Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

Donald Trump has urged Netflix to remove the Democratic foreign policy figure Susan Rice from its board, warning the streaming company to “face the consequences” as it battles to take control of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). Posting on his Truth Social platform, the US president described Rice as a “political hack” and claimed she had “no talent or skills”. Rice previously served as national security adviser to Barack Obama and as UN ambassador and senior White House adviser under Joe Biden. Trump’s remarks mark a fresh intervention in the high-stakes takeover contest for WBD, which has pitted Netflix against a…

New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has ordered a citywide ban on all non-essential travel as a powerful winter storm threatens to bring blizzard conditions across the north-eastern United States. The late-season storm is forecast to cause severe disruption along the east coast, with warnings stretching from Maryland to Massachusetts and affecting more than 35 million people. Forecasters expect more than a foot of snow in many areas, wind gusts of up to 70mph and the risk of coastal flooding from Cape Cod to Delaware. Mamdani declared a state of emergency on Sunday, unlocking additional funding to respond to the storm.…

The Trump administration is planning to build a military base in Gaza capable of housing up to 5,000 troops, according to contracting records reviewed by The Guardian. The documents describe a sprawling installation covering more than 350 acres. It is intended to serve as a military operating base for a future International Stabilisation Force (ISF), a multinational force made up of pledged foreign troops. The ISF falls under the authority of a newly created body known as the Board of Peace, which is meant to govern Gaza. The board is chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his…

Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte has announced she will contest the country’s 2028 presidential election, positioning herself as a challenger to the administration she once helped bring to power. Speaking on Wednesday, the 47-year-old said she was offering her “life, strength and future” in service of the Philippines. In a pointed address, she accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr of presiding over an era of widespread corruption. Duterte was formerly allied with Marcos, running alongside him on a joint ticket in the 2022 election that delivered a landslide victory. Their partnership later collapsed, and she resigned from his cabinet two years into…

Civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by bombing rose by 26% in 2025, as Russia intensified attacks on cities and key infrastructure, according to a global conflict monitoring group. Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said 2,248 civilians were reported killed and 12,493 injured by explosive weapons in Ukraine last year, based on English-language media reports. The data also showed a sharp rise in the number of casualties per incident. On average, 4.8 civilians were killed or injured in each strike, a 33% increase on 2024. The deadliest attack occurred in Dnipro on 24 June, when Russian missiles hit a passenger train,…

Hours after remarks by Barack Obama sparked widespread speculation about extraterrestrial life, the former US president issued a clarification saying he has seen no evidence that aliens exist. Speaking on a podcast hosted by Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to suggest that aliens were real during a fast-paced question-and-answer segment. Asked directly, “Are aliens real?”, Obama replied: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.” He added that they were not being hidden at Area 51, dismissing claims of a secret underground facility and saying any such conspiracy would have had to be concealed from the president himself.…

A limited US government shutdown came into force on Saturday after talks between the White House and Democrats in Congress collapsed over proposed new restrictions on federal immigration agents. It is the third shutdown of Donald Trump’s second term. The stoppage affects about 13 per cent of the federal civilian workforce and is confined to agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Those affected include the Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for screening airline passengers. The shutdown is not expected to end quickly. Lawmakers have left Washington DC for a 10-day recess, limiting the chances of an immediate…

An artificial intelligence system developed by Anthropic was used by the US military during an operation in Venezuela aimed at abducting President Nicolás Maduro, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The report marks one of the clearest examples yet of the US defence department deploying commercial AI tools in live military operations. According to Venezuela’s defence ministry, the raid involved air strikes across the capital, Caracas, and resulted in the deaths of 83 people. Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, is prohibited under the company’s terms of use from being applied to violent activity, weapons development or surveillance. Anthropic is the…

Former US president Barack Obama has publicly backed demonstrators in Minnesota, praising protests in Minneapolis and St Paul against what he described as the “unprecedented” conduct of federal immigration agents. Speaking during an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, Obama said recent events showed the power of ordinary Americans to push back when core values are threatened. He argued that most Americans do not support the actions carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), adding that meaningful change would ultimately come from public pressure. Obama cited operations in Minneapolis and St Paul, where he said federal…

Japanese authorities have seized a Chinese fishing vessel and arrested its captain in an incident likely to deepen an already fraught diplomatic relationship between Tokyo and Beijing. The boat was intercepted on Thursday about 170 kilometres from the south-western port city of Nagasaki after its skipper ignored repeated orders to stop for an inspection, according to Japanese media reports. A vessel from Japan’s fisheries agency pursued the boat after spotting it inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Eleven crew members were on board. It is the first time since 2022 that Japan has…