s immigrant neighbourhoods felt the impact immediately. The Charlotte Observer described how a baker, Manuel “Manolo” Betancur, shut down his bakery on Saturday afternoon — the first closure in its 28-year history — after learning that Border Patrol agents had arrived in the city.

He said he has no idea when he will reopen.

“The amount of fear that we have right now is no good,” Betancur said, outside Manolo’s Bakery on Central Avenue, a major hub for the city’s immigrant community.

“It’s not worth it to take that risk,” he said. “We need to protect our families and [prevent] family separation.”

The bakery was not the only one. Businesses along Central Avenue shut their doors as masked federal agents conducted arrests, prompting anger and anxiety in the community.

Pisco Peruvian Gastrolounge posted on Saturday that it would be temporarily closing. “We cannot wait for the moment we can safely welcome you back and continue sharing our culture, our food, and our vibes,” the restaurant shared on Instagram.

What’s next?

Federal immigration officials are preparing to widen their activities in North Carolina, with Raleigh expected to be included in the enforcement effort as soon as Tuesday, the city’s mayor said.

Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell noted on Monday that she had received no details about how large the operation would be or how long it might last, and immigration authorities have yet to make any public statements.

“I ask Raleigh to remember our values and maintain peace and respect through any upcoming challenges,” Cowell said in a statement.

Raleigh, with a population of more than 460,000, is North Carolina’s second-largest city after Charlotte, and is part of a region known as the Research Triangle that is home to several leading universities, including Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The possible expansion of immigration raids comes as nationwide detention figures reach historic levels. ICE held 59,762 people in custody as of September 21, 2025, according to TRAC Reports, a nonpartisan data-gathering platform. This is the highest number of ICE arrests ever recorded. Roughly 71.5 percent of those detained had no criminal conviction, and many of those with convictions had only minor offences, such as traffic violations.

A suspect accused of having links to a deadly car bomb in the Indian capital New Delhi, was seen being led into court. The suspect is one of three men accused of involvement in the attack.

Seventy-six Palestinian patients and their attendants have returned to Gaza after being stranded for two years in hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem where they’d been getting treatment, unable to come back due to Israeli restrictions.

Hamas says a UN Security Council resolution backing Trump’s Gaza plan fails to meet the political and humanitarian demands of Palestinians.

The UN Security Council has adopted the US’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, approving an international stabilisation force and a ‘board of peace’ with extensive powers to oversee Gaza’s governance and reconstruction.

Chinese state media says distributors made ‘prudent’ decision to postpone releases due to audience sentiment.

Chinese film distributors have suspended the release of two Japanese anime films amid an escalating diplomatic row over Taiwan.

Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers and Cells at Work! will not be screened in mainland China as originally scheduled, Chinese state-run broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday.

The move comes as relations between Tokyo and Beijing are at their lowest ebb in years following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion that Tokyo could intervene militarily if China attempted to take control of Taiwan.

CCTV said distributors made the “prudent” decision to postpone the releases in view of the overall market performance of Japanese films and “Chinese audience sentiment”.

Film distributors reported that Takaichi’s “provocative remarks” would inevitably affect Chinese audience perceptions of Japanese cinema, CCTV said, adding that the companies would follow “market principles and respect audience preferences” by delaying the releases.

Naoise McDonagh, an expert in economic coercion at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, said the postponements followed a well-worn playbook in Chinese statecraft.

“China is usually careful to target trade that is non-essential for China, but which will impact Japanese firms, creating both financial costs and symbolic pressure,” McDonagh told Al Jazeera.

Such incidents allow Beijing to signal that parties who act against its interests will face costs, “providing China some degree of influence on other governmental decision-making processes that impact China’s red line,” McDonagh said.

The delayed film releases follow a series of retaliatory moves by Beijing in response to Takaichi’s comments, including an advisory warning its citizens against travel to Japan and the deployment of warships to waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands.

Japan on Monday issued its own travel advisory for China, warning its citizens to respect local customs, avoid crowded places and exercise caution in their interactions with Chinese people.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara on Tuesday told a regular media briefing that its advisories were based on “the social situations” of various countries and its latest statement reflected recent reports on the Tokyo-Beijing tensions.

Kihara also said that Tokyo had an “open stance” on dialogue with China after Beijing said that Chinese Premier Li Qiang had no plans to meet Takaichi on the sidelines of this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa.

Kihara made the comments as Japan’s top official for Asia Pacific affairs, Masaaki Kanai, met his Chinese counterpart, Liu Jinsong, in Beijing on Tuesday in a bid to calm tensions between the sides.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory and has pledged to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.

Japan views China’s stance on Taiwan with concern due to the island’s close proximity to Japanese territory and its location in waters that carry large volumes of trade.

China insists that countries, in order to have diplomatic ties with Beijing, must not officially recognise Taiwan. Most countries follow China’s demand, but many maintain economic and semiofficial diplomatic ties with Taipei.

Some 380 hospice beds out of around 2,000 lie empty in England because of financial pressures, say bosses.

Hospice UK has told BBC News this is up from 300 a year ago and illustrates the severe challenges facing the sector.

Beds are left empty to save money – since staffing and caring is costly – and so are unavailable to patients.

Hospices are run by charities, raising between two-thirds and three-quarters of their income from donations and private fund raising. They depend on the rest from the NHS, and managers say this funding has not kept pace with costs, such as employer national insurance.

Hospice leaders say their organisations are “on the brink of a financial crisis”.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government had already invested £100 million to improve hospice facilities and had committed £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over three years.

“We recognise there is more to do and we are exploring how we can improve the access, quality and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan,” a spokesman added.

Hospice UK says five of its members have announced “cost reductions” or cutbacks since early October. In some cases job losses are being made.

One of them is Ashgate Hospice in Derbyshire which has warned staff that 52 are at risk of redundancy. Bed numbers are also being reduced – from 15 to six – and the proposals would mean 600 fewer patients being cared for each year.

The hospice has blamed energy bills and rising staff salaries with NHS funding not matching the increases.

Meanwhile, Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge says a cut in NHS funding will mean inpatient beds being reduced from 21 to 12 – what it described as “a devastating decision”.

Garden House Hospice Care in Hertfordshire has announced what it calls “the most serious financial challenge in its history” and has launched a consultation process which may lead to more than 20 redundancies.

Charlie King, director of external affairs at Hospice UK, said: “The financial situation facing hospices is untenable, with even more beds out of use this year than last year.

“We know many hospices have waiting lists and demand for end of life care is rising, so it’s not a case of lack of demand. Hospices desperately want to reach everyone who needs them, but financial pressure is holding them back.”

Mr King argued that an overhaul of hospice funding was needed because ministers were pushing for more care to be shifted from hospitals into the community. He added that with assisted dying potentially on the horizon, well-funded end of life care would be a vital safeguard.

Ministers unveiled an emergency funding plan this year with £100 million available for hospices in England. But the money was specifically for capital spending on improving buildings and facilities rather than for day to day running costs. Funding for future years for adult hospices has yet been announced though the government has come up with an £80 million three year plan for children’s hospices.

Summers says he will be taking a step back from engagements after his emails discussing personal and political matters with Epstein made public.

Former Harvard president Larry Summers has apologised and says he will be stepping back from public life after his email exchanges with the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said in a statement published by CBS News on Monday.

“While continuing to fulfil my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me,” he said.

The emails were among the 20,000 pages of documents obtained from Epstein’s estate and released last week by the United States House Committee on Oversight amid ongoing questions about the ex-financier’s relationship with President Donald Trump.

Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was previously convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor, but he served a light 13-month sentence. Before his downfall in 2019, Epstein was in constant contact with world leaders, celebrities, and high-profile figures like Summers.

The emails between Epstein and Summers span from at least 2017 to 2019 and cover a range of topics, including US foreign policy to Trump’s first presidency, as well as personal matters.

In one email from 2017, Summers advises Epstein that his “pal”, billionaire Thomas Barrack Jr, should stay out of the press following a Washington Post story about Barrack Jr’s relationship with both Trump and political lobbyist Paul Manafort.

“Public link to manafort will be a disaster,” he wrote. “This is a staggering [expletive] show.”

In another December 2018 email, Summers asks Epstein for help securing an invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which Epstein appears to turn down.

Summers previously served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and as an adviser to President Barack Obama. He also served as the president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006, when he was forced to resign over remarks suggesting that women were less adept at maths and science than men due to biological differences.

His recent posts include board member at OpenAI and distinguished senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress, according to NBC News. He remained a tenured professor at Harvard after stepping down.

In his emails with Epstein, Summers appears to have held on to his beliefs about women more than 10 years later. In one October 2017 email to Epstein about an event that included “lots of slathering to Saudis”, he wrote that he “yipped about inclusion”.

“I observed that half the IQ in world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of the population …,” he wrote in the email to Epstein.

In another email the same month, written at the height of the #MeToo movement, Summers appeared disenchanted with the wave of resignations over sexual and personal misconduct by US public figures.

“I’m trying to figure why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank,” he said in the email to Epstein.

In another email exchange between late November and early December 2018, he and Epstein discuss his relationship with a female colleague at length and how Summers – who was then in his mid-60s – should handle the situation.

“Think for now I’m going nowhere with her except economics mentor. I think I’m right now in the seen very warmly in rearview mirror category. She did not want to have a drink cuz she was ‘tired.’ I left the hotel lobby somewhat abruptly. When I’m reflective, I think I’m dodging a bullet,” Summers wrote to Epstein.

“Smart. Assertive and clear. Gorgeous. I’m [ expletive],” Summers wrote in a follow-up email describing the woman, before later concluding a “cooling off” period was needed.

No one really expects to be defrauded by someone dressed like an army officer.  Ikanyi Stephen certainly didn’t. But last year, at his small point-of-sale (POS) stand in Nyanya Park, Abuja, in North Central Nigeria, a man in military uniform approached him, seemingly with an innocent intention of withdrawing cash. Unknown to Stephen, the uniformed customer had foul play.

“He wanted ₦300,000,” Stephen recalled. “And the day he came, there were two other customers. My [sales assistant] was trying to attend to him,  and since I was with another customer, I couldn’t monitor them. Some customers like to hold the device to see if their transaction is successful, and that’s what I assumed the officer was doing. He slotted his card, entered his PIN, and after returning the machine to her, he urged her to hurry and give him his money so he could leave quickly.”

Stephen initially thought the man was simply in a rush, perhaps due to official duties. But it was only after he had left that the POS agent realised the real reason for his hurried departure. “I checked the transactions, but noticed nothing had come through. He had put the wrong PIN and hadn’t paid one naira, but by the time I noticed, I could not trace where he had gone,” he said. 

The incident cost Stephen more than he could have imagined — a quick trick pulled off by someone who knew how to exploit trust. Though the deceit seemed simple, many POS agents in Nigeria are increasingly falling victim to similar digital scams. 

The POS agent crisis

While scammers have long targeted these agents, the issue became more widespread with the rapid growth of the POS business in early 2023. That was the year the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) implemented a cashless policy, which limited the amount of cash that individuals and corporate bodies could withdraw at a time. As the queues in the banking halls grew and ATMs quickly emptied, millions turned to their neighbourhood POS agents for transactions.

By the end of that year, the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) reported that POS transactions had reached record heights, with a 27.85 per cent increase from 2022 and approximately ₦10.73 trillion transacted. The transactions have continued to rise since then, and as of 2025, NIBSS reported that  POS transfers reached a record-breaking ₦10.75 trillion in the first quarter of the year.

There are thousands of POS agents per square kilometre in the country, who process approximately ₦4.87 billion per hour. These agents are responsible for essential financial services, especially in rural areas where banks are scarce. The POS business provides steady, flexible employment that doesn’t require workers to possess intricate skills.

As favourable as the line of work is to the country, however, fraud, like what Stephen encountered, taints the endeavour. Although what happened to him appears straightforward, more sophisticated means of defrauding POS agents have raised growing concerns among the community, all of which is spurred on by the growing digital age.

Sunday Ohoji, an investigator at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), told HumAngle that far more digital POS scams have occurred in recent years than physical thefts. “The increase in digital trends and information technology has led to an increase in the vices attached to them. POS scams are one such vice,” he said.

A common scam related to POS transactions is reversal fraud. In this scheme, a POS agent receives a transfer via a card or phone transaction. However, the money that initially appears to be deposited in their account is later reversed, leading to a bounce-back of the funds hours after the customer has left. Several agents believe there are malicious intentions behind these reversals. For instance, a union of POS agents at Jabi Park in Abuja recently warned over 100 of its members to stop permitting phone transactions, as this method is suspected to be the most common way for scams to occur, according to a member of the union.

Fake alerts

Yunusa Adamu, a member of the union, explained the reason for their suspicion after a personal experience left him wary.

“I was sitting at my POS machine, three or four people just came to me, wearing good clothes that would make you think they are reasonable people, even though they aren’t. One of them said he needed about ₦30,000 and asked me to transfer it to him so he could receive the cash. It didn’t go through, so his friend quickly stepped in and did the transfer,” he recounted.

“Without even pressing my phone too much, I received an alert stating that the money had entered my account, but it was a fake alert. The men quickly said they wanted ₦20,000 of their money to go and buy something, but that they would come back for the rest. When they left, I checked my bank account and realised the money had never actually entered, as the alert had reversed. I sat there till evening, but the men never returned.”

Yunusa said he had no clue how such a scam was possible. He now knows better, especially after another agent, Munkaila Mohammed, spoke bitterly of a similar experience.

“My daughter, Aminatu, gave ₦120,000 to one customer who had made a digital transfer. As he got his money, the man rushed away. Later, when we checked her transactions, we saw that the money had reversed. Till today, nobody knows how scammers are doing it, but we know it’s not a mistake or network error,” Munkaila narrated.

Munkaila was right in his detection of foul play. The rise of digital hacking has led to scammers creating complex systems to defraud unsuspecting POS agents. 

After years of working as an ICPC’s investigations official, Sunday Ohoji has the mechanics of this scheme laid out: “The people who do these scams already have a cloned system that makes it look like they are actually sending money out to the agents,” he explained.

“So what happens is that they give the agent their card to do a transaction, and because the platform the POS operates on  is also internet based, it’s very, very easy for the scammers to reroute whatever transaction they do on that account and card to a dummy account, which automatically generates an alert sent to the POS agent as if a transaction has occurred, but it is not actually tied to the financial system.”

Many customers don’t wait to take such a complicated route. Some swindlers quickly cancel their PIN to avoid paying; others hold the machine and lower the initial cost inputted by the operators. One POS agent, Alice Omenene, recounted how a customer attempted to pay only 1 per cent of what he had promised through this nefarious method.

“One time, one man requested ₦40,000, and I put that price for him in my POS. But little did I know he secretly changed the amount to ₦400 when he got hold of the machine,” she said. “I’ve been defrauded in the past, but this time I caught him. All he kept saying was, ‘I’m a Muslim, I can’t cheat you,’ but I didn’t hear that one. How would I let him go with my money?”

The cost of scams

The cases of POS fraud continue, with a 31.12 per cent increase in 2024, according to the Report of Fraud and Forgeries in Nigerian Banks. However, this problem doesn’t just appear negative on paper. POS agents typically bear the long-term consequences of one-time thefts.

“When I lost ₦300,000, I was so depressed during that period,” said Stephen, “I really planned the money for something special, but when the theft happened, I was stuck. I tried to go through diabolical means to get it back, but I couldn’t dare to do that.”

The negative effects reach beyond just one person. Many of these agents either work for others or buy back the cash they can no longer track, leading to a ripple effect where the consequences of the theft impact other relationships and businesses.

Somalia Nwadiugwu, whose mother was swindled out of ₦30,000 with a fake alert, told HumAngle that the loss impacted their supplier, the one who had given them the cash. “We needed that money to meet up with payments, budgets, and stuff. The man who sold my mum cash needed some of his profit. It’s just because he was nice that he gave us time to pay it back, but he complained that he also had children to feed, and this was seriously limiting him.”

No way out?

Despite the extensive challenges they face, many POS agents are reluctant to pursue other employment opportunities, claiming that no alternative jobs are available to them. With a striking 86 per cent of Nigeria’s working population engaging in self-employment and non-paid jobs, according to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, it is evident that the lack of formal job opportunities is a significant issue for many individuals in the country.

David Aliyu*, a POS agent at Kabusa, who regularly loses between ₦5,000 and ₦10,000, sees no viable way to leave the business that has caused him so much financial loss. “No man can stay without doing something,” he told HumAngle. “That’s why some people keep on pushing with this business the way it is. In any business, there is loss, even Dangote [referring to the richest Black man] loses daily, more than POS people, I’m sure.”

Alice expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “This is where I’ve found myself, and it’s all that God has given me to do. Every morning, I pray not to fall for any 419 scam and that no scammer will see me. In this POS business, it’s not about being too wise; this scamming thing is an experience. You bring your head down, calm down, and pray.”

Prayer appears to be a common form of self-protection among those who have been scammed, as many POS agents refuse to seek external help, not trusting the Nigerian system to provide them with adequate assistance. 

When Stephen lost ₦300,000, it seemed natural that his next course of action would be to seek official intervention, but when he tallied the cost of processing it, he decided it was wiser to keep the matter to himself.

“If you have a loss and you want to seek help from the court, they’ll ask you to provide an affidavit. And sometimes, in processing the case, you spend more money. With those two things, you’ll still be spending more money than you lost. So the money you spend on getting help, along with the time lost trying to get that help, is almost equivalent to what you lost. So you just let it go,” he said.

Some members don’t even get to court. The cost of travelling to get help often halts them in their search for aid. Charity Eze*, a POS agent in Kabusa, who lost ₦50,000 after a customer changed the price on her POS from ₦55,000 to ₦ 5,000, explains why she had to make the painful decision to let it go. 

“We didn’t go to court, but because we had the customer’s name, my boss went to the bank. They froze his account and then told my boss he needed to come back again, but the banks are far from us, and the cost of transport is now high. When he calculated everything, he knew he would be at a loss. My boss let it go, but if not for the fact that he was a nice man, I would have had my salary taken away for God knows how long.”

Even without the cost of transport, legal justice still incurs a fee. The Virtual Affidavit Registration System (VARS) allows people to print various Affidavits online. It prices the affidavit of Loss of Documents/Items at ₦5,245. 

This is without going through any other court processes or the issue of extortion with the affidavit system that many complain about. Whether in person or online, expenditures rise higher than many of the losses POS personnel face at once. While some, like Stephen, are unfortunate enough to lose ₦300,000 at a time, most of the POS agents reported petty thefts, ranging from ₦2,000 to ₦10,000. 

While these smaller scams may seem inconsequential enough to let go, over time, these thefts add up, and without proper aid, POS agents may lose more than what they expected, crippling their business in the long run. 

The expensive solution

Ohoji, the ICPC investigator, sees a better way out, saying: “You can report to the police, you can report to the ICPC, you can report to the EFCC, all for free.  A few agents have come forward with genuine reports, and more are expected to follow, as the government is there to support them.

“The government doesn’t just want to help them, but the whole nation, because if they do not handle it immediately, it might become cancerous to the system tomorrow. Therefore, they should address the issue now. So, at every point in time, they should report. When they report, something will be done, even if it’s slow, something will be done,” he said.

He advised POS agents to upgrade their machines to detect cards that are not registered in the financial system. 

“It will go a long way to help curb the issue, because the truth is this: if someone comes and gives you a fake POS transaction and says they’re in a hurry to go, you wouldn’t have time to start checking if it’s genuine, but with an automatic detector, there will be no need to check manually.”

This is a simple solution in theory. In practice, however, few POS agents can afford to upgrade their machines due to their limited earnings. Many of them have reported that on a good day, they make up to ₦5,000, but these occasions are rare. More often than not, they typically make no more than ₦2,000 daily.

One of them, Charity, claimed that sometimes she sits down in the sweltering heat all day and earns only ₦500 for her efforts.

With an average profit of  ₦60,000 monthly, where the market cost of a single POS terminal is  ₦21,500, based on prices gotten from Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, a prominent POS terminal provider, as well as the added expense of buying the cash that will eventually be sold, squeezing in the cost of improvements may not be a viable option for many. 

For now, survival in the minds of many POS agents is a matter of caution and faith, and that seems to be enough for them. With around three million POS terminals existing in Nigeria as of 2024, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and many more popping up daily, it is clear that most POS agents remain unshaken in the face of mounting insecurity. 

*Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect the identities of sources. 

A handful of opposition abstentions allowed Carney and minority Liberals to advance a deficit-boosting budget aimed at countering US tariffs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority government narrowly survived a confidence vote on Monday as Canadian lawmakers endorsed a motion to begin debating his first federal budget – a result that avoids the prospect of a second election in less than a year.

The House of Commons voted 170-168 to advance study of the fiscal plan. While further votes are expected in the coming months, the slim victory signals that the budget is likely to be approved eventually.

Tonight, the House of Commons has voted to pass Budget 2025.

It’s time to work together to deliver on this plan — to protect our communities, empower Canadians with new opportunities, and build Canada strong.

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) November 18, 2025

“It’s time to work together to deliver on this plan – to protect our communities, empower Canadians with new opportunities, and build Canada strong,” Carney said on X, arguing that his spending blueprint would help fortify the economy against escalating United States tariffs.

Carney has repeatedly cast the budget as a “generational” chance to reinforce Canada’s economic resilience and to reduce reliance on trade with the US.

The proposal includes a near doubling of Canada’s deficit to 78.3 billion Canadian dollars ($55.5bn) with major outlays aimed at countering US trade measures and supporting defence and housing initiatives. The prime minister has insisted that higher deficit spending is essential to cushion the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. While most bilateral trade remains tariff-free under an existing North American trade agreement, US levies on automobiles, steel and aluminium have struck significant sectors of the Canadian economy.

According to Carney, a former central banker, internal forecasts show that “US tariffs and the associated uncertainty will cost Canadians around 1.8 percent of our GDP [gross domestic product]”.

The Liberals, a few seats short of a majority in the 343-seat House of Commons, relied on abstentions from several opposition members who were reluctant to trigger early elections. Recent polling suggested Carney’s Liberals would remain in power if Canadians were sent back to the polls.

Carney was elected to a full term in April after campaigning on a promise to challenge Washington’s protectionist turn. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party, the official opposition, has been wrestling with internal divisions since its defeat, and leader Pierre Poilievre faces a formal review of his performance early next year.

Poilievre has sharply criticised the government’s spending plans, branding the fiscal package a “credit card budget”.

The left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) has also expressed concerns, arguing that the proposal fails to adequately address unemployment, the housing crisis and the cost-of-living pressures faced by many Canadian families.

NDP interim leader Don Davies said the party accepted that blocking the budget would push the country back into an unwanted election cycle, explaining why two of its MPs ultimately abstained.

It was “clear that Canadians do not want an election right now … while we still face an existential threat from the Trump administration”, he said.

“Parliamentarians decided to put Canada first”, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said.

Polling before Monday’s vote suggested Canadians broadly shared this view. A November survey by the analytics firm Leger found that one in five respondents supported immediate elections while half said they were satisfied with Carney’s leadership.

Boeing says its MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone is on track for its first live-fire weapons shot, which will be of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), next month. The company says the MQ-28’s development is otherwise now “hitting its stride,” amid talk of new customers, possibly including the U.S. Navy and Poland. Boeing’s Australian subsidiary first began development of the Ghost Bat for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), which has already conducted extensive flight testing with its fleet of eight prototypes.

Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, provided a general update on the MQ-28 program at a media roundtable ahead of the 2025 Dubai Airshow in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at which TWZ was in attendance. Boeing officials had said on various occasions earlier this year that the AMRAAM shot could come in late 2025 or early 2026.

At the Avalon Air Show in Australia in March, “I talked about doing a weapons shot off the MQ-28 later this year, or early in 2026. We are on track for next month,” Parker said during his opening remarks. “This weapon shot is something we’re really excited about.”

In addition to being a first for the MQ-28, the planned shot also looks set to be a first for any CCA-type drone, at least that we know about.

“It’s an air-to-air missile, and if you were to guess it was an AMRAAM, AIM-120, you would be correct,” he added later on during the roundtable when asked for more specifics.

The test itself will be carried out over the sprawling Woomera Range Complex (WRC) in southern Australia and reflect “a tactically relevant scenario,” according to Parker. The MQ-28 will attempt to down a real airborne target with the AIM-120.

Parker did not offer any specific details about how the engagement might be prosecuted, including how the drone would find and track the target. The MQ-28 is a highly modular design intended to allow for the ready integration of various munitions, sensors, and other payloads. The entire nose can be swapped out. It is worth noting here that at least two of the RAAF’s initial batch of MQ-28s have been spotted with an infrared search and track (IRST) sensor in the nose, which would be very relevant for this upcoming air-to-air weapons test.

Broadly speaking, IRST sensors offer a valuable means of spotting and tracking aerial threats, especially stealthy aircraft and missiles, which can be used as an alternative and/or companion to radars. IRSTs have the additional benefit of being immune to electronic warfare attacks and operating passively, meaning they don’t emit signals that could alert an opponent to the fact that they are being stalked.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the customer here, but we’re well positioned for this,” Parker continued in his response to the question about the AIM-120 shot at the roundtable. “We’ve been sort of testing out some of these capability demonstrations. You would know that the Wedgetail [Boeing’s E-7 airborne early warning and control aircraft] has already controlled two live MQ-28s with a digital, virtual MQ-28 in the pattern, as well, [and] with a target. We’ve already been doing this. So, we’ve already been doing a bunch of multi-ship activities.”

Boeing announced the MQ-28/E-7 team testing back in June. This was one of a number of Ghost Bat capability demonstrations that the company conducted in cooperation with the RAAF this year, as you can read more about here.

“This program is really hitting its stride,” Parker said.

As noted, the RAAF has already acquired eight MQ-28s, all pre-production prototypes, also referred to as Block 1 Ghost Bats. The service has also awarded Boeing a contract to deliver at least three more examples in an improved Block 2 configuration. The Block 2 drones are seen as a pathway to an operational capability, though when that might actually materialize is unclear. Australian officials have also raised the prospect in the past of an expanded family of Ghost Bats, which might include versions that are substantially different from the baseline design. Boeing itself has hinted at the potential for the drones to get significant new capabilities down the road, including the ability to refuel in mid-air.

Regardless of how the MQ-28 itself evolves, Boeing clearly sees potential opportunities for sales beyond the RAAF, as well. The U.S. Air Force has utilized at least one Ghost Bat in the past to support test work related to its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone program, which is structured around multiple iterative development cycles. Boeing did take part in the initial stages of the first phase of that program, or Increment 1, but was cut last year in a down-select. The company could compete in the next cycle, or Increment 2, with the MQ-28 or another design.

In September, the U.S. Navy announced it had hired Boeing, as well as Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, to develop conceptual designs for carrier-based CCA-type drones. Boeing has so far declined to share specifics about what it is working on under that contract, but the Navy has said that there is “strong interest” in the Ghost Bat in the past. Boeing has previously pitched a carrier-capable version of the design at least to the United Kingdom, as well.

US president defends economic policies as polls show growing angst among voters over prices.

United States President Donald Trump has defended his administration’s record on lowering prices as he faces growing discontent from Americans over the cost of living.

In a speech to McDonald’s franchise owners and suppliers on Monday, Trump claimed credit for bringing inflation back to “normal” levels while pledging to bring price growth lower still.

“We have it down to a low level, but we’re going to get it a little bit lower,” Trump said.

“We want perfection.”

Returning to his regular talking point that Democrats had mismanaged the economy, the Republican president blamed cost pressures on former US President Joe Biden and insisted Americans were “so damn lucky” he won the 2024 election.

“Nobody has done what we’ve done in terms of pricing. We took over a mess,” Trump said.

Trump, whose 2024 presidential campaign focused heavily on the cost of living, has struggled to win over Americans with his protectionist economic message amid persistent affordability concerns.

In an NBC News poll released this month, 66 percent of respondents said Trump had fallen short of their expectations on affordability, while 63 percent answered the same for the economy in general.

Voter angst over prices has been widely identified as a key reason Republicans suffered a shellacking in off-year elections held early this month in multiple states, including New Jersey and Virginia.

Despite repeatedly playing down the effects of his tariffs on prices, Trump on Friday signed an executive order lowering duties on 200 food products, including beef, bananas, coffee and orange juice.

Trump has also floated tariff-funded $2,000 rebate cheques and the introduction of 50-year mortgages as part of a push to address affordability concerns.

While inflation has markedly declined since hitting a four-decade high of 9.1 percent under Biden, it remains significantly above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.

The inflation rate rose to 3 percent in October, the first time it hit the 3 percent mark since January, although many analysts had expected a higher figure due to Trump’s trade salvoes.

Trump, who is well known for his love of McDonald’s, spent a considerable portion of Monday’s speech praising the fast-food chain and casting the company as emblematic of his economic agenda.

“Together we are fighting for an economy where everybody can win, from the cashier starting her first job to a franchisee opening their first location to the young family in a drive-through line,” he said.

Trump also offered “special thanks” to the fast-food giant for rolling out more affordable menu options, including the reintroduction of extra value meals, which were phased out in 2018 and are priced at $5 or $8.

“We’re getting prices down for this country, and there’s no better leader or advocate than McDonald’s,” he said.

Political assassinations have long punctuated Mexico’s democratic trajectory, often surfacing at moments when institutional fragility becomes impossible to ignore. The murder of Uruapan’s mayor is therefore not an unprecedented shock but the latest manifestation of a recurring pattern in which local political authority collapses under the weight of criminal power. The country has witnessed similar moments in past electoral cycles, in rural municipalities, and along contested economic corridors. What is different today is the increasing regularity and visibility of these attacks, signalling not just isolated episodes of violence but a systemic erosion of governance. The killing of Carlos Manzo crystallises a truth that communities in Michoacán, Guerrero, Guanajuato, Sinaloa, Zacatecas and beyond have recognised for years: insecurity has metastasised into a political condition.

Michoacán has long been a barometer for national security. The state’s geography, agricultural wealth, and fragmented political networks have made it a battleground for groups competing for control. Yet the recent escalation in places like Uruapan signals a worrying transformation. Local reports of extortion, blockades, and increasingly public displays of force reflect criminal organisations behaving as de facto authorities. Entire communities have adapted to a logic of survival shaped by invisible borders, curfews, and negotiated coexistence with whoever wields power at any given moment. The assassination of public figures in such an environment is not simply a political act but a show of ownership over territory, demonstrating that the real lines of authority do not run through government offices but through armed structures with the capacity to enforce their will.

What is unfolding today is not an isolated deterioration but a worsening trend that has become more explicit during the last two federal administrations. The promise that security would be reimagined through social policy and a rejection of past militarised models never materialised into real control of territory or a coherent strategy for dismantling criminal governance. While the language changed, the underlying problem deepened. The country saw more regions where the state operates only partially or symbolically, where elections proceeded under intimidation, and where local authorities lacked the means or autonomy to resist the pressures around them. The result is an increasingly fragmented political geography in which criminal groups influence candidate selection, determine which campaigns can operate, and regulate economic flows at the community level.

Under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the narrative of moral regeneration through social investment was presented as a long-term answer to entrenched violence. Yet the gap between discourse and reality widened every year. Homicides remained persistently high, disappearances continued to haunt families, and entire municipalities came under the shadow of armed groups. The federal government’s insistence that security indicators were improving often clashed with the everyday experience of citizens navigating threats, extortion, and territorial disputes. Even as official statistics were reinterpreted to show progress, the lived reality in regions such as Michoacán, Guerrero, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato suggested that criminal organisations had consolidated their presence more deeply than before.

It is against this backdrop that Claudia Sheinbaum assumed the presidency, carrying forward a security model that was already failing. Her early months in office reveal how far the government still is from containing the expanding insecurity. Despite official claims of reduced violence, these figures jar with how people actually experience their lives. A majority of citizens continue to feel unsafe, and communities in high-risk states report no perceptible change. Her reliance on social prevention ignores how firmly criminal networks have embedded themselves in local political and economic systems. In several regions, armed groups continue to operate openly, even during federal visits, reinforcing the perception that national security strategy is more rhetorical than practical. The dissonance between optimistic messaging and deteriorating public trust reveals a government that has yet to confront the structural nature of the problem. In doing so, it risks turning its security agenda into little more than political theatre rather than a meaningful plan to reassert state authority.

Federal responses, while immediate and visible, reveal a deep structural weakness. Large-scale deployments, announcements of multi-sector investment packages and public proclamations of institutional coordination have become the standard repertoire of crisis management. These interventions create the appearance of control but rarely alter the conditions that allow criminal groups to flourish. The persistent challenges of corruption, politicised policing, fragmented prosecutorial capacity and limited municipal autonomy remain largely unresolved. Without addressing these deficits, security operations risk becoming cyclical performances rather than durable solutions.

National security trends further complicate the picture. Although certain aggregate indicators suggest stabilisation or marginal declines, the broader trajectory reflects a shift towards diversified criminal governance. Extortion, territorial control, interference in municipal administration and the permeation of legitimate industries reflect forms of violence that escape simple statistical capture. Thus, a focus on homicide figures alone obscures the structural deterioration of Mexico’s security landscape. The issue is not merely how many people are killed or disappeared, but how violence shapes political participation, economic activity and civic behaviour.

The deterioration of security in Mexico is inseparable from the erosion of its democratic foundations. Criminal groups no longer just threaten individuals — they infiltrate political processes, influence elections, and shape economic life. Municipalities under their sway become more than battlegrounds; they become laboratories of parallel governance. Political pluralism suffers when competition is skewed by coercion; the meaningful choice of leaders erodes when citizens know that certain voices are too dangerous to raise. Freedom of expression, too, is undermined. Journalists, activists, and community leaders operate in climates where challenging criminal-political alliances can entail serious risks. Self-censorship becomes a survival strategy, and public debate narrows under the weight of unspoken fear. When participation becomes dangerous, political representation becomes illusory.

This is not how democratic life is supposed to function. Institutions — from city halls to courts — ought to guarantee protection, justice, and participation. Yet in many places, the real source of power lies outside constitutional structures, in the hands of groups that command both arms and economic influence. This isn’t a temporary crisis; it is a systemic breakdown: when violence is structural, the response must be institutional.

Civil society responses illustrate both the potential and the limits of civic resistance. The mobilisation of Generation Z represents an important shift: a young, digitally connected cohort demanding accountability, transparency and meaningful security reform. These demonstrations are grounded in lived experience. For many young people, insecurity is not an abstract policy concern but an organising principle of daily life. Their protests reflect a rejection of narratives that normalise violence, minimise institutional failure or reduce insecurity to political rhetoric. Yet their activism also highlights a worrying reality: younger generations increasingly turn to extra-institutional forms of political expression because formal channels appear unresponsive.

The erosion of freedom is not only visible in the public sphere but in private life. Decisions that should be routine — attending a festival, organising a community meeting, even taking certain roads — have become political acts shaped by calculations of risk. This gradual internalisation of fear constitutes a subtle but profound form of democratic regression. When citizens adapt their behaviour to avoid harm, the space for free expression, open debate and community participation contracts. Democracy loses not through abrupt authoritarian shifts but through the slow, everyday retreat of civic life.

Addressing this crisis requires an institutional response that moves beyond episodic militarisation. Prosecutorial structures must be capable of pursuing cases that reveal networks rather than producing symbolic arrests. Municipal police forces must be professionalised, insulated from political interference and equipped with oversight mechanisms. Transparency must also be central in any reform. Citizens need access to clear, verifiable information about investigations, budget allocations, and the performance of security institutions. Without this, trust will remain a casualty of rhetorical solutions. Economic regulation must prevent criminal control of supply chains, especially in high-value sectors. Without reform of these foundational elements, any security strategy will be short-lived and vulnerable to the next surge in criminal activity.

At the national level, political leadership must recognise that security, democracy and economic development are interdependent. Reducing violence without strengthening democratic institutions will merely shift the form that insecurity takes. Conversely, institutional reforms that ignore security realities will remain aspirational. The state must rebuild public trust not through proclamations but through transparent evidence of institutional effectiveness.

International cooperation can play a supporting role, particularly in intelligence and financial tracing, but it cannot substitute for domestic institution-building. Sovereignty requires the capacity to govern effectively; reliance on external actors to fill institutional gaps risks reinforcing perceptions of state weakness.

Mexico stands at a juncture where insecurity threatens more than physical safety. It challenges the very conditions that make democratic life possible. The murder of Uruapan’s mayor is therefore not simply another entry in a long record of violence but a sign of cumulative democratic decay. If unchecked, this trajectory will entrench parallel systems of governance in which criminal groups continue to expand their authority while formal institutions recede.

The country’s future depends on rejecting this drift. A more honest political narrative is needed — one that acknowledges institutional failure, confronts criminal power directly and recognises that democracy cannot coexist indefinitely with pervasive fear. The question is whether political leaders will choose the difficult path of structural reform or continue to rely on reactive measures that mask, rather than resolve, the crisis.

Mexico cannot allow political assassination to become an unremarkable feature of its democratic life. Public institutions must assert their authority not through spectacle but through competence. Reversing the current trajectory will require political courage, institutional reconstruction and a renewed commitment to pluralism and freedom. The alternative is stark: a political landscape where democracy is reduced to procedures while real power is negotiated through violence, and where the politics of fear become the politics of the state.

Health authorities isolate more than 100 contacts as deadly hemorrhagic virus detected near South Sudan border.

Ethiopia has confirmed three deaths linked to Marburg virus in the country’s south, as health authorities race to contain an outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic disease that has put neighbouring nations on high alert.

Health Minister Mekdes Daba announced the deaths on Monday, three days after the government officially declared an outbreak in the Omo region bordering South Sudan.

Laboratory tests confirmed three deaths from the Ebola-like pathogen, while another three deaths showing symptoms of the disease are under investigation, the minister said in a statement reported by state broadcaster EBC.

The rapid spread of cases has triggered urgent containment measures across the region.

Ethiopia has isolated 129 people who came into contact with confirmed patients and is monitoring them closely, while South Sudan issued health advisories urging residents in border counties to avoid contact with bodily fluids.

Initial symptoms include severe fever, intense headaches and muscle pain, followed by vomiting and diarrhoea. In serious cases, patients develop haemorrhaging from the nose, gums and internal organs.

Ethiopian authorities first detected the virus on Wednesday in the Jinka area after receiving alerts about a suspected hemorrhagic illness. Officials tested 17 individuals, identifying at least nine infections before confirming the initial deaths.

Daba said that work is progressing to bring the outbreak under control quickly through a coordinated national response. The government has activated emergency response centres at multiple levels and deployed rapid response teams to affected areas, she said.

The Ethiopian minister added that no active symptomatic cases are currently being treated.

Here’s everything you need to know about #Marburg, its symptoms, and how it spreads. 👇🏿#ViralFacts@viralfacts pic.twitter.com/dg6VdniaNH

— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) November 16, 2025

Ethiopia has established its own laboratory testing capacity for Marburg at the national public health institute, allowing authorities to conduct diagnostics independently rather than relying solely on external support.

The minister urged anyone experiencing symptoms to seek immediate medical testing at health facilities.

International health teams from the World Health Organization and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have arrived to support containment efforts.

The ministry has also launched a public awareness campaign, distributing infographics in Amharic detailing symptoms and prevention measures, and establishing a hotline for reporting suspected cases.

Marburg spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated materials.

The virus kills roughly half of those infected on average, though mortality rates have climbed as high as 88 percent in previous outbreaks, according to WHO data.

The UN health agency warns that health workers are especially vulnerable to being infected by the virus “through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practised”.

The Ethiopian outbreak extends a troubling pattern of haemorrhagic fever emergencies across East Africa.

A Marburg outbreak in Tanzania claimed 10 lives between January and March this year, while Rwanda ended its first recorded Marburg outbreak last December, with 15 people killed by the virus.

Rwanda tested an experimental vaccine during its outbreak response.

Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya expressed particular concern about potential spillover into South Sudan, citing the country’s weak healthcare infrastructure as a major vulnerability in containing cross-border transmission.

Here are the key events from day 1,363 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Tuesday, November 18:

Fighting

• A Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliia killed three people and wounded 10, including three children, a regional military official in the Kharkiv region said on Telegram on Monday.
• At least two people were killed and three were injured in Russian shelling of the Nikopol district in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Vladyslav Haivanenko, the acting head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, wrote on Facebook.
• Russian troops captured three villages across three Ukrainian regions, the RIA news agency cited the Russian Ministry of Defence as saying on Monday. The villages are Hai in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Platonivka in the Donetsk region and Dvorichanske in the Kharkiv region.
• Russia’s air defence forces destroyed 36 Ukrainian drones overnight, RIA reported on Monday, citing the Defence Ministry’s daily data.
• A Russian attack on Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa sparked fires at energy and port infrastructure facilities, Ukraine’s emergency services said on Monday.
• The attack damaged port equipment and several civilian vessels, including one carrying liquefied natural gas, and forced Romania to evacuate a border village, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
• A 68-year-old man has died after he was injured in a Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s Kherson region, the head of the regional administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram.
• Two Ukrainian nuclear power plants have been running at reduced capacity for 10 days after a military attack damaged an electrical substation needed for nuclear safety, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement.
• The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia’s port of Novorossiysk resumed export activities after a Ukrainian attack caused a two-day suspension of its oil loadings.

Military aid

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a deal with French President Emmanuel Macron at France’s Velizy-Villacoublay Air Base for Ukraine to obtain up to 100 French-made Rafale warplanes over the next 10 years.
• Macron said France’s rail transport manufacturer Alstom and Ukrainian Railways have signed a 475-million-euro ($551m) contract on delivering 55 electric locomotives to Ukraine, according to the Interfax news agency.

Regional security

• Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said on Monday that one confirmed and one likely act of sabotage occurred on Polish railways after an explosion damaged a Polish railway track on a route to Ukraine over the weekend.
• Polish Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak added during the same news conference that chances are very high that the people who conducted the sabotage were acting on orders of foreign intelligence services. He appeared to be pointing fingers at Russia although he did not name the country.

Politics and diplomacy

• During a joint news conference in Paris, Macron said he was confident Zelenskyy could improve Ukraine’s anticorruption track record and institute reforms to clear its path to European Union membership.
• German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng during a state visit to Beijing on Monday that the two countries “should work together to finish the war in Ukraine” and “China can play a key role”.
• He responded by saying, “China will continue to play a constructive role in the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”
• The Kremlin said on Monday that there was an ongoing conversation about a possible prisoner-of-war exchange with Ukraine but declined to provide details.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia hoped for another summit between President Vladimir Putin and United States President Donald Trump soon.
• Peskov added that Moscow took a very negative view of a bill that Trump said Republicans in the US were working on that would impose sanctions on any country doing business with Russia.
• Russia’s financial watchdog added former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and leading economist Sergei Guriev – both critics of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – to its list of “extremists and terrorists”, its website showed on Monday.

Economy

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter to EU members on Monday that the bloc had three options or a combination of them to help Ukraine meet its financing needs: “Support … financed by member states via grants, a limited recourse loan funded by the union borrowing on the financial markets or a limited recourse loan linked to the cash balances of immobilised assets”.
• The Chevron oil company is studying options to buy international assets of sanctioned Russian oil firm Lukoil after the US Department of the Treasury gave clearance to potential buyers to talk to Lukoil about foreign assets, five sources familiar with the process told the Reuters news agency.

Syria’s Asaad al-Shaibani meets with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi as Damascus pushes to bolster international ties.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has pledged to deepen collaboration on “counterterrorism” with China on his first visit to Beijing since the toppling of former President Bashar al-Assad last year.

Al-Shaibani and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi agreed on Monday that they would work together on combating “terrorism” and on security matters, with the top Syrian diplomat promising that Damascus would not allow its territory to be used for any actions against Chinese interests, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

China, a former backer of al-Assad, said that it hoped Syria would take “effective measures” to fulfil its commitment, “thereby removing security obstacles to the stable development of China-Syria relations”, according to a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

The fate of the Uighur fighters who had gone to Syria after war erupted in 2011 to fight al-Assad’s forces, with many joining the Uighur-dominated Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) based in Idlib province, was expected to be on al-Shaibani’s agenda in Beijing.

A source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in Damascus denied a report by news agency AFP that cited unidentified sources as saying the Syrian government planned to hand over 400 fighters who had fled persecution in China “in batches”.

The “report regarding the Syrian government’s intention to hand over fighters to China is without foundation”, said the source in a brief statement to SANA.

During the meeting in Beijing, al-Shaibani also gave his country’s support for the one China principle, establishing formal diplomatic ties with the Chinese government, rather than with Taiwan, as the sole legal representative of the territory.

Wang, for his part, stated that China viewed the Golan Heights as Syrian territory. Israel occupied a portion of the territory in 1967 and subsequently annexed it in violation of international law.

Since al-Assad’s fall in December 2024, Israel has been expanding its occupation into southern Syria, including a United Nations-monitored buffer zone established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement.

On Monday, Damascus and Beijing expressed interest in expanding collaboration on economic development, Syria’s reconstruction, and raising living standards, highlighting the role of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum as a basis for bilateral collaboration, said SANA.

Al-Shaibani’s visit to China comes as Damascus pushes to rebuild its diplomatic ties around the world, with some stunning successes, including securing sanction relief from the West and major Gulf investments, giving the country a much-needed economic lifeline.

Earlier this month, President Ahmed al-Sharaa became the first-ever Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country’s independence in 1946. Syria also joined a US-led international coalition to fight ISIL (ISIS).

In October, al-Sharaa told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow that he sought to “restore and redefine ties” between the two countries.

However, there was no mention after that meeting of whether Moscow would hand over al-Assad, who fled to Russia after his government fell due to an offensive by armed opposition groups led by al-Sharaa.

Since the collapse of the al-Assad government, Russia has retained a presence at its air and naval bases on the Syrian coast. Moscow was one of al-Assad’s top backers and provided air support for government forces during the war.

But al-Shraa’s government appears to be prepared to forge relations with allies of the former regime, as highlighted by al-Shaibani’s talks in Beijing on Monday.