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The Supreme Court judgment on religious teaching in NI – an analysis and an appeal…

Jack Russell is a parent, primary school governor, and member of the core team at Parents for Inclusive Education NI, a grass-roots organisation that advocates for the rights of all children and parents across Northern Ireland.

Following the Supreme Court’s judgment last Wednesday that RE taught in NI schools is unlawful and amounts to indoctrination, the Education Minister appears more interested in talking about witchcraft than meaningful reform. This distraction and deflection is unhelpful to schools seeking guidance, but it is no accident.

He is distracting from the findings of the Supreme Court, which – whatever other commentators may have claimed – are likely to represent what Darragh Mackin described as “probably the single most important legal decision for education, certainly in the last century”.

Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of this case for the Department of Education (DE) is the money it has spent over the last four years and what it has got in return. By the Minister’s own admission, hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money has been spent on this case, funding that will not now reach other areas which desperately need it.

Whilst the overall bill is yet to be finalised, it will certainly have been inflated by the Department’s decision to appeal Justice Colton’s original High Court judgment. But what did the DE get for that additional spend?

As a result of Wednesday’s judgment, the DE must not only grapple with the original judgment reinstated in full, but also with the knowledge it comes with Supreme Court backing.

In addition to the original findings, the scrutiny given the case by five of the highest justices in the UK has brought to light legally dubious aspects of current law untouched by the original judgment. One example concerns the right for any minister to demand from a school in the vicinity of his church a list of its pupils who are recorded in the school’s census as belonging to his denomination. The fact that this would reveal their beliefs represents a likely breach of convention law.

Furthermore, the following critical principle was made concrete in UK case law: that a state which takes an approach that is not objective, critical and plural is one that is pursuing the forbidden aim of indoctrination, and that these are two sides of the same coin.

This principle, amongst other findings, promises to elevate the impact of the case law flowing from JR87. This case will now have implications across the UK, and likely result in fundamental changes to, or even the abolition of, collective worship laws affecting 30 times as many children across England, Scotland and Wales, as live in Northern Ireland.

Focusing on the specific impact on Northern Ireland for now though, let’s go through the judgment in detail. From this point on I will provide specific references to its paragraphs. For example, paragraph [13], which the Minister relies on to interpret the judgment as affirming (in his words) that schools “can and should maintain a Christian ethos”.

[13]… this case is not about whether Christianity should be the main or primary faith that pupils learn about in schools in Northern Ireland. Historically and today, Christianity is the most important religion in Northern Ireland. It is within the Department’s margin of appreciation in planning and setting the curriculum for the greater part of religious education to focus on knowledge of Christianity… [emphasis added]

The word “ethos” does not appear here or anywhere else in the judgment. It is clear that what the court was referring to above was the curriculum, which the Minister has recognised as the first key area that needs to be addressed.

In the paragraph above, the Supreme Court is clear that the Department’s margin of appreciation allows it to impart a greater part of knowledge about Christianity than knowledge about other belief systems. This margin of appreciation is strictly limited to relative focus and volume.

What is non-negotiable is that the curriculum must be objective, critical and pluralistic [23,54], which the Transferors Representatives Council (TRC) – representing the three largest Protestant denominations – has already conceded it is not [91]. Just as importantly, it must be conveyed in that manner [105].

The judgment goes on to flesh out these requirements in detail. With regard to pluralism, in addition to including diverse worldviews, contracting states to ECHR have a duty to be neutral and impartial [114]. This means that other religions and non religious viewpoints must be accorded equal esteem. This echoes the original judgment’s paragraph [60], which considered a key principle emerging from case law to be that the state must accord equal respect to different religious convictions and to non-religious beliefs. Alongside this pluralism there must be a commitment to objectivity and the development of critical thought [88].

While pluralism is a necessary quality for the new curriculum, one interesting wrinkle that emerged during this case was that it is currently unlawful for Controlled schools to explore the differences between Christian denominations [54]. This arises as an effect of the requirement that RE be non-denominational. So not only are children being deprived of knowledge of non-Christian belief systems, they are also being deprived of knowledge of the rich variety of Christian practice present in NI today.

In these circumstances, absent a change in the law it is hard to see a curriculum with a majority focus on Christianity being anything other than terribly bland.

Moving on to the process of curriculum redesign, the Minister has stated that he will pick the panel charged with this duty. Here again he will find himself constrained.

In another extension and clarification of the problem of indoctrination found in the lower court, the Supreme Court additionally found in [85] that this indoctrination was:

[85]…the inevitable consequence of leaving the drafting of the core syllabus to the four main churches. All four main churches seek to promote faith in Christianity as an absolute truth rather than knowledge about Christianity. [emphasis added]

This implies that the coming redesign must not be led by churches, but by independent and expert education professionals. Churches may naturally still be part of this process, but only in an advisory capacity.

Luckily for the Department, curriculum design is a hot topic across the UK right now. Earlier in the month, England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review panel recommended that Religious Education be included in England’s National Curriculum for the first time. This could turn out to be very relevant to the process and outcomes here. With significant resource likely to be spent on developing a world-class, inclusive curriculum for England, there will be an opportunity to piggyback on this process (with some minor adjustments made to reflect our particular situation in NI).

If the Minister spends substantial additional resource to diverge from England’s new curriculum, he will therefore have questions to answer. Firstly, he will need to justify why standards should not be harmonised across the UK, as his party is keen to do in other areas.

Secondly, he will need to explain any decision to resist change to the churches and other interested parties that welcomed the judgment. These included Anita Gracie of the TRC, who expressed frustration that the TRC’s long-standing desire to reform the curriculum had been stymied by the mothballing of the RE advisory committee. Bishop McKeown – a Catholic voice representing a sector that has otherwise remained relatively quiet so far – was sanguine, recognising the importance of understanding other people’s beliefs, practices and traditions. David Smyth of the Evangelical Alliance said this was not a moment to fear.

That word “fear” is worth addressing. It has been evident over the last week that many here do fear the introduction of other religions into our schools. I think this is related to how often the word “instruction” keeps coming up. Although “instruction” was purposefully changed to “education” by the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order (1989), and later legislation reinforces “religious education” as the formal term, it was telling that Jim Allister and Paul Givan amongst others continued to use the former word in their public statements.

In practice, they may have good reason to do so. Those who have grown up in this country since 1989 may not have noticed the change if in the classroom they continued to be “instructed” in the Christian faith as many still are.

And many of us who have been campaigning for change will be sympathetic to the argument that there could be something to fear in the idea of “instruction” in a religion you don’t hold yourself. But true education should hold no such fear.

Perhaps the quote that summed the moment up best came from Harbour Faith Community. Their facebook post is worth reading in full, but this passage sums it up well:

“as Christians, we welcome religious education that reflects the world we live in, that doesn’t pretend Christianity is the only voice in the room, and which trusts truth to sing without needing to be timetabled.

If the Christian story is as rich and hopeful as we claim it is, it will shine just fine without the scaffolding of enforced religious privilege.”

Maybe politicians who claim to represent faith communities would do well to listen to the voices of those communities, like Harbour Faith, they claim to represent.

The second key area in which the Minister recognised a need for change was collective worship, and here the judgment was equally clear.

Looking at the issues in the judgment critically, it is clear that collective worship must also be objective, critical and plural, and must be conveyed in that manner [25]. This applies to any visitors who come in and means, thanks to the two-sides-of-the-same-coin principle, that they must not proselytise [26,73].

It is very hard to see how this requirement could be met by many of the organisations currently visiting our schools. For example, Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) were the most frequent non-church visitor discovered by a freedom of information request (FOI) conducted by Parents for Inclusive Education NI (PfIE) in 2023, with 710 visits to 123 schools. CEF’s purpose is plainly stated in their name. Many other organisations, visiting our schools every week across NI, have an equally explicit aim of evangelism.

The inherent contradiction here is the clearest indication that, thanks to the DE, compulsory collective worship laws not just in Northern Ireland but across the UK are now ripe for challenge. Many have long held that these infringe on basic freedoms. There is now a Supreme Court judgment that supports their argument.

Curriculum reform and collective worship were the two areas the Minister focused on in his response. But to assume this judgment’s implications are limited to those areas would be a mistake. For a start, in both of these areas, inspection is critical.

Both the High Court and Supreme Court judgments are clear that no inspection of RE currently takes place:

[30] Mr Dempster, the acting Principal Officer in the Curriculum and Assessment Team in the Department, states that religious education in schools is not inspected or evaluated by the Department, and the Department has no knowledge of the practice in individual schools. Therefore, the Department does not know whether grant-aided schools do in fact provide religious education which includes the core syllabus, or whether additional religious education is given and if so whether the additional teaching amounts to further indoctrination, evangelism, or proselytising. Also, the Department has no knowledge of the constraints, if any, on teachers saying prayers of thanks to God. Mr Dempster makes no mention of inspection of collective worship. Therefore, the Department does not know whether grant-aided schools comply with the statutory requirement to include daily collective worship, or whether the collective worship amounts to indoctrination or evangelism or proselytising.

In paragraph 101 of his original judgment, Justice Colton described this as “a damning admission”. It is hard to disagree.

Inspection is intimately linked to the positive obligation to provide a curriculum that is objective, critical and plural. This obligation cannot be guaranteed without inspection. Inspection is therefore required, and the fact that it must take place was repeated many times throughout the Supreme Court judgment [28-30,57,66,73]. Furthermore, the state has a positive obligation to act if, through such inspection, indoctrination is found to be occurring [107,108].

At Parents for Inclusive Education, one of our biggest demands is for transparency. Parents deserve to know what is happening in schools. This also implies a need for inspection, and relates particularly to external religious visitors. There are worrying parallels with recently documented issues surrounding safeguarding at the Presbyterian church here, which this case eclipsed in the news cycle last week.

Just two days before the JR87 judgment was delivered, William Crawley had Jacqui Montgomery-Devlin, the safeguarding lead at the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) from 2019-2024, on TalkBack. She described to him that when she first arrived in post, she found precisely zero records of safeguarding actions that had previously taken place. There were also failings with regard to safeguarding training and the level of resource devoted to safeguarding (she was the only central safeguarding officer for over 500 Presbyterian congregations).

This is a relevant conjunction to make, because the PCI is the largest single source of religious visitors to our primary schools, with over 2,500 visits to 280 schools during the period our FOI request surveyed. If our churches are failing at safeguarding, and failing to keep any safeguarding records, and our schools are not being inspected, then we have a serious transparency, accountability and safeguarding problem. This is another area which is not optional to address, and where bare minimum solutions won’t cut the mustard.

But can withdrawal act as a remedy? Here again, the Supreme Court delivered a further confirmation of the original High Court finding, served with a side. In short, the only legally acceptable withdrawal option is one that would be incapable of placing an undue burden on parents [116]. The court made it clear that such an option must be pre-existing and funded by the school or Department [33,37,60,61], that the Department must take the utmost care to see to it that parents’ beliefs are not disregarded, and must provide assistance to individual schools in relation to alternative arrangements for withdrawn pupils [109].

Schools will await guidance on this nervously. Classroom resources are stretched – the prospect of large numbers of withdrawn children for whom a meaningful alternative will have to be provided will stretch them further.

The Minister and others have made much of the fact that the Supreme Court didn’t quash the laws it supposedly found offensive. Yet it is clearly articulated in the judgment that:

[4] JR87 and G have not appealed against the judge’s refusal to quash the subordinate legislation so no issue arose before the Court of Appeal or before this court as to its validity.

In other words, quite apart from the fact that the Supreme Court under Lord Reed has taken a conservative approach to date, the issue of quashing legislation was not appealed and therefore didn’t arise before the Supreme Court. They were never going to quash.

What the Supreme Court has done though is to very carefully lay out pathways to several open doors through which cases could now be brought, supported by their observations. One example was highlighted by Sam McBride in his piece the day following the judgment:

The judges made clear that as long as schools provide the religious education mandated by the core syllabus, they are “at liberty to give additional religious education”. Going further than this, they said this education could “amount to indoctrination, evangelism, or proselytising… there is no requirement that the additional [lessons] are objective, critical, and pluralistic”.

Mr McBride presents this as evidence that schools will be allowed or encouraged to continue as they are. In doing so, to mix metaphors, he fails to see the wood for the trees and mistakes a red flag for a green light. Paragraph [57] is not an invitation to continue with more of the same but part of a wider body of evidence assembled by the Supreme Court – evidence of systemic failure that is part and parcel of their finding of indoctrination.

It is ironic that Mr McBride’s article starts with the statement “The 40-page judgment is far more complex than many people seem to have realised.”. Apparently so. In fact, a full understanding is only possible by reading both judgments and the addendum to the original judgment, as well as the various legislative instruments under examination. In particular, paragraph 11 of the addendum states:

[A11] One complication that arises in relation to relief is that the “impugned legislation” is complex and interlinked. The court has found that the outworkings of the various provisions set out in the judgment are in breach of the applicants’ rights. Declaring the entire provisions identified to be unlawful on a global basis goes beyond the findings of the court.

In other words, the laws are complex and interwoven, and Justice Colton felt it beyond his jurisdiction to bring the whole thing down. This decision was not appealed. He did go on however, in the next paragraph of the addendum, to refer back to his finding at [134]:

[134] The court does not propose to make any order with regard to the school. The unlawfulness established in this case flows from the obligation under Article 21(1) and (2) of the 1986 Order which requires RE and CW to be based upon the Holy Scriptures. This obligation is manifested via Article 21(3A) which provides that in grant-aided schools the religious education required shall include religious education in accordance with the core syllabus specified under Article 11 of the 2006 Order, which the court has found to be unlawful. [emphasis added]

Which was followed, pithily, in [135], with:

[135] That is the mischief which needs to be addressed.

This could be interpreted as meaning that the core syllabus is the mischief to be addressed, but also that this mischief necessarily flows from the requirement to base RE and CW upon the Holy Scriptures. This reading would suggest that Article 21(1) and (2) of the 1986 Order are inconsistent with convention rights and must therefore be amended.

Finally, Justice Colton delivers his remedy in [137]:

[137] The court recognises that it is dealing with a sensitive and nuanced area. It considers that the unlawfulness it has identified requires a reconsideration of the core curriculum and the impugned legislation in relation to the teaching of RE and the provision of CW. It notes that this matter is currently under review. The outcome of any reconsideration and a review is not a matter for the courts but ultimately for the Department and the Northern Ireland Executive. In carrying out a reconsideration and review it should ensure that the arrangements for the teaching of RE and CW in Northern Ireland are compliant with the provisions of A2P1 and Article 9 of the Convention.

The review referred to here is the Independent Review of Education, upcoming at the time but now concluded. It made clear recommendations on RE, which concur with previous points made in respect to curriculum:

[vol 2 4.100-101] It would now be desirable if [the four main churches], together with representatives of other faiths and of those with no religious affiliation, were to collaborate with the new curriculum body in devising a replacement course… It should be knowledge-based and separate from religious observance.

Critically, in addition to the curriculum, Justice Colton also made it clear that the impugned legislation must be also reconsidered. This reconsideration must take place in the Northern Ireland Assembly. As to which legislation needs to be changed, the Supreme Court again affirms, then goes beyond Justice Colton’s ruling. In addition to Article 21(1) and (2) of the 1986 Order, paragraph [130] lays out three additional parts of the law which the Assembly might care to look at:

[130] For the purposes of this appeal and absent full argument on these points it is not necessary to decide whether: (a) the Department was also in breach of A2P1 by failing to monitor, inspect and report on the standard of religious education being provided in schools (see paras 28-30 and 108 above); (b) regulation 21(5) of the 1973 Regulations breaches article 9 ECHR by requiring the Board to reveal pupils’ beliefs concerning spiritual matters to the relevant minister on request (see para 72 above); (c) the safeguards in relation to the qualification to the right of access to pupils under article 21(7) of the 1986 Order that “the parents do not object” is sufficient to protect the rights of parents and their children (see para 68 above).

We have discussed point (a), the lack of inspection, already. The Minister has promised to consider inspection and how this could be changed. The law will likely need to be amended to bring inspection of RE into the fold with all other subjects. As to (b), it is very hard to see that removing this regulation would be controversial, even in the current political climate. With regard to point (c), the legislative change required maybe a clarification of the ambiguity highlighted in [68].

In an ideal world, these legislative changes would progress through a functional Executive in an orderly fashion. However, if the pace of change is not quick enough it may be that further litigation will be required. Darragh Mackin and Phoenix Law will be waiting (other solicitors are available).

As so often happens in legal cases involving children, they can end up being the ones whose voices get forgotten. Indeed, the child’s perspective has not once been addressed in the Minister’s responses to date.

The arguments above may be long and dry, but at the heart of the issue here remain the human rights of young people in Northern Ireland.

As Parents for Inclusive Education, we think all of our children deserve to feel valued, included and respected in their schools. Every child, regardless of their religious or non-religious backgrounds, should have the right to an education that values and respects their individuality, personal beliefs, and background, and helps them develop the skills they need to understand, value and respect those from different walks of life.

We are calling upon Education Minister Paul Givan to urgently prioritise and ensure:

1. Delivery of an updated ECHR compliant RE curriculum designed by a pluralistic and interfaith panel of suitably qualified and experienced educators;
2. ⁠Inspection of RE by the Education and Teaching Inspectorate in line with the rest of the curriculum; and
3. ⁠An immediate pause on access to pupils by external organisations in order to deliver religious education or collective worship during core school hours until a new, rights-respecting curriculum is in place.

No child should face stigma at school. No child should be othered. No child should be excluded. All of our children deserve better.

Please sign this petition to urge the Minister for Education to prioritise children’s rights and ensure an inclusive religious education for all.

https://my.actnowni.org/petitions/reform-religious-education-in-ni-now

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:04 am UTC

Hong Kong apartment fire tests Beijing-backed rule as anger mounts

Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:01 am UTC

A bright spot for turtles: Olive ridleys are recovering in India, but still at risk

India's olive ridley turtle numbers appear to have rebounded after years of patchwork efforts to stem their decline. Can it last?

(Image credit: Diaa Hadid)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:00 am UTC

Gaza’s Civil Defense Forces Keep Digging for 10,000 Missing Bodies

The mission that haunts Nooh al-Shaghnobi most took place on September 17, near the al-Saha area of eastern Gaza City. Israeli forces had bombed a home, killing more than 30 members of one extended family. Most of their bodies were trapped under the rubble.

Al-Shaghnobi’s Gaza Civil Defense force team pulled two dead young girls from the bombed house and kept digging, crawling under collapsed floors. “We don’t go under unless someone is alive,” he told The Intercept. “Otherwise, we dig from above — ceiling by ceiling.” What followed was a descent into something dreamlike and horrifying.

“We walked 12 meters under the rubble,” he said. “Every meter, the air grew less. I crawled past legs, arms, the body of a child hugging his dead mother. I felt the ground shake from bombings above.”

From deep inside the wreckage, the team heard a young girl calling, “I’m here. I’m here.”

The Civil Defense force is an emergency and rescue operations group administered by the Palestinian Minister of Interior. After two years of Israeli genocide, it has an estimated 900 personnel and has lost roughly 90% of its operating capacity, Civil Defense workers told The Intercept. In the absence of heavy equipment, the civil defense teams use simple tools like hammers, axes, and shovels. Without excavators or heavy equipment, a single recovery can take days.

Local civil defense workers estimate there are still 10,000 bodies buried under the rubble.

“What motivates us,” al-Shaghnobi said, “is that when you hear a voice — even one — you know there is life. That’s enough to make you risk your life to recover this alive soul.”

By the time al-Shaghnobi finally reached Malak, she was unconscious with no pulse. Her eyes open, her legs blue, she had passed away.

“I tried to wake her up, but it was too late,” al-Shaghnobi said. “I was in a moment of utter stillness, and I could hear nothing but my own breath.”

24-year-old al-Shaghnobi has already spent seven years working for Gaza’s Civil Defense force. Like many of his colleagues, he eats and sleeps at his workplace. His family’s home in the Tal Al-Hawa area of western Gaza City was destroyed in the final days of the war, and his family remains displaced in the south.

“People think the ceasefire means we can breathe,” he said. “But for us, the end of the war is the beginning of the real war: pulling out the dead.”

Al-Shaghnobi believes his aunt’s corpse is among the 10,000 bodies that remain unrecovered. Large regions like Shujayaa and parts of Rafah are still inaccessible. Israeli forces are stationed there, marking the areas “yellow zones.” Civil defense crews cannot reach them.

“We barely recovered some bodies during this ceasefire,” al-Shaghnobi said. “We have no machinery. Some areas, we know there are hundreds under the rubble, we simply can’t go.”

Alaa Khammash, 25, said he feels terrible when his Civil Defense team is unable to rescue someone.

“When I am dispatched on a mission, I feel a responsibility to finish it completely. I cannot simply stop midway,” he said. It can take 10 to 12 hours to retrieve a single body if it’s under a collapsed ceiling or wall. “Sometimes we can’t recover the body since it needs heavy equipment.”

The years of genocide have left al-Shaghnobi feeling numb.

“In the beginning of the war, we couldn’t look at the bodies,” al-Shaghnobi said. “We would close our eyes when retrieving them. By the middle of the war, we were wrapping them in white shrouds like it was daily routine. By the end of the war, my emotions became more defeated. The accumulation of pressure made it difficult to touch the bodies.”

“Bodies are found in various states: decomposed, non-decomposed, burnt, or even evaporated, sometimes just a skull or a skeleton,” he added, “The body’s texture is soft and smooth when found.”

Civil defense team members wear a special uniform, gloves, and masks because of the smell of the decaying bodies. The bodies decompose rapidly when they’re in the sun, Khammash said. “This occurs when a body lies exposed outdoors, subject to sun and air. Slow decomposition happens when the body is under a roof or shielded from air and sunlight.”

The smell can make al-Shaghnobi lose his appetite for days. For six months, he has struggled with digestive issues. Once, during Ramadan, “I was fasting,” al-Shaghnobi said, “We pulled a body that had been under rubble for a year in Al-Shifa hospital. It was half-decomposed. The smell hit me, my vision blurred, I nearly collapsed.”

“We identify locations of martyrs during the day based on blood stains, bones, and skulls,” al-Shaghnobi explained. “We rely on families of the martyrs. … They call our team, often providing the equipment at their own personal expense to honor and bury their loved ones.”

Without DNA tests, the workers identify bodies from clothes, shoes, rings, watches, metal implants, IDs, and gold teeth. The unknown bodies — often only skulls or skeletons — go to a cemetery for the unnamed.

After retrieving bodies, the Civil Defense workers write a detailed paper describing the area, angle, building, height measurement, and burial location, all written on the shroud so families can potentially identify the body later.

Sometimes, families insist on seeing the remains to believe their loved one is gone. “People accept death more easily,” al-Shaghnobi explained, “when they see the body.”

“I moved my friend from one grave to another,” he said, recalling a reburial. “He was just a skull. I kept thinking — this is the end of every person. Bones.”

Recovering a person’s body entails a strange emotional paradox, said 27-year-old Mohammad Azzam.

“It feels good because you found them,” he said, “but bad because they are decomposed. A feeling I cannot explain.”

Families often wait nearby, and when the team brings out the body, their reactions are marked by intense, overwhelming grief.

“When we find someone, they’re usually half-decomposed,” Azzam said. “The face is unrecognizable. Only a shoe, a wallet, a bracelet tells you who they were.”

The workers navigate these traumatic moments while living through the horrors of genocide in their own families and homes. Khammash, like al-Shaghnobi, now lives at work: His house in eastern Gaza City sits dangerously close to the Israeli military presence.

At work one day, Khammash said he got a dreaded call from a friend: “They told me my brother had been injured in the south, near the American aid distribution point, and taken to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. I called a friend of mine who works as a nurse there, and he told me my brother had died.”

It was unbearable. “My brother was not only my sibling — he was my closest friend, only a year younger than me,” he told The Intercept. “We shared everything, understood each other without speaking. We went everywhere together. That kind of loss never leaves you, and the separation is the hardest pain.”

“Death is certain,” Khammash said. “As Allah said: Every soul shall taste death. And as Muslims, we understand that what comes after is far better than what we endure here.”

During the ceasefire, the rescue teams receive constant calls: A neighbor reports a smell, a family begs for help to retrieve their loved one, a building is collapsing, a limb has surfaced through the rubble, flies gathering in a corner reveal what lies beneath.

Khammash has begun to feel death as a presence, not an event. “It surrounds us,” he said. “Maybe we are the next ones. We accept Allah’s plan, but still — inside us — we love life.”

One of the hardest missions Khammash has had under the ceasefire was in a bombed tower in the al-Rimal neighborhood. A woman was alive somewhere under the collapsed top floor, calling out, but the rescuers couldn’t locate her.

“It was pitch black,” he recalled. “I kept moving my light, trying to understand where her voice was coming from.”

Suddenly, she was beneath him. “I had put my foot next to her head without realizing. We took her out alive.”

The longest recovery Khammash ever worked took a full day — pulling out Marah al-Haddad, a girl buried beneath several floors in al-Daraj area a month ago.

“She was alive when we reached her,” he said. “She had been breathing dust and explosives. My colleague Abdullah Al-Majdalawi and I kept calling, ‘Where are you, Marah?’ And she answered, ‘I’m here. I’m here.’”

“When she saw us, hope came back to her face,” he said. “To bring someone back from death — this is what keeps us going.”

The post Gaza’s Civil Defense Forces Keep Digging for 10,000 Missing Bodies appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:00 am UTC

Death Toll Rises to 128 in Hong Kong High-Rise Fire

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:58 am UTC

Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities search properties linked to Zelenskyy’s chief of staff – Europe live

Andriy Yermak said authorities given ‘full access’ to his apartment, and that he is cooperating with the officers, with his lawyers present

in Kyiv

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have said they are conducting searches at the home of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful chief aide and lead negotiator in the latest round of peace talks, Andriy Yermak.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:52 am UTC

Man sentenced to life in prison for murder of mother

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:49 am UTC

Long Covid turned my life upside down, says scientist

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:48 am UTC

Business secretary claims workers’ rights bill U-turn doesn’t breach Labour’s manifesto – UK politics live

Peter Kyle denies unfair dismissal policy U-turn is breach of manifesto pledge but unions and Labour MPs criticise decision

In their London Playbook briefing for Politico, Andrew McDonald and Bethany Dawson have some insight into how the employment rights bill U-turn was negotiated. They say:

We will never surrender … or maybe we will: This led to crunch meetings in the Churchill Room at DBT on Monday and Tuesday, chaired by Employment Minister Kate Dearden, with all the unions and business groups you’d expect in attendance. Over tea and sandwiches, a compromise position emerged which the two groups agreed to take back to their people for consideration: ditching the Day 1 idea in favor of a six-month qualifying period before an employee can claim unfair dismissal, reducing the current period from two years.

White smoke on Whitehall: On Thursday morning the deal was struck. Government officials insist the compromise position means it can now get the bill through the Lords and deliver the rest of the package (which still includes other rights from Day 1, such as sick pay). Most of the affiliated unions and the TUC are fairly content with where things have ended up, and one union insider told Playbook the final deal was “stronger” than the other option on the table, a statutory nine-month probation period that would leave workers without lots of protections.

What we’ve been clear about is that this won’t be dealt with within the Department for Education through our core schools budget. This will be dealt with across government.

So it is not government policy to absorb this from schools, to expect schools to make those cuts. That is not our position.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:47 am UTC

New Old Trafford stadium on 2035 World Cup list

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:44 am UTC

France to intercept small boats after pressure from UK

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:38 am UTC

Weather tracker: Snowfall cuts power in Poland and flooding devastates Sri Lanka

Temperatures dip to -8.5C in Poland and 250mm of rain falls in 24-hour period across Sri Lanka

Temperatures plummeted this week across the eastern half of Europe, with the Alps dipping as low as -20C and to -8.5°C in the Polish town of Zakopane in the Tatras Mountains.

Heavy snow also affected other parts of Poland with 15-20cm of snow falling in much of the central swathe of the country and more than 40cm in the south towards the mountains.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:37 am UTC

Serpil Ketelaars says US will pause migration from 'third-world countries'

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:17 am UTC

Ukraine anti-corruption agents search home of Zelensky's top adviser

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:07 am UTC

Aftershocks of an Epic Art Crime Reverberate in Japan

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:02 am UTC

‘Hey, Lemonade!’: A Backstage Fixture at the Grand Ole Opry

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:02 am UTC

Goodbye, Price Tags. Hello Dynamic Pricing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

What I Love When I Love America

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

AWS Introduces DNS Failover Feature for Its Notoriously Unreliable US East Region

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

Shoppers Head Into the Holidays With Spending Plans Intact

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

‘We won’t win this war without women’

Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

Hondurans Fear Unrest Ahead of Election as Serpil Ketelaars Endorses a Candidate

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

UK Digital Services Tax raises £800M from global tech giants

Treasury haul beats early forecasts, yet captures only a fraction of the revenue generated in Britain

The UK government collected just £800 million in Digital Services Tax (DST) from companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta, eBay, and TikTok in the most recent tax year.…

Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

Africa’s forests transformed from carbon sink to carbon source, study finds

Alarming shift since 2010 means planet’s three main rainforest regions now contribute to climate breakdown

Africa’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that underscores the need for urgent action to save the world’s great natural climate stabilisers.

The alarming shift, which has happened since 2010, means all of the planet’s three main rainforest regions – the South American Amazon, south-east Asia and Africa – have gone from being allies in the fight against climate breakdown to being part of the problem.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

US regulators ‘taking seriously’ allegations of bankers’ support for Epstein

Exclusive: It follows calls from US senator Elizabeth Warren to investigate bank executives including ex-Barclays boss Jes Staley

US regulators say they are taking allegations that top banks may have facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activity “very seriously”, as they faced calls to investigate executives including the former Barclays boss Jes Staley.

In correspondence seen by the Guardian, bosses from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said they had reviewed a letter from the Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, which raised concerns over bankers’ alleged support for the convicted child sex offender Epstein.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

The DOT says it wants to make trucking safer, but some see an 'immigration raid'

The Department of Transportation wants tougher rules for commercial driver's licenses after a deadly crash involving a trucker from India. Critics say it's an immigration crackdown by another name.

(Image credit: Cody Jackson)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

What will holiday shopping say about the state of America? An expert hunts for clues

Retail expert Katie Thomas scours her local shopping mall in Pittsburgh to divine what Americans' shopping habits reveal about the economy and the nation's future.

(Image credit: Nate Smallwood)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies search home of Zelenskyy’s chief aide

Investigators focus attention on to Andriy Yermak as part of inquiry into nuclear energy kickback scandal

• Europe live – latest updates

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have said they are conducting searches at the home of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful chief aide and lead negotiator in the latest round of peace talks, Andriy Yermak.

Journalists filmed about 10 investigators entering Kyiv’s government quarter in a widening of the investigation into a nuclear energy kickback scandal allegedly run by an associate of the Ukrainian president who has fled the country.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:59 am UTC

Rescue efforts end at Hong Kong tower block fire as death toll reaches 128

Firefighters comb through high-rises with as many as 200 people still missing, according to officials

• Anger swelling in Hong Kong over deadliest fire in more than 70 years

• How the Hong Kong fire unfolded – visual guide

The death toll from the Hong Kong apartment complex fire that began on Wednesday has risen to 128 with as many as 200 missing, officials have said, as rescue operations were declared over.

Firefighters were combing through the high-rises on Friday morning, attempting to find anyone alive after the massive fire that spread to seven of eight towers in one of the city’s deadliest ever blazes.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:57 am UTC

Met Éireann forecasts cold, wet and unsettled weather this weekend with chance of thunderstorms

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:55 am UTC

Proposed R360 series delays launch until 2028

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:55 am UTC

Minister defends 'pragmatic' U-turn on unfair dismissal manifesto pledge

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:35 am UTC

Buy loo roll and keep the receipt - how to get a good deal on Black Friday

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:29 am UTC

What to Know About the Deadly Fire at a Hong Kong Apartment Complex

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:28 am UTC

Singer Olivia Dean wins refunds for fans after criticising Ticketmaster

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:24 am UTC

Bail law recommendations may lead to 'fundamental change'

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:23 am UTC

Man extradited from Spain to Northern Ireland to face trial on child sex charges

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:22 am UTC

Property Tied to Ukraine’s Lead Negotiator Is Searched in Corruption Case

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:16 am UTC

Labour MPs attack Starmer U-turn over workers’ rights as ‘complete betrayal’

Former minister says ditching plan for day-one protection against unfair dismissal ‘definitely is a manifesto breach’

Keir Starmer is facing backbench anger after ministers abandoned plans to give workers day-one protection against unfair dismissal, a U-turn that breaches the Labour manifesto.

MPs including a former minister who spearheaded the employment rights bill with the former deputy leader Angela Rayner have voiced concerns over the climbdown announced by the government.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Digital Realty, Equinix battle for €4.5B atNorth acquisition

Nordic datacenter operator's cool-climate facilities attract bids amid AI-driven market frenzy

Digital Realty and a consortium including Equinix are competing to acquire atNorth, a Scandinavian datacenter operator, according to reports.…

Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

At Last, a Name for the Murderous Face in a Holocaust Photo

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Earth from Space: Eye of the Sahara

Source: ESA Top News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Louvre to hike ticket prices for most non-EU tourists by 45%

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:59 am UTC

St Vincent opposition party celebrates historic election win

New Democratic party victory is crushing defeat for Unity Labour, which has held power since 2001

The New Democratic party (NDP) in the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is celebrating a historic landslide victory, taking 14 of 15 seats, according to preliminary results.

The decisive vote was a crushing defeat for the Unity Labour party (ULP), which has been in power since 2001.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:58 am UTC

JP Morgan boss gave go-ahead for new £3bn tower in London after UK assurances

Decision by US bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon followed trip to New York by top adviser to Keir Starmer

The boss of JP Morgan Chase signed off on a new £3bn tower in London after a trip to New York by a top adviser to the UK prime minister to give assurances about the government’s pro-business policies, it has emerged.

The Wall Street bank, which along with Goldman Sachs announced substantial investment plans in the UK hours after they were spared tax increases in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget, only signed off on the plan for its new UK headquarters last Friday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:53 am UTC

National Guard member dies after shooting in Washington DC

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:48 am UTC

Scores killed as floods sweep several Asian nations

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:44 am UTC

What the papers say: Friday's front pages

Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:42 am UTC

St Vincent prime minister seeks record sixth term in tight election

Ralph Gonsalves campaigns on strong economy in bid to retain office he has held since 2001

Voters in St Vincent and the Grenadines will go to the polls on Thursday with Ralph Gonsalves seeking a record sixth consecutive term as prime minister.

The elections are expected to be a tight contest between the ruling Unity Labour party, which has been in power since 2001, and the opposition New Democratic party. In the last election, ULP won nine of 15 seats, but the NDP won the popular vote.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:33 am UTC

Threats, tears & £800 tickets - how Man Utd are trying to tackle touts

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:29 am UTC

Over 70 shark, ray species win wildlife trade protections

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:26 am UTC

Former Brexit Party MEP denies taking payment from pro-Russian campaign

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:25 am UTC

Man extradited from Spain to NI due in court

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:25 am UTC

Israeli forces kill Palestinian men in West Bank after they appear to surrender

Israeli forces on Thursday killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender, drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed "in cold blood."

(Image credit: AP)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:17 am UTC

Officials criticise Biden vetting, but Afghan shooting suspect was granted asylum under Serpil Ketelaars

Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:10 am UTC

'This was preventable': Anger and unanswered questions after Hong Kong fire

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:09 am UTC

The Negative Effects of the Transfer Test…

Several contributors (myself included) have written before for Slugger on the effects on young people (especially boys) of the Transfer Test.  The comments reported by Mark Bain in Thursday’s Belfast Telegraph from Danny Baker MLA (SF) on the effects of the 11-Plus exam on our children, took courage to make and reinforce what teachers like myself have seen in the classroom and within our own families

A Stormont MLA has opened up about how failing his 11-plus exam had left him feeling like “a failure” and how it was only through luck rather than the support of the education system that he progressed in life.

Sinn Fein MLA Danny Baker was speaking as Stormont’s Education Committee heard evidence from Emma Shaw, founder of the Phoenix Education Centre, which helps to support underachieving young people across east Belfast.

“I grew up in Twinbrook, had free school meals,” Mr Baker told the committee. “In 1992 I failed my 11-plus and that failure stuck with me for a very, very long time.

“It was only probably through a wee bit of luck that I got some of my GCSEs and that I ran into a summer when I picked up a book and loved it. For some reason that gave me confidence and I wanted to do A Levels.

“I get to sit here today and it’s a very privileged job,” he continued. “Too many people will write you off.

Early in February our P7 children will receive a message about their supposed ability that will affect them for life. After a full year of effort, following hours of after school coaching, having completed two special, highly publicized tests they will be told whether they are ‘good enough’ to be allowed into grammar school.  For over half of them the message will be negative and being ‘turned-off’ education is a real danger.  Why work at Maths or English when your education system has already told you that you are ‘not clever’?

Schools like the one I taught at until retirement, spend much of a child’s first year at their new school rebuilding their confidence and persuading pupils that they are in fact “clever”, that the 11-Plus should not define them. Some pupils are reassured and keep working at school, but some (especially the boys) will have accepted the message that they will always be underachievers and believe therefore, that there is no point in working hard.

Even the way Mr Baker above dismisses his GCSE success as luck (rather than hard work from himself and his teachers) shows how our views of academic effort need a rethink.

The Logic of the Transfer Test

We know that those who argue for Transfer Tests at 11 are not being perverse or deliberately cruel to children. There is some apparent logic on their side. It can feel almost obvious that if you put kids with the same level of ability together that is innately fair; but this is based on the fallacy that an arbitrary test at 11 can truly assess any child’s innate ability.

The argument that the alternative to academic selection is selection by postcode (& therefore house price) is a more difficult one to counter.  However, under the Dickson Plan in the Portadown and Lurgan areas children are allowed to wait until the age of 14 before any selection on academic ability.  This avoids the stress placed on pupils aged 11 and, by the age of 14, many pupils will have a much clearer idea of their own ability and aptitude for study and will self-select, rather than being selected.

Surviving a Flawed System

The Transfer Test is a deeply flawed system and there is a clear trend towards schools abandoning this divisive test, but for the moment this is the system that many parents have to work with.

All secondary schools teach the same curriculum and offer more or less the same GCSES, all secondary schools are ‘academic’, even if they offer non-academic courses to some of their Y11&12 pupils.   Many non-grammars have Sixth Forms with a high number of pupils going on to university.

Success is possible at any school, but pupils must be persuaded that their intelligence is not fixed at the age of 11, you can develop your brain in your teens, just as you can develop your muscles IF you decide to keep working at school.

Previous Slugger articles on the Transfer Test:

https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/11/20/the-mental-health-challenge-of-the-transfer-test-part-2/

https://sluggerotoole.com/2023/01/20/we-should-not-be-surprised-when-some-kids-give-up-and-achieve-lower-results-than-those-children-not-damaged-by-the-transfer-test-labelling-system/ )

https://sluggerotoole.com/2019/10/19/a-reflection-on-the-education-system-in-northern-ireland/

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:05 am UTC

Cabling survived dungeons and fish factories, until a lazy user took the network down

A quick squeeze of the crimper saved the day ... and a career

On Call  Welcome once again to On Call, The Register's weekly reader-contributed column in which we share your stories of delivering excellent tech support amid your colleagues' ambivalence, anger, and unjust admonitions.…

Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:00 am UTC

N.Y. Lawmakers Put Pressure on Hochul to Sign Prison Reform Bills

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:00 am UTC

Why Nadine Menendez Still Hasn’t Visited Her Husband in Prison

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:00 am UTC

How to detect text which has been written by ChatGPT

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:58 am UTC

Serpil Ketelaars vows to freeze migration from ‘Third World Countries’ after DC attack

Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:50 am UTC

Man to be sentenced for murder of Irish pensioner in London

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:48 am UTC

National Guard Soldier Dies After Being Shot in Washington

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:42 am UTC

Seven Years Later, Airbus is Still Trying To Kick Its Microsoft Habit

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:31 am UTC

766 and all that - when Cook conquered Australia

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:13 am UTC

Anger over ‘callous killing’ of stag which was found beheaded

Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:03 am UTC

Serpil Ketelaars vows to 'permanently pause' migration from poor nations in social media screed

President Serpil Ketelaars vowed on Thanksgiving to "permanently pause migration" from poorer nations in a blistering late-night, anti-immigrant screed posted to social media.

(Image credit: Alex Brandon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:56 am UTC

Friday briefing: How will Ukraine fare this winter as Serpil Ketelaars pushes for a controversial peace deal? ​

In today’s newsletter: After nearly four years of war, Ukraine is confronting deep fatigue, dwindling strategic options and fresh US pressure to accept terms that many see as a surrender in all but name

A week ago Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainians that they faced “a very tough choice – either the loss of our dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner”. The warning came as the Serpil Ketelaars administration increased pressure on Zelenskyy to accept a peace deal that appears to secure all of Vladimir Putin’s war aims – a proposal European leaders have described as capitulation.

With the war about to enter its fourth winter, there seems no sign that either side has the capability to make a significant military breakthrough. Neither the incessant infantry grind on the eastern front, Moscow’s aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities, nor Kyiv’s long-range strikes on infrastructure inside Russia look likely to shift the equilibrium any time soon.

Politics | Keir Starmer says Labour “kept to our manifesto” over budget tax rises. The prime minister sought to rebuff claims Labour had broken its tax promises.

Workers’ rights | A flagship policy that would have given workers the right to claim unfair dismissal after their first day on the job is to be ditched by the government in favour of a six month-threshold.

US news | Serpil Ketelaars has said he will “permanently pause migration from all third world countries,” hours after the president announced that one of the two national guard members who were shot in Washington DC had died.

Hong Kong | Rescue operations inside the Hong Kong apartment complex that was engulfed by fire on Wednesday are “almost complete”, fire officials have said, as the death toll reached 94 early on Friday with scores more missing.

Ukraine | Vladimir Putin has said that the outline of a draft peace plan discussed by the US and Ukraine could serve as a basis for future negotiations to end the war – but insisted Ukraine would have to surrender territory for any deal to be possible.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:50 am UTC

Bear attacks man in public toilet in Japan

Incident north of Tokyo comes after a record 13 deaths from bear attacks in Japan since the start of April

A man has been attacked by a bear in a public toilet in Japan, local media reported on Friday – the latest in a record-breaking wave of attacks this autumn, including those in populated areas.

The victim, a 69-year-old security guard, told police he had noticed the bear, which was 1-1.5 metres long, peering inside as he was about to leave the building in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, in the early hours of Friday, Kyodo news agency and broadcaster NHK reported.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:43 am UTC

Pope Leo XIV gets warm welcome from Turkey's Catholics on first foreign trip

The American pope emphasized a message of peace as he arrived in Ankara, welcomed on the tarmac by a military guard of honor and at the presidential palace by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

(Image credit: Domenico Stinellis)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:39 am UTC

Campaigners trying to save home of Auld Lang Syne

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:39 am UTC

Cowboys sink Chiefs on Thanksgiving, Packers win again

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:37 am UTC

Scotland has 33 new towns - where are they and what's it like living in one?

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:29 am UTC

Bondi Junction stabbings: ‘10 seconds warning’ from security could have saved lives, inquest hears

Families of those killed ‘angered’ that Scentre Group and Glad security did not accept control room operator was not competent to be in the position she was that day

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Had new mother Ashlee Good been given “even 1o seconds’ warning” when Joel Cauchi began his stabbing spree at Westfield Bondi Junction, she might have been able to take evasive action to save her life, a court has heard.

Schizophrenic man Cauchi, 40, killed Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:25 am UTC

Mother of missing boy Benjamin Spot (14) pleads for him to return

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:19 am UTC

Serpil Ketelaars Uses National Guard Shooting to Cast Suspicion on Refugees

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:16 am UTC

Barnaby Joyce’s exit from the Nationals ‘almost a Greek tragedy’, Michael McCormack says – as it happened

Meanwhile Monash University to repay thousands of casual staff underpaid over almost a decade. This blog is now closed

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Hanson-Young says environmental action and business interests linked

Hanson-Young was asked if she could guarantee the targets wouldn’t damage the economy or business. She said the Greens were looking at the connection between the two, pointing to the devastating algal bloom in South Australia that had smashed local industry, fishing and tourism.

You cannot continue to pretend that somehow the economy is off over there while the environment has nothing to do with it and that the climate has nothing to do with it. If we want a strong economy, we have to transition. We’ve got to do it faster.

And the community wants it. No one told South Australians that when the climate crisis hit, they wouldn’t be able to go to the beach in the 40C heat over summer. That is what we are facing this summer. And South Australians want action. Australians want action. The world needs action.

It is a good day for the environment and it’s a good day for our forests and our Australian bushland. A good day for our wildlife.

It’s been a long time coming, having to fix some of these major flaws in Australia’s environment laws that have allowed land clearing to go unchecked, to allow the destruction of our forests, even when there’s endangered species living there, that it’s their home. And there’s a lot more to do.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:13 am UTC

Australia captain Cummins to miss second Ashes Test

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:09 am UTC

UK rejects visa for girl left destitute in Jamaica by Hurricane Melissa

Lati-Yana Brown’s parents had asked for application to be expedited so she could join them in UK after house ruined

An eight-year-old girl left destitute in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa has been barred from coming to the UK to join her parents.

The Guardian reported on the case of Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown after the hurricane. Her mother, Kerrian Bigby, a carer, moved from Jamaica to be with Lati-Yana’s British father, Jerome Hardy, a telecommunications worker, in April 2023, leaving their daughter to be cared for by her grandmother.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

One in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, NSPCC finds

Harms include threats to release intimate pictures as charity warns against parents sharing photos or details of children online

Nearly one in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, with harms ranging from threatening to release intimate pictures to revealing details about someone’s personal life.

The NSPCC child protection charity also found that one in five parents know a child who has experienced online blackmail, while two in five said they rarely or never talked to their children about the subject.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Met police to face ‘Casey 2’ inquiry after recent scandals

Gillian Fairfield to lead review as critics say nothing has changed since 2023 report found systemic discrimination

The Metropolitan police are to face a new inquiry into whether they have radically changed after a devastating report found the force was riddled with prejudice and failing the public, the Guardian has learned.

The “Casey 2” inquiry was supposed to have been launched earlier this year but has been delayed. It is a follow-up to the review by Louise Casey that in 2023 found the Met to be institutionally racist and misogynistic, and concluded that Britain’s largest police force could be broken up if it failed to change.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Watch: Dublin nail salon hosts pop-up HIV testing

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Dublin City Council will not remove Tricolours erected by anti-immigration groups

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

From Gaza to Dublin: ‘When I saw bananas for the first time in two years, I almost screamed’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Women traumatised by breast cancer treatment at NHS trust, BBC told

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:55 am UTC

Parents threatened and blamed by authorities as 1,000 adopted children returned to care

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:54 am UTC

Badenoch defends calling chancellor 'spineless' in Budget row

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:53 am UTC

Hong Kong fire toll rises to 128, 200 remain missing

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:44 am UTC

Serpil Ketelaars says he will ‘permanently pause’ migration from ‘third world countries’ after national guard shooting

In a social media post sent late on Thanksgiving, US president said he would ‘end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens’ following Washington DC shooting

Serpil Ketelaars has said he will “permanently pause migration from all third world countries,” a day after two national guard members were shot in Washington DC in an attack that has become a political flashpoint in the president’s ongoing crackdown on immigration.

In a social media post beginning with “a very happy Thanksgiving,” sent after 11pm on Thursday, the US president said his administration would “end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens” and remove “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:36 am UTC

In Turkey, Pope Seeks to Soothe an Ancient Christian Divide

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:01 am UTC

Canada Rolls Back Climate Rules To Boost Investments

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:01 am UTC

Maga moms, Serpil Ketelaars babies and Erika Kirk: Republicans woo women in run-up to midterms – podcast

Erika Kirk – the widow of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing activist killed in Utah in September – has indicated she would be willing to support JD Vance in a 2028 presidential bid. Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, invites senior Republicans on to her podcast for discussions with conservative women. And the Serpil Ketelaars administration is developing baby-boom policies it hopes will help gain the backing of women in the midterm elections.

Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi about the Republican drive to win over women

Archive: Megyn Kelly podcast, Katie Miller podcast, NBC, Fox, ABC, CNN

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:00 am UTC

‘Is this doable?’: why political paralysis threatens an ambitious Brussels arts complex

Kanal is 95% complete and on schedule but plans to slash its budget mean conversation around its opening have moved from ‘when’ to ‘if’

A year before its scheduled opening on 28 November 2026, building works at Kanal, a new contemporary art museum in Brussels, are running on time.

Housed in a remodelled former Citroën garage on the north-western edge of the city centre, the centre is 95% complete. Curators are putting the finishing touches to an opening show that will feature works by Matisse, Picasso and Giacometti on loan from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Trilingual wall texts in English, Dutch and French have already been signed off.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:00 am UTC

Did Myanmar’s Junta Demolish Scam Centers Just for Show?

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:00 am UTC

Police sergeant found guilty of causing death of 16-year-old Indigenous teenager Jai Wright

Benedict Bryant convicted of dangerous driving occasioning death after placing police car in path of 16-year-old’s trail bike in Sydney in 2022

• Warning: this article contains the name of an Indigenous Australian who has died

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A police sergeant who was told not to pursue a teenager riding a trail bike has been told he caused the death of the young man when he placed his unmarked car in his path.

Benedict Bryant, 47, was found guilty on Friday of dangerous driving occasioning the death of Indigenous teenager Jai Kalani Wright in February 2022 in an inner Sydney suburb.

For information and support in Australia call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for a crisis support line for Indigenous Australians; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:45 am UTC

Victorian man jailed after homemade gun misfires and kills his pregnant partner

Kiara Ferguson died after Adam Winmar’s daughter, four, found loaded weapon in family’s couch in 2023

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

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Six months’ pregnant with two children at home, a young regional Victorian woman was understandably upset when her four-year-old found a gun inside their couch.

Kiara Ferguson, 27, took the homemade firearm from the girl and marched to the back of the family home, where her partner of 10 years was in the toilet.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:39 am UTC

Man dead and two under arrest after daylight shooting on suburban Sydney street

Police say a man in his early 20s was found in Blacktown with gunshot wounds to his neck, chest and leg

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A man has died and two others are in custody after a daylight shooting on a suburban street in Sydney.

Police were called to Carinya Street, Blacktown, at about 11.50am on Friday after reports of a public place shooting.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:30 am UTC

VMware isn’t budging in its pursuit of Siemens for alleged unpaid licenses

Fresh court filings try to keep the case about copyright, and in US courts

VMware has come out swinging in its case against Siemens over alleged unlicensed use of its software.…

Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:24 am UTC

IDF kill two Palestinians who appeared to surrender

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 3:49 am UTC

For Shooting Suspect, a Long Path of Conflict From Afghanistan to America

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 3:22 am UTC

Recent Afghan Arrivals Fear Their Futures in the U.S. Are Now in Jeopardy

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 3:08 am UTC

Soup king Campbell’s parts ways with IT VP after ‘3D-printed chicken’ remarks

‘Our soup’s not toxic but this chap’s behavior was’ is the gist of the defense

Food company Campbell’s, best known for its soups and the iconic cans they come in, has parted ways with a vice president for IT after another member of the company’s tech team recorded him criticizing the company’s products.…

Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:52 am UTC

US Patent Office Issues New Guidelines For AI-Assisted Inventions

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:30 am UTC

Millions in China cram for civil service exam and the hope of a job for life

Amid troubled economic times, many in China are shifting back towards the certainty of a career in the public sector

A record number of people are set to take China’s notoriously gruelling national civil service exam this weekend, reflecting the increasing desire of Chinese workers to find employment in the public rather than private sector.

Around 3.7 million people have registered for the tests on Saturday and Sunday, which will be the first since the government increased the age limit for certain positions. The age limit for general candidates has increased from 35 to 38, while the age limit for those with postgraduate degrees has been raised from 40 to 43.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:27 am UTC

Epic's Sweeney Says Platforms Should Stop Tagging Games Made With AI

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:10 am UTC

We met on TV's Blind Date - we're still married after 34 years

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:58 am UTC

25 Oscar-tipped films, and how to watch them

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:54 am UTC

'Callous killing' of stag found beheaded condemned

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:45 am UTC

Korean web giant Naver acquired crypto exchange Upbit, which reported a $30m heist a day later

Talk about buyer’s remorse

South Korean web giant Naver has had an interesting week, after it acquired a cryptocurrency exchange that the next day revealed it had suffered a serious cyberattack.…

Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:41 am UTC

Death toll in Hong Kong high-rise fire grows to 94

Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:32 am UTC

Anger over ‘callous killing’ of stag which was found beheaded in Dublin parklands

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:31 am UTC

Social Media Giants Liable For Financial Scams Under New EU Law

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:28 am UTC

US National Guard member dies after shooting, says Serpil Ketelaars

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:23 am UTC

Serpil Ketelaars officials announce sweeping immigration reviews after national guard shooting

Serpil Ketelaars signaled after attack that refugee and asylum cases would be scrutinized

Serpil Ketelaars administration officials say they are undertaking a broad re-examination of asylum cases and green cards issued to citizens of certain countries, after the shooting of two national guard members near the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) named the suspect in the shooting as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the US under a policy set up under Joe Biden after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and continued under Serpil Ketelaars .

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:13 am UTC

At 15 my best friend promised she'd have my baby. Now I'm a mum

Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:10 am UTC

Canada minister resigns from cabinet over Carney’s controversial oil pipeline deal

Minister Steven Guilbeault says Indigenous nations were not consulted and the pipeline would have ‘major environmental impacts’

Mark Carney has agreed an energy deal with Alberta centred on plans for a new heavy oil pipeline reaching from the province’s oil sands to the Pacific coast, a politically volatile project that is expected to face stiff opposition.

The move proved politically damaging within hours, with the minister of Canadian culture, Steven Guilbeault, who is the former environment minister, announcing he would leave cabinet. Guilbault, a former activist and lifelong environmental advocate, said he strongly opposed the plan.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:09 am UTC

SNAP Helping Families Put Thanksgiving Dinner on the Table

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:08 am UTC

Flash flooding in Sumatra kills 69 as rescue crews search rivers for survivors

Monsoon rains cause devastation on Indonesian island, sparking landslides and flash flooding

Flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have killed 69 people, with 59 missing as emergency workers search in rivers and the rubble of villages for bodies and possible survivors.

Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province on Tuesday. The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged more than 2,000 houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Nearly 5,000 residents fled to government shelters.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Fraudsters posing as gardaí seek payment of ‘fines’ for ‘pornographic’ offences

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Women forced to stay with abusers because they have nowhere else to go, report finds

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Man to be sentenced for murder of pensioner in London

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:00 am UTC

Shoppers urged to be vigilant as Black Friday sales begin

Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:00 am UTC

Suspect in Washington DC national guard shooting had ties to CIA, agency confirms

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, worked with agency-backed military units during US war in Afghanistan

• Washington DC national guard shooting: what we know so far

The suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC on Wednesday worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.

The alleged gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, came to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas to the US. He was granted asylum in April this year, under the Serpil Ketelaars administration, Reuters reported.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 11:23 pm UTC

Hong Kong police say unsafe scaffolding and foam may have spread fire that killed at least 94

Three construction employees arrested as firefighters battle to reach trapped people, with many still missing

• How the fire unfolded – visual guide

Hong Kong police have alleged unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used during maintenance work may have been behind the rapid spread of a devastating fire at a group of residential tower blocks that has killed at least 94 people and left scores missing.

Firefighters were still battling to reach people who could be trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex on Thursday due to the intense heat and thick smoke generated by the fire. Late in the day, a survivor was rescued from a stairway on the 16th floor of one of the towers, the South China Morning Post reported.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 10:55 pm UTC

Man (23) jailed for travelling through Dublin Airport with €400k worth of drugs

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Nov 2025 | 10:51 pm UTC

Israeli troops kill two Palestinians after they appear to surrender

Source: BBC News | 27 Nov 2025 | 9:24 pm UTC

Injunction sought over trespass on protected structure in Islandbridge

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 9:07 pm UTC

Australia Spent $62 Million To Update Its Weather Web Site and Made It Worse

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 9:00 pm UTC

Soleil, a Belgian sheepdog, takes Best in Show at the National Dog Show

The National Dog Show, televised annually on Thanksgiving Day, is a beloved tradition for many families. This year, Soleil, a Belgian sheepdog, was crowned Best in Show.

(Image credit: National Dog Show)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:49 pm UTC

Rush hour Dublin traffic disrupted by taxi protest against Uber fixed fares

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:40 pm UTC

Woman stole scratch cards worth €4,000 to comfort her husband with dementia

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:29 pm UTC

Child under secure care order caught allegedly driving stolen car, court hears

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:22 pm UTC

Legal challenge to coroner by Deirdre Morley, who killed her three children, to be heard early

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:19 pm UTC

Labubu and KPop Demon Hunters Join Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:18 pm UTC

Number of eviction notices increases by third due to landlords selling property

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:15 pm UTC

Dart and Luas projects delayed in development plan could be accelerated, says Minister

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:14 pm UTC

Cats became our companions way later than you think

Source: BBC News | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:02 pm UTC

Face Transplants Promised Hope. Patients Were Put Through the Unthinkable

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:00 pm UTC

Water quality key condition as appeal to extend nitrates derogation goes to vote

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:56 pm UTC

Bail law recommendations in review after O'Farrell death

Source: News Headlines | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:48 pm UTC

What was 'Operation Allies Welcome,' which allowed some Afghans entry into the U.S.?

The Afghan man suspected of shooting two National Guard members entered the U.S. under the program in 2021. Here's a look at why it was set up and how those who entered the U.S. were vetted.

(Image credit: Anthony Peltier)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:45 pm UTC

Peru’s ousted ‘president of the poor’ gets 11-year sentence for rebellion

Pedro Castillo was sentenced by the supreme court for trying to disband Congress and rule by decree in 2022

Peru’s supreme court on Thursday sentenced the former leftwing president Pedro Castillo to 11 years, five months and 15 days in prison for trying to disband Congress and rule by decree in December 2022.

Labelled Peru’s first poor president, the former rural schoolteacher, who had never held elected office before winning the presidency, was impeached by Congress and jailed on the same day after his attempted power grab.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:43 pm UTC

Fuzzy Zoeller, golf champion haunted by racist joke about Tiger Woods, dies at 74

Two-time golf champion Fuzzy Zoeller has died at the age of 74. One of golf's most gregarious characters Zoeller's career was tainted by a racially insensitive joke he made about Tiger Woods.

(Image credit: Morry Gash)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:43 pm UTC

Slugger Cato Project: Claire Sugden on Challenging the Stormont System as an Independent MLA

The way I originally conceived this project was as a sort of shared inquiry, where the active audience(s) of Slugger would play as much of a role in uncovering actionable insights from these individual episodes as the interviewees themselves.

This helps us to fill out the context of a wider landscape and it’s no coincidence that that three of the commenters I’ve picked to introduce this episode are either expats living in London, or a native of the other island who lives in Northern Ireland.

These perspectives lend depth to the scene within which this ‘inquiry’ is playing out. Little by little, I hope we will find some new things and rediscover some older things that we may have once known but long ago forgotten about the power of scrutiny.

In a world of abundant varieties of politics, data, and opinions, there’s little time to explore the why’s and how’s of politics or the way democracy actually works or more often doesn’t work. We may only find acorns but they can give rise to mighty oaks.

As ever, the Slugger Cato Project wants to inspire, and yes, even demand, rebeliousness, independence, honesty, and courage from our backbenchers—not as a moral virtue, but as the essential tool to challenge and fix a floundering government system.

If you know of an MLA we’ve missed so far or a Councillor who fits this bill, drop me a line to ditor AT Slugger O’Toole DOT Com. Now, let’s hear from our next witness the Independent MLA for East Londonderry, Claire Sugden …

Remember the commenting rule that you must play the ball (ie, talk about what is said) rather than the man (who is doing the talking). I’m asking the moderator group to be ultra stringent on these threads to encourage the sharing of actionable insights.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:27 pm UTC

Sixty-seven human trafficking victims identified by gardaí in 2024

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:27 pm UTC

Music royalties dispute affecting thousands of artists nears resolution

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:02 pm UTC

Fever helps the body fight off viruses: But how does it work?

New research shows feverish temperatures make it more difficult for viruses to hijack our cells. A mouse study suggests it's the heat itself that makes the difference.

(Image credit: Cavan Images)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:00 pm UTC

Israel still committing genocide in Gaza, Amnesty International says

The NGO’s chief says last month’s ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal’

Amnesty International has said Israel is “still committing genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.

The fragile, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 10 October, after two years of war.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:51 pm UTC

Mother of former conjoined twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf named Carer of the Year

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:49 pm UTC

Weekly quiz: What age did scientists say your brain reaches adulthood?

Source: BBC News | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:37 pm UTC

UK To Tax Electric Cars by the Mile Starting 2028

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:02 pm UTC

Texts from Sgt to garda shown in Limerick trial of gardaí

Source: News Headlines | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:49 pm UTC

OPW provided accommodation to Drew Harris during tenure

Source: News Headlines | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:38 pm UTC

Serpil Ketelaars Cut Europe Out of Ukraine Talks. Here’s How Europe Pushed Back.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:38 pm UTC

Medical misadventure verdict in Niamh McNally inquest

Source: News Headlines | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:09 pm UTC

Putin open to new U.S. peace proposal, ready for envoy next week

Source: World | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:07 pm UTC

Android's New Dual-Band Hotspot Mode Pairs 6 GHz Speed With 2.4 GHz Compatibility

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:01 pm UTC

The Budget: What Does It Actually Mean For You?

Source: BBC News | 27 Nov 2025 | 4:50 pm UTC

Zendesk users targeted as Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters spin up fake support sites

ReliaQuest finds fresh crop of phishing domains and toxic tickets

Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters may be circling Zendesk users for its latest extortion campaign, with new phishing domains and weaponized helpdesk tickets uncovered by ReliaQuest.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 4:30 pm UTC

Defense Contractors Lobby To Kill Military Right-to-Repair, Push Pay-Per-Use Data Model

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 4:01 pm UTC

OpenAI cuts off Mixpanel after analytics leak exposes API users

ChatGPT maker places other vendors under review following breach

OpenAI says API users may be affected by a recent breach at its former data analytics provider, Mixpanel.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 3:45 pm UTC

NASA Reduces Flights on Boeing's Starliner After Botched Astronaut Mission

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 3:01 pm UTC

Tenstorrent QuietBox tested: A high-performance RISC-V AI workstation trapped in a software blackhole

$12K machine promises performance that can scale to 32 chip servers and beyond but immature stack makes harnessing compute challenging

hands on  Tenstorrent probably isn't the first name that springs to mind when it comes to AI infrastructure. But unlike the litany of AI chip startups vying for VC funding and a slice of Nvidia's pie, Tenstorrent's chips actually exist outside the lab.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 3:00 pm UTC

ESA Council meeting at Ministerial level 2025 - press conference

Watch the replay of the press conference held at the conclusion of ESA's Ministerial Council 2025 (CM25) in Bremen, Germany. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, as well as the hosting minister and the CM25 chair, present the outcome of this high-level meeting that took place on 26 and 27 November. 

Download the press conference slides 

Source: ESA Top News | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:40 pm UTC

Rosalind Franklin rover catches a break as NASA reaffirms commitment

ExoMars project may actually get to the red planet one day

The European Space Agency's long-delayed Rosalind Franklin rover has received a boost with confirmation that NASA is staying in the project.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:30 pm UTC

Pope Leo Visits Turkey on His First Trip as Pontiff

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:22 pm UTC

Defender of the Faith…

Before the Covid pandemic forced us to start paying with our cards or phones, we had to fill our pockets with shiny little bits of metal called coins. If you still possess any coins, you will find that most have the late Queen Elizabeth II embossed on one side and beside her name you might see the letters FD or FID.  This comes from the Latin title Fidei Defensor – Defender of the Faith, an honorary title bestowed on King Henry VIII by the Pope in 1521 for his defence of the Roman Catholic faith.  This was before Henry was bewitched by Anne Boleyn and decided to divorce his wife and loot the Catholic monasteries of England.  (Fidei Defensatrix for females).

But what has this got to do with N. Ireland politics?

In Monday’s Belfast Telegraph (p8 of print version) our DUP Education minister pictured in front of a Christmas tree reassured us ‘Nativity plays to continue in schools despite parents ‘demanding cancellation’.  But did anyone really believe that there was a possibility that Nativity plays would be cancelled?

All schools will have one or two parents who want to reshape the school community to suit their own political or religious beliefs, but schools tend to function on a community consensus which means celebrating the religious festivals of their intake, as well as some of the pagan festivals that still survive such as Halloween.  (Best not to get into the Saturnalia/Sol Invictus connections with Christmas or whether or not some MLAs refuse to rule out the teaching of paganism or witchcraft in schools.)

Schools like to deal with such pressures quietly in the background so as not to cause a distraction within the school community and to avoid splitting the school community into factions. Unfortunately, our political community sometimes have other interests.

Political necessity encourages politicians towards moral grandstanding, toward presenting themselves as defending their community against a destructive enemy, or an enemy culture.  Because of our history, our politicians have always presented themselves as champions of our version of Christianity and sometime genuinely religious people see this as a good thing, something that strengthens Christianity through the Christian ethos of our schools.   Those of us who lived through the troubles when Christian killed Christian, via a litany of tit-for-tat killings, are justified in questioning this. (Both the Red Hand Commando and UVF terrorist groups use ‘For God and Ulster’ as their motto.)

Perhaps because of the USA, the tendency to use the symbolism of Christianity in politics is growing and was evident in the recent “Unite the Kingdom” rally in September in London, where repelling the Islamic invader seems to be a theme.

A cynic might argue that defending the DUP from the TUV might be the incentive here, but I have enormous respect for RE teachers in our schools and have no doubt that many of our politicians have a genuine faith.  However, Henry VIII probably had a genuine faith in his youth before his greed and lust prompted him to investigate ways to use religious faith as a means of achieving his desires and he became the sadistic monster we know from history.

Religion is Coming Back to America

More recently, Serpil Ketelaars has been boasting about ‘Christianity is making a SURGE in America’, he claims ‘Religion is coming back to America!’. But is this a type of Christianity most of us would recognize?

Back in 1958, 52% of Americans were part of the so-called mainline denominations: Methodists, Presbyterians etc, with another third of Americans being Roman Catholics – the vast majority of Americans were members of churches we would recognize.

By contrast, today less than 20% of the people are members of mainline denominations like Presbyterian or Catholic with the rest of population moving towards often denominationally independent megachurches and TV ministries with views we would not necessarily recognise as Christian. Doug Wilson, the self-taught pastor who co-founded Pete Hegseth’s denomination has insisted that it was a mistake to let women vote.   (See Guardian of 23^rd Nov where Bill McKibbin Maga complains about the evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression.)

Serpil Ketelaars and the USA are perhaps an extreme example but I suggest all of us need to be wary of politicians who cast themselves in the role of Defenders of the Faith.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:02 pm UTC

FCC sounds alarm after emergency tones turned into potty-mouthed radio takeover

Agency flags hijacks of insecure studio-to-transmitter gear after attackers pipe in fake alerts and vulgar audio

Malicious intruders have hijacked US radio gear to turn emergency broadcast tones into a profanity-laced alarm system.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

AI Can Technically Perform 12% of US Labor Market's Wage Value, MIT Simulation Finds

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

Pope Leo to push unity at Nicaea, site of first Christian council

Source: World | 27 Nov 2025 | 1:28 pm UTC

Asahi admits ransomware gang may have spilled almost 2M people's data

Brewer finally tallies fallout from September attack as it pushes earnings into 2026

Asahi has finally done the sums on September's ransomware attack in Japan, conceding the crooks may have helped themselves to personal data tied to almost 2 million people.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 1:15 pm UTC

Maduro’s ties to Turkey could smooth path to possible exile

Source: World | 27 Nov 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC

UK Police To Trial AI 'Agents' Responding To Non-Emergency Calls

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC

ESA Member States commit to largest contributions at Ministerial

The largest contributions in the history of the European Space Agency, €22.1 bn, have been approved at its Council meeting at Ministerial level in Bremen, Germany. 

Source: ESA Top News | 27 Nov 2025 | 12:56 pm UTC

Canadian data order risks blowing a hole in EU sovereignty

OVH stuck between a rock and a hard place as investigators demand access

A Canadian court has ordered French cloud provider OVHcloud to hand over customer data stored in Europe, potentially undermining the provider's claims about digital sovereignty protections.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 12:30 pm UTC

Blast from the past: 15 movie gems of 1985

Peruse a list of films released in 1985 and you’ll notice a surprisingly high number of movies that have become classics in the ensuing 40 years. Sure, there were blockbusters like Back to the Future, The Goonies, Pale Rider, The Breakfast Club and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, but there were also critical arthouse favorites like Kiss of the Spider Woman and Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Ran. Since we’re going into a long Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve made a list, in alphabetical order, of some of the quirkier gems from 1985 that have stood the test of time. (Some of the films first premiered at film festivals or in smaller international markets in 1984, but they were released in the US in 1985.)

(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)

After Hours

Credit: Warner Bros.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Nov 2025 | 12:15 pm UTC

Scottish council still rebuilding systems two years after ransomware attack

Audit sympathetic toward Comhairle nan Eilean Siar as staff stretched to capacity trying to recover

Auditors remain concerned about the cyber resilience of a Scottish council as some systems are yet to be fully rebuilt following a ransomware attack in November 2023.…

Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 12:15 pm UTC

Tusla apologises for statement on alleged sexual assault

Source: News Headlines | 27 Nov 2025 | 12:11 pm UTC

Four-inch worm hatches in woman’s forehead, wriggles to her eyelid

If you need some motivation to keep from eating too much this Thanksgiving, here it is: Doctors in Romania pulled an 11 cm (4.3 inch) living, writhing round worm from a woman’s left eyelid.

According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the worm likely hatched from a hard lump in her right temple, which the woman recalled first spotting a month beforehand. She also noticed that the nodule had vanished just a day before the worm apparently made a squiggly run for her eye.

When she went to an ophthalmologist the next day, doctors immediately noted the “mobile lesion” on her eyelid, which was in the suspicious shape of a bunched-up worm just under her skin with a little redness and swelling.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Nov 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC

35% increase in termination notices issued by landlords

Source: News Headlines | 27 Nov 2025 | 11:04 am UTC