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US President Donald Trump in the White House, Dec. 15, 2025, in Washington DC, USA (AP Photo)
December 19, 2025

How a Trump Media US$1 billion deal with crypto firm exposes potential conflict of interest

Crypto.com was under siege. For more than a year, the firm had been investigated by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, part of an aggressive push to regulate the largely unregulated…
AP The office of social media firm Reddit in New York, USA.
December 19, 2025

Reddit challenges Australia’s world-first law banning children under 16 from social media

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…
Jeffrey Hall, chairman of Blue Power Group.
December 19, 2025

Blue Power plans fourth-quarter ‘turnaround’

Blue Power Group, a leading soap maker, has announced a turnaround plan aimed at restoring growth and profitability after being hurt by Hurricane Melissa and the imposition of duties on raw materials.…
New Zealand’s Tom Latham bats against the West Indies in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thursday on December 4, 2025.
December 19, 2025

Latham, Conway humble WI on day of dominance

MOUNT MAUNGANUI, New Zealand (CMC): A green-tinged Bay Oval strip at Mount Maunganui promised a bowler’s paradise. Still, by stumps on Day One, it was the site of a West Indian nightmare, expertly…
A few of Jimmy Cliff’s children (from left) Kadijah Bashir, Romeo Cliff and Odessa Chambers and her mother, Bluette Abrahams.
December 19, 2025 by Yasmine Peru

Jimmy Cliff celebrated in musical tribute at National Indoor Centre

When trumpeter and singer, Dwight Richards drew for Reggae Night from the catalogue of his good friend Jimmy Cliff, the spontaneous reaction from some inside the National Indoor Sports Centre was to…
A train pulls into the Clark Street and Lake Street Blue Line stop, where a man doused a woman in liquid and set her on fire on the train in Chicago. AP
December 19, 2025

Illinois secures US$1.5 billion to elevate bus and trains

Illinois’ public transit systems got a US$1.5-billion annual infusion on Friday as Governor JB Pritzker signed a law overhauling Chicago’s web of buses and trains, sparing it from devastating service…
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks to reporters at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo. (AP)
December 19, 2025

Quarterly ‘tankan’ survey shows slight improvement as Bank of Japan weighs a rate hike

A quarterly survey of major Japanese manufacturers released Monday shows business sentiment improving to its best level in four years, even after President Trump raised tariffs on goods from the…
AP Author Sophie Kinsella shops in the children’s section at Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 2010.
December 19, 2025

Author who sold 45m ‘Shopaholic’ novels dies

Writer Sophie Kinsella, whose effervescent rom com Confessions of a Shopaholic sparked a million-selling series, died on December 10, her family said. She was 55 and had been diagnosed with brain…
In this December 2022 photo a girl looks at a statue of Baby Jesus as Pope Francis presides over Christmas Eve Mass, at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
December 19, 2025

Peter Espeut | Pilgrims of Hope in 2025

“May the light of Christian hope illumine every man and woman, as a message of God’s love addressed to all!” — Pope Francis The late Pope Francis declared 2025 to be a Year of Jubilee. This was not…