World News

When Russians look back at 2025, they might remember it as the year when the government took even tighter control of the internet.

Credit cards that won’t buy a ticket on public transport. ATMs that don’t connect to a network. Messaging apps that are down. Cellphones that don’t receive texts or data after a trip abroad. Mothers of diabetic children even complain with alarm that they can’t monitor their kids’ blood glucose levels during outages.

Since Sept. 13, thousands of protesters have been marching in Lima, the capital of Peru, demanding new leadership. They say the conservative administration, which has overseen the murders and extortion of protesters and journalists, is corrupt and does not represent them.

Protests have been ongoing in Peru since 2022, when the conservative government of President Dina Boluarte took power after Congress impeached and removed former President Pedro Castillo, a progressive leftist leader who had a background in organizing. More than 50 protesters were killed under the Boluarte regime.

However, the protests picked up in recent months when the Boluarte administration implemented a pension reform law that mandates contributions by everyone 18 and over — favoring the nation’s private pension fund over its public fund — and limits early withdrawals at a time when employment for many Peruvians is unstable.

Through decentralized campaigns coordinated over social media like WhatsApp, TikTok, Discord and Telegram, young people have organized mass demonstrations in Lima that spread around the country. They were quickly joined by bus and taxi drivers, whose unions have been mobilizing short strikes for over a year to protest extortion.

Serbia’s president has been accused of involvement in “sniper safaris” in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, in which wealthy foreigners allegedly paid large sums of money to shoot civilians.

Aleksandar Vucic is alleged to have been present at one of the military positions above the city from where foreigners are said to have paid to shoot at its residents during the 1992 to 1996 siege.

Video footage has also emerged that appears to show him as a young man travelling in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, which had, on its boot, a human skull wearing a blue United Nations peacekeeper’s helmet.

The claims against Mr Vucic – which he strenuously denies – have been made by Domagoj Margetic, a Croatian investigative journalist.

He has filed a complaint about the president with Italian prosecutors, who are already investigating allegations that Italians, Russians and Americans took part in “human sniper safaris” during the conflict.

Mr Margetic said: “I have informed the public prosecutor’s office of all my knowledge about Aleksandar Vucic’s connection with human safaris in wartime Sarajevo.

“I have attached all the evidence, video materials, photo documentation, audio and video documentation, as well as media documentation from that time”.

In his submission, Mr Margetic alleged that Mr Vucic was “a member of a paramilitary detachment, under the control of the Serbian Radical Party from Serbia, during the war in 1992 and 1993”. Aleksandar Vucic Mr Vucic has strenuously denied any involvement in war crimes Credit: REUTERS/Zorana Jevtic

The unit was “stationed at a war position... at the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo”, Mr Margetic claimed. The cemetery was used as a sniper position by Serbian forces.

More than 10,000 people were killed by shelling and sniper fire during the siege.

Mr Margetic further claimed that the information “places him without any doubt at the time and place of these crimes”.

He cited video footage from 1993 which, he claimed, showed Mr Vucic carrying a rifle.

The Serbian leader’s supporters have dismissed the claims and said the object in the footage was a television camera tripod, which Mr Vucic was carrying because he was working as a journalist at the time.

Mr Vucic has said the object was an umbrella.

Prosecutors in Milan opened their investigation after receiving information claiming that rich Italians were among the wealthy outsiders who paid to shoot at Bosnian civilians, with a premium put on women, children and men in uniform.

The “war tourists” were allegedly allowed to shoot at civilians by Bosnian Serb militias under the command of Radovan Karadzic.

Suzana Vasiljevic, a spokesman for the president, told The Telegraph: “The claims put forward by Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic represent a textbook case of malicious disinformation, purpose-built to erode the institutional credibility of the Republic of Serbia and its president.

“President Vucic did not participate in combat activities, did not use weapons, and had no role in any wartime operations.”

She added that the allegations were “politically motivated” and an attempt to “undermine Serbia’s international reputational standing”. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted of war crimes in 2016, and is serving his sentence in a British prison Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted of war crimes in 2016 Credit: Ranko Cukovic/Reuters

A documentary called “Sarajevo Safari”, released in 2022 by a Slovenian director, made similar allegations about foreigners on “weekend war safaris”.

Asked about the recently posted video which appears to show Mr Vucic with the skull vehicle, a Serbian source said the car did not belong to him and, in any case, “cars like that were all over the war zone.”

Claims that wealthy foreigners travelled to Sarajevo for “sniper safaris” have been echoed by an Italian former diplomat.

Michael Giffoni, who was the deputy head of Italy’s diplomatic mission in Sarajevo, claimed that as soon as he arrived in the city in 1994, he was told: “You know, there are safaris being organised. Loads of wealthy people are coming here – some are hunters, others are businessmen. The army and the paramilitaries take them to the hills [above Sarajevo] and for that they pay.”

SISMI, an Italian intelligence agency, was told of the war tourism and, in co-operation with Bosnian intelligence, was able to shut down the arrival of Italians, he told La Repubblica newspaper. “The agency identified who was organising the whole thing and closed it down,” he said. A UN soldier offers sweets to children in Sarajevo during the war A UN soldier offers sweets to children in Sarajevo during the war Credit: JOEL ROBINE/AFP/Getty Images

However, Italian authorities were not able to identify any of their citizens who allegedly took part in the shooting of civilians. “If we had had a name, we would have prosecuted them,” Mr Giffoni said.

Balkan experts have told The Telegraph that the allegations could be true, but should be treated with caution.

Dr Helena Ivanov, from the Henry Jackson Society think tank, said: “A lot of terrible things happened during the war, but there were also horrific stories that turned out not to be true – claims that Muslim extremists threw Serb babies to lions in a zoo, for instance, or that fighters on all three sides made necklaces from babies’ fingers.

“Fake stories can stick around for a long time. Whenever there is a claim that is really explosive, like the one about sniper safaris, it needs to be subjected to a full and transparent inquiry.

“If there are credible accusations, then they should be investigated.” Civilians run for cover from sniper fire in Sarajevo in April 1993 Civilians run for cover from sniper fire in Sarajevo in April 1993 Credit: AP Photo/Michael Stravato

The video that appears to show Mr Vucic with the vehicle adorned with a skull was posted by Prof Jasmin Mujanovic, a Balkan expert and author.

He said there was “mounting evidence… including testimony from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, of the existence of ‘human safaris’ conducted by Serb nationalist forces on behalf of wealthy foreign tourists”.

The evidence should lead to investigations “in four or five different countries”, he added.

Prof Mujanovic said the allegations were “plausible” but cautioned: “We should always demand that extraordinary claims have extraordinary proof.”

“They deserve to be further examined by Italian and other international police agencies. One actually hopes that they will be found to be just urban legends, given the implied horror. But if they are true, then robust criminal charges must be pressed against all those involved,” he added.

A buried point of clarification: This is the last consulate to close, but the Warsaw embassy remains open.

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has described last weekend’s sabotage attack on Poland’s rail system as “an act of state terrorism” ordered by Russia, as he announced that Poland was closing the last remaining Russian consulate in the country.

“The clear intention was to cause human casualties,” he said of the weekend bomb attack.

The Polish security services said they were in the process of arresting several people linked to the incident.

“They are on the trail of the principals; they are on the trail of the perpetrators … the first arrests are now taking place,” the spokesperson Jacek Dobrzyński said on Wednesday morning. He said later that four people had been arrested.

A coalition of Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds urged servicemembers and those in the intelligence community to defy any illegal orders.

The video, which is edited to show multiple lawmakers reading one statement, comes as President Trump has carried out deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean, near Venezuela.

“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now, Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens like us. You all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution,” the lawmakers said in the video.

“Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear,” they added. “You can refuse illegal orders…you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”

The video features Sens. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.), and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chissy Houlahan (Pa.), Chris Deluzio (Penn.) and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.).

Since the boat strikes began in September, lawmakers have pressed the Trump administration on whether servicemembers involved could be held legally responsible for deaths that may be found unlawful. The military strikes have killed at least 83 people, and while the Trump administration has accused the boats of ferrying drugs, they have blown them up in deadly strikes rather than the typical practice of interdicting the boats.

DOJ claimed in an internal opinion that servicemembers cannot be held liable for the strikes.

But Senate Judiciary Democrats, in an October letter, argued that the strikes put servicemembers in a difficult position, as they are being asked to make illegal kills.

The United States Code of Military Justice “prohibits the premeditated and unlawful killing of a human being,” they wrote in a letter, but that it also requires obeying orders, “putting our service members in the impossible position of risking criminal prosecution for carrying out an unlawful order to kill civilians or risking prosecution for disobeying superior orders.”

That's the entire article.

Formatting emphasis mine.

Here is the video released by Democrats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iux161DZAA

(sorry, New York Post is the only source of the video itself, in its entirety, with no editorializing, that I can find at the moment.)

[EDIT] Thanks to DemBoSain:

https://bsky.app/profile/slotkin.senate.gov/post/3m5vtxjmgnk23

In case you missed it, this came soon after a 427-1 vote by the House of Representatives to release the Epstein Files.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/18/house-approves-epstein-files-bill-in-near-unanimous-vote-00656764

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — When Merat Behnam first gathered enough courage to ride her yellow scooter through the gridlocked streets of Iran ‘s capital to the coffee shop she runs, traffic wasn’t her main worry.

She instead girded herself for disapproving looks, verbal abuse and even being stopped by the police for being a women riding a motorbike in Tehran, something long frowned upon by hard-liners and conservative clerics in Iran.

But Behnam, 38, found herself broadly accepted on the road — and part of a wider reconsideration by women about societal expectations in Iran.

It’s not all encompassing, particularly as hard-line politicians call for laws on the hijab or headscarf to be enforced as Iran cracks down on intellectuals in the wake of the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June — but it does represent a change.

archive.is link

Rooftop solar has grown significantly in Jamaica over the past decade, from less than 1.4 megawatts in 2015 to nearly 65 megawatts in 2023, a significant amount for a small island, experts say. Overall, solar and other forms of renewable energy made up about 10 percent of Jamaica’s power generation in 2023.

The hope is that growth will start to cut down on Jamaica’s dependence on imported oil and liquefied natural gas, which is shipped in tankers to the island nation, at a time when ports, refineries, power plants and transmission lines are becoming vulnerable to extreme weather worsened by a warming planet.

The domain looked rather suspicious, and I'm not entirely certain this wasn't "written with the help of AI," but they actually list citations. The sheer scale of this across multiple sectors should put any fears that we're not in a recession to rest.

This many layoffs, reorgs and "flattenings" (while jettisoning underperforming products and services) doesn't say "economic growth." Middle management doesn't get the axe when the excrement is happily cooped up a full plane ride away from the oscillator.

And we're talking hundreds of thousands of layoffs at minimum in the U.S. alone. That's going to drastically alter the labour market while also reducing consumer spending.

We've only just begun.

The year 2025 has become one of the most turbulent periods for the global workforce in recent history. Across major industries, from technology and energy to automotive and pharmaceuticals, thousands of employees have faced layoffs as companies restructure to adapt to changing market conditions. Rising operational costs, slower revenue growth, and the accelerating shift toward automation and artificial intelligence have reshaped corporate priorities worldwide.

These large-scale job cuts highlight a broader trend in the global economy: businesses are redefining efficiency, focusing on digital transformation, and preparing for long-term sustainability amid uncertain demand. While some layoffs are driven by declining profits, others reflect a strategic move to reallocate resources toward high-growth areas such as AI, renewable energy, and cloud infrastructure.

This article reviews the most significant layoffs of 2025 to provide a clear overview of how global corporations are navigating a year marked by transformation, cost restructuring, and shifting workforce dynamics.

People in Lisbon protest proposed labour reforms

@news

dailypioneer.com/2025/world/pe…

Water levels at the dam reservoirs supplying Iran’s north-eastern city of Mashhad have plunged below 3%, according to reports, as the country suffers from severe water shortages.

“The water storage in Mashhad’s dams has now fallen to less than 3%,” Hossein Esmaeilian, the chief executive of the water company in Iran’s second largest city by population, told the ISNA news agency.

He added: “The current situation shows that managing water use is no longer merely a recommendation – it has become a necessity.”

Mashhad, home to around 4 million people and Iran’s holiest city, relies on four dams for its water supply. Esmaeilian said consumption in the city had reached about “8,000 litres per second, of which about 1,000 to 1,500 litres per second is supplied from the dams”.

Authorities in Tehran warned over the weekend of possible rolling cuts to water supplies in the capital amid what officials call the worst drought in decades. The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has cautioned that without rainfall before winter, even Tehran could face evacuation.

In Ukraine, sound carries a different weight: the cautionary blurt of sirens, Shahed drones humming overhead, the concussive thwack of air defence interception and the subsequent explosion. But as well as the sounds of war, which continue three and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, music still plays, clubs remain open during the day (closing well before the midnight curfew), and electronic dance music remains an intrinsic part of many Ukrainian lives.

Kyiv’s iconic clubs, such as K41, became bomb shelters before transforming into frontline fundraisers. Parties doubling up as cleanup operations are held at strike sites. New venues such as Abo Records – the first of many creative spaces to set up shop in an abandoned liquor factory – have emerged as gathering points where you might share a cigarette with a sniper or combat medic as easily as with a DJ. But the rehabilitative power of dance music is most evident at the Superhumans centre, near Lviv in the west of Ukraine. Here, the most critically war-wounded are treated with prosthetics and reconstructive surgery, and psychological support is given to children and adults affected by the war. And within the range of treatment is music therapy.

Howard Buffett, the son of Warren Buffett and one of the centre’s chief funders, suggested forming a Superhumans band, so the centre teamed up with music charity Victory Beats, which was set up one year into the war to provide veterans with relaxation and a nonverbal outlet for emotional expression.

“We were working with a 25-year-old soldier with severe brain damage and limited use of his hand,” the charity’s founder, Volodymyr Negodada, remembers. “We started with a [sound-based] relaxation session designed to calm the nervous system, but stopped almost immediately because the low frequency triggered pain. When he started to feel better, he asked for a DJ console.”

Despite being sidelined, agroecology empowers communities to take control of their food systems. It’s proving to be a powerful and practical solution based on local knowledge that works harmoniously with nature. For example, in Kenya’s Muranga County, the new agroecology policy supports agroecology by subsidizing organic inputs and building local markets. The Seed Savers Network has set up over 100 community seed banks in Kenya to protect disappearing indigenous seed varieties.

Agroecology isn’t just about farming. It improves the health of people and ecosystems, supports local economies, strengthens communities, and helps African countries adapt to climate change. Yet it still receives only a tiny fraction of funding. Between 2016 and 2018, just 2.7% of EU support to agriculture in Africa went toward agroecological approaches, according to the CIDSE Finance for Agroecology Report.

Ignore Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb on the left and the fairy on the right, The Bald guy is Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff, James Blair This was during a lunch at the Oval Office for Senate Republicans, I zoomed in on the folder and flipped the image, apparently they are planning a coup not only on Venezuela but also Colombia, as we can see both Maduro and the Colombian President Gustavo Pedro in Prison Outfits and the so call "THE TRUMP DOCTRINE" which the media were calling the Munroe Doctrine 2.0 turns out to be the Moreno Doctrine written by Ohio Senator and Colombia born Bernie Moreno.. They are going to use Venezuela as an excuse to overthrow Colombian Govt. too whose president has been vocal against the US for supporting Genocide..The US is doing something they did back in 2003 all over again..

Original pic by whitehouse: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/P20251021MR-0281.jpg

The original post with 15k upvote was deleted on reddit on some rule about incorrect tittle format: https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1on1nqr/i_know_trumps_plan_image_is_from_oct_21st_at_the/

https://imgur.com/a/12hPQhT

The Trump Doctrine For Colombia and the Western Hemisphere

Despite decades of close partnerships between the United States and her allies in South America, the government of Colombia has been taken over by Gustavo Petro, who was elected with the help of drug cartels. There is ----- the Trump Doctrine for Colombia and the Western Hemisphere.

Designate additional cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Support pro-United States leaders in the Western Hemisphere
Establish targeted ------- for Petro, his family, and his -------
------- corrupt, anti-American criminal -----
-------- a comprehensive investigation into Petro's campaign ------

The blackout makes it impossible to assess the full scale of the massacres, but the videos that have trickled out provide a horrifying glimpse. Some were filmed and proudly posted online by RSF fighters, showing them taunting crowds of terrified people before shooting them at close range. Most prominent in the videos is RSF Brigadier General Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, nicknamed Abu Lulu, who boasted on Monday that he may have killed more than 2,000 people.

An aid worker helping fleeing civilians, speaking on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said his organization had heard multiple accounts that men and teenage boys were being separated from their families and beaten, tortured or killed. “Numerous reports emerged of hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians in El Fashir being targeted and killed on ethnic grounds,” the aid worker said. The U.N. Human Rights Office said Monday it was “receiving multiple, alarming reports” that RSF forces were “carrying out atrocities, including summary executions.”

Hurricane Melissa will make landfall in southern Jamaica less than 24 hours from now, and it is likely to be the most catastrophic storm in the Caribbean island’s history.

As it crawled across the northern Caribbean Sea on Monday morning, Melissa officially became a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane will likely fluctuate in intensity over the next day or so, perhaps undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle. But the background conditions, including very warm Caribbean waters and low wind shear, will support a very powerful hurricane and the potential for further strengthening.