Elon Musk has admitted that the sweeping federal job-cutting initiative he led during Donald Trump’s second term, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), was only “a little bit successful” and confirmed he would not take on the role again. Speaking on a podcast hosted by Katie Miller, a right-wing commentator and former Doge adviser, Musk said he would have been “better off running his companies” than heading the…

All visitors to the United States would be required to disclose their social media activity from the past five years under new proposals from the Trump administration. The plans, published on Tuesday in the Federal Register, would also oblige tourists to provide email addresses and telephone numbers used during the same period, along with the names, addresses, birthdates and birthplaces of family members, including children. The Department of Homeland Security…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared he is prepared to hold elections within the next three months, if Ukraine’s parliament and foreign allies agree, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging to power. Speaking on Tuesday evening, the Ukrainian president appeared irritated by Trump’s remarks. “This is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states, with all due respect to our partners,” he said. Zelenskyy added that he…

French celebrities and politicians on the left have condemned Brigitte Macron after she was filmed using a derogatory term to describe feminist protesters at a theatre performance in Paris. The footage, recorded on Sunday, showed France’s first lady backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre speaking with actor and comedian Ary Abittan, who was preparing to go on stage. Abittan, previously accused of rape, told her he was nervous following a…

Fewer than 60,000 people, just 0.001% of the world’s population, now control three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity, according to a major study that warns inequality has reached extremes requiring urgent action. The World Inequality Report 2026, compiled by 200 researchers, found that the richest 10% of income-earners take home more than the other 90% combined, while the poorest half capture less than 10%…

The opposition party in Benin – Communist Party of Benin (PCB) has openly criticised what it calls foreign military interference following the attempted coup d’état in Benin Republic on Sunday, December 7, 2025. In a statement released on Monday, the opposition party said the failed coup and the events that followed have raised serious concerns about Benin’s sovereignty, warning that the country is drifting into external control under the guise of…

Caribbean coral reefs have lost nearly half of their hard coral cover since 1980, according to a new study. Scientists report a 48 per cent decrease, driven largely by climate breakdown and increasingly frequent marine heatwaves. The heatwaves disrupt the microalgae that sustain coral, turning them toxic and forcing the coral to expel them. In 2023–24, the region endured what researchers described as “the most destructive thermal stress ever recorded”,…

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has intensified its campaign to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), launching a hostile bid despite Netflix’s announcement last week that it had agreed to purchase the company’s studio and streaming operations. Netflix’s offer, valued at $82.7bn, covers WBD’s Hollywood film studio and HBO cable network but excludes its traditional television assets, including CNN and the Discovery channel. Paramount’s all‑cash tender offer, sent directly to shareholders on…

A photograph of eight students lying in the shape of a swastika on a high school football field in San Jose, California, has sparked shock and anger within the Bay Area Jewish community. The image was posted to social media on 3 December by a Branham High School student, accompanied by an antisemitic quotation from Adolf Hitler. A screenshot of the post began circulating on Reddit last Thursday, attracting more…

President Donald Trump has authorised Nvidia to begin selling its advanced H200 artificial intelligence chips to approved customers in China, a move that marks a significant victory for the chipmaker and its chief executive, Jensen Huang. Until Monday’s announcement, US rules had barred sales of Nvidia’s most powerful chips to China on national security grounds. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had informed President Xi Jinping that…

Israel’s chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir, has described the “yellow line” dividing Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan as a new border for Israel. Speaking to soldiers deployed in the territory, Zamir said the army would maintain its current positions, which give Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including most agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt. “The ‘yellow line’ is a new border line,…

United States Congressman Riley Moore says “much work still to be done” after holding talks with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, on the country’s worsening insecurity. In a statement on X on Monday, Moore said the discussions centred on terrorism in the North-East and continued violence in the Middle Belt — issues he described as a priority for both himself and President Donald Trump. The meeting comes during a…