Archive

Analyst Breakdown

• TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras’ presidential election, electoral authorities said Wednesday afternoon, ending a weeks-long count that has whittled away at the credibility of the Central American nation’s fragile electoral system
• The election is continuing Latin America’s swing to the right, coming just a week after Chile chose the far-right politician José Antonio Kast as its next president
• Asfura, of the conservative National Party received 40

Analyst Breakdown

• JERUSALEM (AP) — A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach
• Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel Monday night
• Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history

Analyst Breakdown

• MOSCOW (AP) — A car bomb killed a Russian general on Monday, the third such killing of a senior military officer in a year
• Investigators said Ukraine may be behind the attack
• Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, died from his injuries, said Svetlana Petrenko, the spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation’s top criminal investigation agency

Analyst Breakdown

• Two NATO-nation intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation with destructive orbiting clouds of shrapnel, with the aim of reining in Western space superiority that has helped Ukraine on the battlefield
• Intelligence findings seen by The Associated Press say the so-called “zone-effect” weapon would seek to flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets, potentially disabling multiple satellites at once but also risking catastrophic collateral damage to other orbiting systems
• Analysts who haven’t seen the findings say they doubt such a weapon could work without causing uncontrollable chaos in space for companies and countries, including Russia and its ally China, that rely on thousands of orbiting satellites for communications, defense and other vital needs

Analyst Breakdown

• Dec 20 (Reuters) – The United States is interdicting and seizing a vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, three U
• officials told Reuters on Saturday, a move that comes just days after U
• President Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela

Analyst Breakdown

• MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized Friday that Moscow’s troops were advancing across the battlefield in Ukraine and voiced confidence that the Kremlin would achieve its goals militarily if Kyiv doesn’t agree to Russia’s conditions in peace talks
• Speaking at his tightly orchestrated annual news conference, Putin declared that Russian forces have “fully seized strategic initiative” and would make more gains by the year’s end
• In the early days of the conflict in 2022, Ukraine’s forces managed to thwart an attempt by Russia’s larger, better-equipped army, to capture the capital of Kyiv

Analyst Breakdown

• WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration launched military strikes Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two U
• troops and an American civilian interpreter almost a week ago
• official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons

Analyst Breakdown

• Skateboarders are giving new life to a massive abandoned department store
• The ground floor of the 1957-opened building that used to house Debenhams in Bristol, southwest England, has been transformed — albeit only temporarily — into Shredenhams, an indoor skate park and creative hub
• Long-forgotten shelving units, timbers and a whole host of other materials that were abandoned and destined for the trash have been rescued and repurposed

Analyst Breakdown

• SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) – While a Sydney shopowner is being hailed as a hero after disarming one of the gunmen shooting at a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, a couple and another man who died after physically confronting the attackers are also being remembered for their heroic efforts to save those around them
• The couple in their 60s, identified by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as Boris and Sofia Gurman, were filmed tackling one of the two gunmen as he exited his car, before being shot dead
• The dashcam footage, verified by Reuters, showed one shooter wrestling for a long-barrelled weapon with an older man in a lavender shirt and shorts, before both fall heavily to the ground behind a silver hatchback car

Analyst Breakdown

• SYDNEY (AP) — A suspected gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre was charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder on Wednesday, as hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to begin funerals for the victims
• Two shooters slaughtered 15 people on Sunday in an antisemitic mass shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, and more than 20 other people are still being treated in hospitals
• All of those killed by the gunmen who have been identified so far were Jewish

Analyst Breakdown

• MILAN (AP) — A wildlife photographer stumbled upon one of the oldest and largest known collections of dinosaur footprints, dating back about 210 million years to the Triassic Period, high in an Italian national park near the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic venue of Bormio, officials announced Tuesday
• The discovery in the Stelvio National Park was striking for the sheer number of footprints, estimated at as many as 20,000 over some five kilometers (three miles), and the location near the Swiss border, once a prehistoric coastal area, that has never previously yielded dinosaur tracks, experts said
• “This time reality really surpasses fantasy,’’ said Cristiano Dal Sasso, a paleontologist at Milan’s Natural History Museum, who received the first call from wildlife photographer Elio Della Ferrera after making the discovery

Analyst Breakdown

• LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Britain’s Duke of Marlborough, a distant relative of Winston Churchill, has been charged with three counts of intentional strangulation, British police said on Wednesday
• Charles James Spencer-Churchill, 70, was arrested in May last year over the alleged offences which took place in November 2022, and in January and May 2024 in Woodstock, near Oxford in central England, Thames Valley police said in a statement
• He has now been issued with a summons to appear at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday

Analyst Breakdown

• DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians in Gaza struggled to recover Tuesday from torrential rains that battered the enclave for days, flooding camps for the displaced, collapsing buildings already badly damaged in the two-year war and leaving at least 12 dead, including a two-week-old baby
• The downpour, which dumped more than 150 milliliters (9 inches) of rain on some parts of Gaza over the past week, turned dirt lanes to mud and flooded tents in camps for displaced people
• The Gaza Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said Tuesday the two-week-old died of hypothermia as a result of the weather

Analyst Breakdown

• SYDNEY (AP) — Two gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi beach, killing 15 people, including a child, officials said Monday, in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation
• The shooters were father and son, authorities said
• The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those and the shooting Sunday were connected

Analyst Breakdown

• SYDNEY, Dec 14 (Reuters) – A bystander captured on video tackling and disarming an armed man during Sunday’s deadly attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach has been hailed as a hero whose actions saved lives
• Footage circulating on social media shows a man, named by local media as 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, in a car park wearing a white shirt charging at a man in a dark shirt who is holding a rifle
• He then tackles the armed man from behind, wrenching the rifle from him with his hands before pointing the gun back at the man

Analyst Breakdown

• SYDNEY (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday proposed tougher national gun laws after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, leaving at least 15 people dead
• Albanese said he would propose new restrictions, including limiting the number of guns a licensed owner can obtain
• His proposals were announced after the authorities revealed that the older of the two gunmen — who were a father and son — had held a gun license for a decade and amassed his six guns legally

Analyst Breakdown

• The Australian man widely hailed as a hero for disarming one of the shooters in Sunday’s deadly attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach reportedly said that he fully expected to get killed tackling the gunman from behind — and that he would do it again to save people’s lives
• Ahmed al-Ahmed, a father of two and store owner from Sutherland, was meeting his cousin for coffee in Bondi that day when two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah event at the famous beach
• The cousin, Jozay Alkanj, told local outlets that the two hid behind cars when they saw “people were shooting very near to us

Analyst Breakdown

• HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial in the city’s court on Monday, which could send him to prison for the rest of his life
• Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles
• He pleaded not guilty to all charges

Analyst Breakdown

• PARIS (AP) — Workers at the Louvre Museum voted Monday to strike over working conditions and other complaints, dealing another blow to the Paris landmark and home of the “Mona Lisa” after an embarrassing jewelry heist in October
• The CFDT union said the vote was taken at a meeting of 400 workers on Monday morning and that they decided to strike for the day
• Striking workers with flags, banners and placards blocked the museum’s iconic glass pyramid entrance

Analyst Breakdown

• VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Belarusian authorities on Saturday freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and other prominent political prisoners, a human rights group confirmed
• Their release comes as authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko seeks to improve relations with Washington
• earlier on Saturday announced lifting sanctions on the country’s potash sector

Analyst Breakdown

• DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that “there will be very serious retaliation” after two U
• service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group
• “This was an ISIS attack against the U

Analyst Breakdown

• DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has arrested Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, her supporters said Friday
• A foundation in her name said she was detained in Mashhad, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) northeast of the capital, Tehran, while attending a memorial for a human rights lawyer recently found dead under unclear circumstances
• There was no immediate comment from Iran over its detention of Mohammadi, 53

Analyst Breakdown

• COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The United States is using its economic power to “assert its will” and threaten military force against friend and foe alike, a Danish intelligence agency said in a new report
• The Danish Defense Intelligence Service, in its latest annual assessment, said Washington’s greater assertiveness under the Trump administration also comes as China and Russia seek to diminish Western, especially American, influence
• Perhaps most sensitive to Denmark — a NATO and European Union member country, and a U

Analyst Breakdown

• MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian accident investigators on Thursday released dramatic images of a skydiver’s parachute becoming entangled on an airplane’s tail, leaving him dangling at 4,500 meters (15,000 feet
• ) The skydiver, Adrian Ferguson, used a hook knife to cut himself free and sustained minor leg injuries during the incident on Sept
• 20 that began at Tully Airport in Queensland state

Analyst Breakdown

• LONDON (AP) — King Charles III said Friday that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year because of early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctor’s orders
• Charles, 77, revealed the information in a recorded message broadcast on British television as part of a campaign to encourage people to take advantage of screening that can detect cancer in its early stages when it is easiest to treat
• “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives,” the king said

Analyst Breakdown

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold urgent talks Thursday with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that are supporting Kyiv’s effort to obtain fair terms for an end to the war with Russia
• The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those expected to take part in the meeting of Ukraine’s allies, dubbed the Coalition of the Willing, via video link
• Zelenskyy indicated the talks were hastily arranged as Kyiv officials scramble to avoid getting boxed in by U

Analyst Breakdown

• WASHINGTON (AP) — The U
• imposed sanctions on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, among others, on Thursday as President Donald Trump looks to inflict further pressure on the South American nation
• The new sanctions on Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo come a day after Trump announced that the U

Analyst Breakdown

• MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Global online forum Reddit on Friday filed a court challenge to Australia’s world-first law that bans Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on the world’s most popular social media platforms
• California-based Reddit Inc
• ’s suit filed in the High Court follows a case filed last month by Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project

Analyst Breakdown

• HOUSTON/LONDON/WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The U
• is preparing to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil following the seizure of a tanker this week, as it increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, six sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday
• The seizure was the first interdiction of an oil cargo or tanker from Venezuela, which has been under U

Analyst Breakdown

• PARIS, Dec 7 (Reuters) – A water leak last month damaged hundreds of books in the Egyptian antiquities department at the Louvre, underscoring the deteriorating state of the world’s most visited museum just weeks after a daring jewel heist exposed security flaws
• Specialist website La Tribune de l’Art reported that around 400 rare books were affected, blaming poor pipe conditions
• It said the department had long sought funds to protect the collection from such risks without success

Analyst Breakdown

• KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials were expected to hand their latest peace proposals to United States negotiators Wednesday, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who also said Ukraine would be ready for elections within three months if partners can guarantee a safe vote during wartime and if its electoral law can be altered
• Zelenskyy was responding to comments by U
• President Donald Trump in which he questioned Ukraine’s democracy and suggested the Ukrainian leader was using the war as an excuse not to hold an election

Analyst Breakdown

• OSLO, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado arrived in Oslo in the middle of the night on Thursday, the head of the Nobel committee said, after she failed to reach the Norwegian capital in time to receive her award at a ceremony held hours earlier
• The 58-year-old engineer had secretly left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding
• “I can confirm that Maria Corina Machado has arrived in Oslo,” Joergen Watne Frydnes told people gathered in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay

Analyst Breakdown

• TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A second flight carrying Iranians deported from the United States has left America, Iranian officials said, as Washington reportedly planned to send hundreds of prisoners back to the Islamic Republic
• The deportations come as tensions remain high between Iran and the U
• after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites during Tehran’s 12-day war with Israel in June

Analyst Breakdown

• JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police forcibly entered the compound of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem early Monday, escalating a campaign against an organization that has been banned from operating on Israeli territory
• Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, said in a statement that “sizeable numbers” of Israeli forces including police on motorcycles, trucks and forklifts entered the compound in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and cut communications to the compound
• “The unauthorized and forceful entry by Israeli security forces is an unacceptable violation of UNRWA’s privileges and immunities as a U

Analyst Breakdown

• TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said Monday that he had ordered Honduran authorities and asked Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest order for ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned by U
• President Donald Trump
• Hernández was released from federal prison in the United States last week after Trump pardoned him

Analyst Breakdown

• VILNIUS, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Lithuania’s government on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over smuggler balloons originating in Belarus that have disrupted aviation, and asked parliament to allow the military to operate alongside police and border guards
• Vilnius airport has been closed repeatedly due to the weather balloons, which Lithuania says are sent by smugglers transporting cigarettes and constitute a “hybrid attack” by Belarus, a close ally of Russia
• “The state of emergency is announced not only due to civil aviation disruptions but also due to interests of national security,” Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic told a government meeting that was streamed live on Tuesday

Analyst Breakdown

• OSLO, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will not receive the Nobel Peace Prize in person at Wednesday’s award ceremony in Oslo, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Wednesday, with her current whereabouts unknown
• Machado, 58, was due to receive the award at a ceremony at Oslo City Hall in the presence of King Harald, Queen Sonja and Latin American leaders including Argentine President Javier Milei and Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa
• The ceremony starts at 1 p

Analyst Breakdown

• TOKYO, Dec 8 (Reuters) – A powerful 7
• 5-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan late on Monday, prompting orders for about 90,000 residents to evacuate and tsunami warnings that hours later were downgraded to advisories
• The Japan Meteorological Agency initially said a tsunami as high as 3 metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after the earthquake struck off the coast at 11:15 p

Analyst Breakdown

• BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Thailand said its fighter jets struck Cambodia on Monday in an attempt to cripple its military capability, as a re-eruption of border hostilities derailed a fragile ceasefire brokered by U
• President Donald Trump
• Each side blamed the other for starting clashes that broke out during the night and intensified before dawn and spread to multiple locations, with one Thai soldier and four Cambodian civilians killed, according to officials

Analyst Breakdown

• LONDON (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met British, French and German leaders in London on Monday in a show of European support for Ukraine at what they called a “critical moment” in the U
• -led effort to end Russia’s war in Ukraine
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks with Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the British leader’s 10 Downing St

Analyst Breakdown

• WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) – The U
• government will allow Nvidia to export its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, collecting a fee for each chip, U
• President Donald Trump said on Monday

Analyst Breakdown

• TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel and Hamas are “very shortly expected to move into the second phase of the ceasefire,” after Hamas returns the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza
• Netanyahu spoke during a news conference with visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and stressed that the second phase, which addresses the disarming of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, could begin as soon as the end of the month
• Hamas has yet to hand over the remains of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer who was killed in the Hamas-led Oct

Analyst Breakdown

• KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U
• and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet on Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war, Following talks that made progress on a security framework for postwar Ukraine, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace
• ” The statement from U

Analyst Breakdown

• LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Four people were arrested at London’s Tower of London after they threw food at a display case containing the Imperial State Crown, police said on Saturday, leading to a temporary closure of part of the historic building housing the Crown Jewels
• An organization called Take Back Power, which describes itself as a civil resistance group, posted footage of the incident on social media and said two of its members had smothered the display case with apple crumble and custard
• London police said in a statement that four protesters were detained following the reports of criminal damage to the display case shortly before 1000 GMT

Analyst Breakdown

• CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A mass shooting carried out Saturday by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital left at least 12 people dead, police said
• The victims included three children aged 3, 12 and 16
• Another 13 people were wounded and being treated in the hospital

Analyst Breakdown

• WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Police said Friday they have recovered a James Bond-inspired Fabergé pendant after six days of closely watching the man accused of swallowing the jewelry in an Auckland store
• They said the pendant was recovered Thursday night after it exited the suspect’s gastrointestinal tract naturally without medical intervention
• The limited-edition, Fabergé egg pendant was inspired by the 1983 James Bond film “Octopussy,” in which a jewel-smuggling operation involves a fake Fabergé egg

Analyst Breakdown

• LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaches of the bloc’s digital regulations that they said could leave users exposed to scams and manipulation
• The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA
• It’s the first time that the EU has issued a so-called non-compliance decision since rolling out the DSA

Analyst Breakdown

• JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Wednesday that partial remains returned by militants did not match the hostages remaining in Gaza, while it announced plans to reopen a key Gaza border crossing for the exit of Palestinians from the strip
• The missing remains of two hostages threaten to stall a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in its first phase
• But by promising to open the Rafah crossing, Israel showed it was moving ahead with parts of the U

Analyst Breakdown

• TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras’ former President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked U
• President Donald Trump Wednesday for pardoning him in his first communication since being released from a U
• Hernández was one year into a 45-year prison sentence for helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the U

Analyst Breakdown

• MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Social media platforms must report monthly how many children’s accounts they close once Australia begins enforcing its 16-year age limit next week, a minister said Wednesday
• Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube would face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) from Dec
• 10 if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16