these home movies shot on her husband's phone, originally for family consumption have since been turned into a documentary premiering in British cinemas this December. Prime Minister, the movie, is the latest step in Ardern's campaign for politicians to be allowed to reclaim their humanity, which broadly means the public accepting that they are grappling with the same private pressures as the rest of us (and no doubt similarly making a hash of it at times).
Iran is taking its first faltering steps to boost its dismal soft power abilities, spotting a slim opening to improve regional relations after Donald Trump's June bombing campaign and Israel's attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar unsettled Gulf states. The tentative foreign policy tweaks are born in part of necessity: much of Iran's network of regional military alliances has been dismantled in recent years.
China's Xi Jinping held a wide-ranging phone call on issues like Taiwan and trade, as relations appeared to gather new momentum since the pair's meeting in South Korea last month. Hours after the call on Monday, the US president hailed the two countries' extremely strong relationship, announcing that he and Xi discussed the war in Ukraine, fentanyl trafficking and a deal for farmers during the very good morning call, which also included an exchange of invitations to each other's countries.
Meanwhile, over 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States have lost the protection of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and are now at risk of being deported. Maduro is facing the most severe crisis of his mandate, yet each passing day is another day in power, even as the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford in Caribbean waters and the launch of Operation Southern Spear seem to signal an imminent checkmate.
India has announced a sweeping set of labour reforms, saying it will implement four long-delayed labour codes that the government says will modernise outdated regulations and extend stronger protections to millions of workers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X on Friday that the overhaul would provide a strong foundation for universal social security, minimum and timely payment of wages, safe workplaces and remunerative opportunities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's appearance with Israel's troops in illegally occupied territory in southern Syria has angered Damascus, and raised further doubts over whether a security deal between the two countries can be agreed. Netanyahu's Wednesday visit accompanied by several of his senior officials signals that he is not planning to shift from his hardline position on Syria, despite encouragement from the United States.
In September, the Financial Times published an editorial headlined A world without rules. That view was premised on two incidents: Israel's launch of a missile strike on a building that hosted Hamas officials in Qatar; and the flight of 19 Russian drones into Polish airspace. This flouting of the previous rules-based order, the FT said, was now producing a kind of anarchy and a proliferation of violence.
China Coast Guard vessels have sailed through the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands amid rising tensions between the two countries over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments about Taiwan. The China Coast Guard said in a statement on Sunday that it conducted patrols around the Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims as its own and refers to as the Diaoyu Islands. list of 3 itemsend of list China Coast Guard vessel 1307 formation conducted patrols within the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran is not enriching uranium anywhere in the country after devastating air strikes by Israel and the United States in June, though it reserves the right to do so. Speaking at a legal forum on November 16, Araqchi said all Iran's enrichment facilities are under IAEA safeguards and monitoring. "There is no undeclared nuclear enrichment in Iran.... Enrichment is not currently being conducted, as our enrichment facilities have been attacked," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA.
We are living through a moment of profound transformation as military imperatives and corporate interests are no longer separate threads in the fabric of technological innovation. Instead they are inseparably interwoven. "Innovation" is increasingly framed not as a response to a concrete human need, but in terms of strategic advantage, deterrence, and national security. States and corporations alike are turning to technology which blurs the line between civilian life and military power to advance foreign policy agendas and to assert geopolitical dominance.
The prospect of chaos and war excited Jeffrey Epstein. The late New York financier and child abuser kept a keen eye on news about foreign conflicts that could be exploited for commercial gain. On February 21, 2014, Epstein sent an e-mail to Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, with whom he would partner the following year as investors in a security tech firm Reporty Homeland Security (later renamed Carbyne).
Behind the scenes: The call between Trump and MBS, which was not previously made public, took place after the Gaza peace summit in Egypt last month. A U.S. official with direct knowledge of the call said Trump told MBS he'd managed to end the war in Gaza, and now wanted the crown prince to move toward normalization with Israel. MBS said he was willing to work on it with the Trump administration, the U.S. official said.
In recent weeks China has released a series of statements, articles and photos, that analysts say signal an escalation in the ruling Chinese Communist Party's approach to Taiwan. Beijing claims Taiwan as a province and has vowed to annex it under what it terms reunification. China's military is not believed to be capable of a full invasion yet, but senior officials have recently started using sharper language.
I do not think we truly appreciate how disruptive, how devastating, this could be "That's one phone network not working for less than one day," he said. "Imagine the implications if a nation state took down all the networks? Or turned off the power during a heatwave? Or polluted our drinking water? Or crippled our financial system?"
Moscow suggests that it will carry out its own nuclear tests if the US resumes testing under Donald Trump's orders. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested that if the United States tests nuclear weapons, Russia will respond in kind. Lavrov cited on Tuesday previous statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin laying out Moscow's policy.
For 75 years, the US has wielded wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces. The set-up has its origins in the Korean War which erupted in 1950 and largely ended with the truce of 1953. In simple terms, Seoul can command its troops only as long as there is no open conflict, and despite South Korean leadership taking on more and more responsibility in the intervening decades, a major breakout of hostilities would still see Washington take command.
Those most vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and abuse are, unsurprisingly, those who have less power or are treated with less respect: undocumented migrants; women in precarious employment; women with disabilities; LGBTQ women; young women and girls. Paradoxically, that helps to explain why the assault of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's president, has drawn such outrage domestically and internationally. A drunken man tried to kiss her neck and grabbed her chest as she spoke to citizens in the capital's streets.
Machismo in Mexico is so fucked up not even the president is safe, said Caterina Camastra, a professor and feminist, when I talked to her in Morelia, a city west of the Mexican capital this week. Succinct and to the point, it is a sentiment shared by many women in Mexico after watching the now viral video of a drunk man groping the country's first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as she walked from the National Palace to the education ministry on Monday.
Paul Reid, a Portland resident, sailed across the Mediterranean Sea recently with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group aiming to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. As the flotilla of over 40 boats approached Gaza, they were intercepted by the Israeli military and taken into custody. Reid, along with many other activists, described mistreatment and harsh conditions in Israeli detention. What stuck with him most, however, was the reality that Palestinians endure much worse, for far longer, in the same system.
The United States on Friday accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Israel's ambassador to Mexico, Einat Kranz Neiger. According to senior U.S. officials who spoke to several national media outlets, Iran's Revolutionary Guard allegedly began planning the attack late last year, but the plot was contained and does not pose a current threat. The operation that foiled the assassination attempt, described anonymously by those officials, took place before the summer.
