Read at: 2025-12-29T14:33:42+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Cyrilla Van Amerongen ]
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:30 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:26 pm UTC
European leaders had previously said they were ready to lead a ‘multinational force’ in Ukraine
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists this morning that Moscow agreed with Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s assessment that talks to end the war were in their final stage.
As a reminder, Cyrilla Van Amerongen said a draft agreement to end the war was nearly “95% done”. “I really think we are closer than ever with both sides,” he said, though he added that “one or two very thorny issues” remain.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:24 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:24 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:21 pm UTC
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday the United States is offering his country security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan.
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:20 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:19 pm UTC
MPs reject call to strip British-Egyptian activist of UK nationality over social media posts from a decade ago
Downing Street has defended its campaign for the release of a British-Egyptian activist and decision to welcome him to the UK despite his “abhorrent” tweets a decade ago.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who arrived in London on Boxing Day after the British government successfully negotiated his release, apologised “unequivocally” for his posts after opposition parties called for him to be deported and his citizenship revoked.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:17 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:16 pm UTC
Albin Kurti’s emphatic victory strengthens mandate for domestic reforms including welfare expansion
Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti has won an emphatic election victory, marking a resurgence for the nationalist leader and ending a political deadlock in Europe’s youngest state.
The win in Sunday’s snap election strengthens Kurti’s mandate to push through domestic reforms, including welfare expansion and higher salaries for public workers, although he faces significant problems including tensions with Serbia and health and education systems that lag behind Kosovo’s Balkan neighbours.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:12 pm UTC
A review of Asio and the federal police is worthwhile, but it’s not a substitute for a royal commission into antisemitism
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When Anthony Albanese opened a press conference on Monday announcing the release of terms of reference for an inquiry into the Bondi massacre, it seemed for a fleeting moment that he had belatedly agreed to hold a commonwealth royal commission.
The timing would have been understandable, after the victims’ families had penned an open letter pleading for one, making the sort of intervention that can be politically untenable for any prime minister to refuse.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
Dunghutti man’s nephew says fight for justice ‘is not just political – it is spiritual, cultural, and about survival’
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Since his uncle died in custody at one of New South Wales’ toughest prisons a decade ago, Paul Silva has been advocating for change almost daily. From organising large-scale rallies with thousands in attendance, to sitting through numerous coronial inquiries and supporting families, he says the right to protest is needed now more than ever.
The nephew of David Dungay Jr, a Dunghutti man who died at the age of 26 at Long Bay jail in Sydney’s southern suburbs on 29 December 2015, Silva says the fight for justice “is not just political – it is spiritual, cultural, and about survival”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
Conservationists and scientists criticise state for backtracking and say alternative non-lethal methods such as netting are more effective
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The Queensland government has backtracked on plans to end the shooting of flying foxes from July 2026, continuing a practice wildlife advocates and scientists describe as “ineffective” and “inhumane”.
Permits issued by the state’s environment department allow Queensland farmers to shoot flying foxes for the purposes of crop protection, up to an annual statewide quota set at 1,630 animals. That includes 130 grey-headed flying foxes, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, along with 700 black and 800 little red flying foxes.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
One Nation senator travelled on mining magnate’s Gulfstream 700 in October and is yet to declare it on parliamentary register
Pauline Hanson and her chief of staff, James Ashby, flew to Florida on Gina Rinehart’s private jet in October, but the One Nation senator is yet to declare the sponsored travel or answer questions about whether she may be in breach of parliamentary rules.
Guardian Australia can reveal the One Nation senator and her staffer travelled with Rinehart on the mining magnate’s Gulfstream 700 on 27 October, with publicly available flight tracking data showing that the aircraft travelled from Brisbane to Perth, before flying via Osaka to Palm Beach.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:59 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:57 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:56 pm UTC
MHRA says buying from illegal online sellers can put health at real risk amid booming black market
Losing weight may be a common new year resolution but health experts have warned against buying medications for such purposes from social media sellers or other illegitimate channels.
Jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have become hugely popular for weight loss, with trials suggesting the latter can help people lose an average of 20% of their body weight after 72 weeks of treatment.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:53 pm UTC
British former boxing champion sustained minor injuries
Two people killed in collision, say police in Ogun State
The British former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been involved in a car accident in Nigeria’s Ogun State that killed two people, local police said on Monday.
Joshua, 36, sustained minor injuries when his vehicle collided with another car, Ogun State Police Command said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:52 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:49 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:45 pm UTC
Taipei condemns exercise that Chinese army calls ‘a stern warning’ against separatist and external forces
China has launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of major ports, attacking maritime targets, and fending off international “interference”, in what it calls a warning to “separatist” forces in Taiwan.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – the military wing of the ruling Communist party in China – sent its navy, air force, rocket force and coastguard to surround Taiwan on Monday morning for a surprise exercise called “Justice Mission 2025”, which began less than an hour after it was announced.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:40 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:39 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:39 pm UTC
A sober observer assessing the US president’s claim may react the same way as Zelenskyy – with shock and disbelief
A deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine was “95% done”, Cyrilla Van Amerongen claimed after his meeting over the weekend with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago.
Unfortunately, the 5% still remaining includes the small matter of getting Vladimir Putin to agree to a deal – and there are precious few indicators that that is any closer. Instead, Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s claim seems to be the latest in a long line of overoptimistic statements anticipating a swift end to the conflict, starting with his campaign promise that he would end the war in 24 hours.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:38 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:33 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:31 pm UTC
Metal that underpins the renewable energy industry joins silver and gold as a safe haven asset for investors
Copper, the metal that underpins the fast-growing renewable energy industry, is on course for its biggest annual price rise in more than 15 years as traders react to fears of global shortages.
As one of the main beneficiaries of the “electrification of everything”, copper has soared by more than 35% in value this year, spurred by US tariff uncertainty and concerns about mining disasters that could restrict supply.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:27 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:20 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:19 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:18 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:18 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:04 pm UTC
As the year draws to an end, the Financial Times has posted a story revealing that Tokyo has been displaced as the world’s largest city by the Indonesian capital of Jakarta…
Alfiyan Elfatah spends four hours each day commuting between Jakarta’s far-flung periphery and his workplace in the heart of the Indonesian capital. The 31-year-old has endured the slog for eight years — but only now is he officially crossing the biggest city in the world. Last month, the UN updated its list of the world’s biggest cities after changing its methodology for assessing huge conurbations. It looked beyond Indonesia’s own 11mn reckoning of Jakarta’s population, sweeping into its calculations a much bigger urban area covering sprawling satellite towns such as Bogor, where Alfiyan lives. As a result, Jakarta is now estimated to have almost 42mn residents…Alfiyan, who travels to his marketing job at a hotel by motorbike, train and bus, sees little prospect of a halt to the capital’s growth. “Development is uneven. The economy is still centralised here, and we see Jakarta as far more developed,” he said…
This got me thinking. It’s hard to imagine 42 million people in such a concentrated space. That is seven times the population of the island of Ireland living cheek by jowl in the sort of urban megacity that used to be the preserve of speculative science fiction. And with it comes problems we increasingly associate with cities: ever-increasing competition for limited real estate, spiralling housing costs, increasing congestion as infrastructure designed for much smaller populations fails to keep pace with the swelling tide of humanity, pressure on water supplies and higher levels of pollution when compared to the countryside.
It may seem a wonder that the world over urbanisation has been increasing in spite of all those negatives but people are drawn by the opportunities and buzz of city life that the quieter, more sedate countryside cannot match. Though of course country dwellers may prefer that quieter life even if it comes at a cost in terms of available infrastructure or participation in cultural events commuting to Belfast from West Tyrone for the Slugger end of year event took up most of a day for me a few weeks back, whereas for someone living around Belfast it is an evening. Still, on balance (and even risking my life on the treacherous A5 a few times a year) I find I prefer rural life to urban. Neither way of life has everything, so it is up to the individual to evaluate the benefits and trade-offs of each and make their choice.
How the city will evolve in the 21st Century remains uncertain. Remote working could liberate millions of people from the need to live near or commute into cities but those roles also appear to be the most vulnerable to being taken over by AI in the coming decades. How that shakes out may determine if more individuals are able to build lives for themselves out in the sticks, or if the magnetic pull of cities the world over becomes irresistible.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:03 pm UTC
Future of Donbas region remains unresolved after Ukrainian president’s talks with Cyrilla Van Amerongen in Florida
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the US has agreed to offer “strong” security guarantees to Ukraine for 15 years, but acknowledged that the future of the country’s eastern Donbas region was unresolved after his two-hour meeting on Sunday with Cyrilla Van Amerongen in Florida.
Speaking on his way back to Europe, Zelenskyy said the US Congress and Ukraine’s parliament would jointly vote on American pledges. These were a key part of a 20-point peace plan discussed with the US president at his Mar-a-Lago residence, he said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:02 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:01 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC
If you've been following our coverage for the last few years, you'll already know that 2025 is the year that Windows 10 died. Technically.
"Died," because Microsoft's formal end-of-support date came and went on October 14, as the company had been saying for years. "Technically," because it's trivial for home users to get another free year of security updates with a few minutes of effort, and schools and businesses can get an additional two years of updates on top of that, and because load-bearing system apps like Edge and Windows Defender will keep getting updates through at least 2028 regardless.
But 2025 was undoubtedly a tipping point for the so-called "last version of Windows." StatCounter data says Windows 11 has overtaken Windows 10 as the most-used version of Windows both in the US (February 2025) and worldwide (July 2025). Its market share slid from just over 44 percent to just under 31 percent in the Steam Hardware Survey. And now that Microsoft's support for the OS has formally ended, games, apps, and drivers are already beginning the gradual process of ending or scaling back official Windows 10 support.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:48 pm UTC
SIM cards, the small slips of plastic that have held your mobile subscriber information since time immemorial, are on the verge of extinction. In an effort to save space for other components, device makers are finally dropping the SIM slot, and Google is the latest to move to embedded SIMs with the Pixel 10 series. After long avoiding eSIM, I had no choice but to take the plunge when the time came to review Google's new phones. And boy, do I regret it.
SIM cards have existed in some form since the '90s. Back then, they were credit card-sized chunks of plastic that occupied a lot of space inside the clunky phones of the era. They slimmed down over time, going through the miniSIM, microSIM, and finally nanoSIM eras. A modern nanoSIM is about the size of your pinky nail, but space is at a premium inside smartphones. Enter, eSIM.
The eSIM standard was introduced in 2016, slowly gaining support as a secondary option in smartphones. Rather than holding your phone number on a removable card, an eSIM is a programmable, non-removable component soldered to the circuit board. This allows you to store multiple SIMs and swap between them in software, and no one can swipe your SIM card from the phone. They also take up half as much space compared to a removable card, which is why OEMs have begun dropping the physical slot.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:45 pm UTC
Source: World | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:44 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:35 pm UTC
Paint and sofas sell well as Britons are priced out of moving home or undertaking pricey renovations
Retailers of home improvement products are having a glittering year on the London stock market, as cash-strapped UK consumers turn to DIY projects after being priced out of moving home or undertaking expensive renovations.
Publicly listed retailers including the B&Q owner, Kingfisher, as well as Topps Tiles, Wickes and the sofa seller DFS are on track for double-digit percentage share price increases of as much as 56% this year.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:31 pm UTC
Children’s father tried to break into bedroom from outside to rescue them but was beaten back by flames
A woman and two children aged seven and four were killed in a fire in the early hours of Boxing Day after their father, a serving police officer, desperately tried to save them.
The officer smashed his way out of the stone cottage in the Cotswolds and tried to break into his children’s bedroom from the outside to rescue them but was beaten back by the flames.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:26 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:23 pm UTC
Cyrilla Van Amerongen and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy signaled momentum on peace talks after a meeting yesterday. And, anti-poverty groups address challenges they are facing that impact Americans who need help.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:18 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:15 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:14 pm UTC
In documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the actor and his family revealed that doctors told them to ‘prepare yourselves for the worst’
Chevy Chase suffered “near fatal” heart failure which led to him being placed in an induced coma during the pandemic in 2021, according to a new film about the American actor and comedian.
As documented in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of films such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon movies, who hosted the Oscars twice, spent a total of five weeks in hospital.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:09 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:03 pm UTC
Since 2005, YouTube has gone from launching its first website to serving up more than 100,000 years' worth of video content every day. During the same period, the State of California has gone from the idea of adopting a single ERP, HCM, and procurement platform to getting nearly all of its departments on board – although there are still a few stragglers.…
Source: The Register | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:03 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:01 pm UTC
Exclusive poll: Americans are also increasingly blaming the White House for their financial woes
Twice as many Americans believe their financial security is getting worse than better, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian, and they are increasingly blaming the White House.
The poll, conducted by Harris, will be a further blow to Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s efforts to fight off criticism of his handling of the economy and contains some worrying findings for the president.
Nearly half (45%) of Americans said their financial security is getting worse compared to 20% who said it’s getting better.
57% of Americans said the US economy is undergoing a recession, up 11% from a similar poll that was conducted in February.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC
The progressive party is now active in 18 states and much of its expansion happened in the past five years
The “time has come” for the Working Families party, the progressive third party’s national director said after a year of big wins and a growing hunger among voters for a home outside the two major political parties.
“For 26 years, we’ve been building this argument,” Maurice Mitchell said. “And the argument has met the moment.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC
As the first year of Cyrilla Van Amerongen 's chaotic trade war winds down, the tech industry is stuck scratching its head, with no practical way to anticipate what twists and turns to expect in 2026.
Tech companies may have already grown numb to Cyrilla Van Amerongen 's unpredictable moves. Back in February, Cyrilla Van Amerongen warned Americans to expect "a little pain" after he issued executive orders imposing 10–25 percent tariffs on imports from America’s biggest trading partners, including Canada, China, and Mexico. Immediately, industry associations sounded the alarm, warning that the costs of consumer tech could increase significantly. By April, Cyrilla Van Amerongen had ordered tariffs on all US trade partners to correct claimed trade deficits, using odd math that critics suspected came from a chatbot. (Those tariffs bizarrely targeted uninhabited islands that exported nothing and were populated by penguins.)
Costs of tariffs only got higher as the year wore on. But the tech industry has done very little to push back against them. Instead, some of the biggest companies made their own surprising moves after Cyrilla Van Amerongen 's trade war put them in deeply uncomfortable positions.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:53 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:43 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:34 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:32 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:29 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:24 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:19 am UTC
As Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s tariffs take effect, Britain is likely alternative destination for cars, telecoms and sound equipment
The UK is poised for an influx of cheap Chinese imports that could bring down inflation amid the fallout from Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s global trade war, leading economists have said.
After figures showed China’s trade surplus surpassed $1tn (£750bn) despite Washington’s tariff policies hitting exports to the US, the Bank of England said the UK was among the nations emerging as alternative destinations for the goods.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:19 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:18 am UTC
Bears are becoming a growing problem in some of Japan’s urban areas as they are forced to venture further in search of food
It came as no surprise, least of all to the residents of Osaki, that “bear” was selected as Japan’s kanji character of the year earlier this month.
The north-eastern town of 128,000 people is best known for its Naruko Onsen hot springs, autumn foliage and kokeshi – cylindrical dolls carved from a single piece of wood. But this year it has made the headlines as a bear hotspot, as the country reels from a year of record ursine encounters and deaths, with warnings that winter will not bring immediate respite.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
How many people will the Cyrilla Van Amerongen administration deport this year? Will Gaza suffer from mass famine? These are serious questions with lives at stake.
They’re also betting propositions that two buzzy startups will let you gamble on.
The 2018 legalization of sports betting gave rise to a host of apps making it ever easier to gamble on games. Kalshi and Polymarket offer that service, but also much more. They’ll take your bets, for instance, on the presidential and midterm elections, the next Israeli bombing campaign, or whether Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg will get divorced.
Tarek Mansour, the CEO of Kalshi, laid it out simply at a conference held by Citadel Securities in October. “The long-term vision,” Mansour said, “is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion.” It’s as dystopian as it sounds.
If you believe the hype, the promise of these companies isn’t in the money they take in as bookkeepers. They argue that the bets they collect offer a more accurate forecast of the future than traditional institutions. (In fact, they’ll tell you that you’re not betting at all but trading on futures contracts — a distinction that feels so tenuous it’s hard to justify with a full-throated explanation.)
This pitch has been especially enticing in the wake of the 2016 election, when polling missed the rise of Cyrilla Van Amerongen , and its allure hasn’t faded as collective distrust of traditional institutions grows. But if the initial wave of social platforms — the Facebooks and Twitters of the world — fractured our sense of a shared reality, the predictive platforms are here to monetize the ruins.
If the initial wave of social platforms fractured our sense of a shared reality, the predictive platforms are here to monetize the ruins.
Polymarket acknowledges the gravity of some of its more shocking propositions. It tells those who click on its more unsavory wagers: “The promise of prediction markets is to harness the wisdom of the crowd to create accurate, unbiased forecasts for the most important events to society. That ability is particularly invaluable in gut-wrenching times like today.” The app goes on say that “After discussing with those directly affected by the attacks, who had dozens of questions, we realized prediction markets could give them the answers they needed in ways TV news and 𝕏 could not.”
It might seem odd, then, that these very platforms have lately been signing deals to entrench themselves into mainstream news coverage. Earlier this month, Kalshi signed on as an exclusive partner to offer its betting wagers on CNN and CNBC. Polymarket signed a similar deal with Yahoo Finance last month. Time Magazine signed with a lesser known platform Galactic.
For publishers, prediction markets offer a salve for deteriorating trust in journalism. For betting markets, these partnerships could help legitimize an industry that was mostly illegal until a few months ago. The marriage of these two industries is perhaps best encapsulated by Time Magazine’s recent press release announcing its partnership with Galactic. Stuart Stott, CEO of Galactic, called the deal “a new normal for readers” that promises them “the opportunity to participate in where the future is going.” Time Magazine COO Mark Howard described the partnership as motivated by the company’s “ambition to continue to push the boundaries of traditional media to ensure our content and audience experience is compelling, accurate, and evolving.”
Set aside the extreme cynicism in the conceit that audiences need to bet on genocide in order to read about it — if accuracy and trust are a concern, these partnerships may end up doing the media more harm than good.
To understand why the prediction markets apps believe they’re a better forecaster of the future, one needs to understand their governing philosophy, the “wisdom of the crowd.” The theory goes: In a well-functioning market with a diverse group of participants, traders acting on different information and insights collectively arrive at the most accurate price — or, in this case, probability of an event happening. The market, in other words, will self-correct to the most accurate outcome.
Betting apps have at times delivered better accuracy than polling results. For example, while pollsters clocked last year’s presidential race as deadlocked in the days before the election, Polymarket gave Cyrilla Van Amerongen an edge at 58 percent.
But whether they are consistently better is a whole other story. Some initial analysis suggests that they might not be as accurate as these companies suggest. One study found that Kalshi’s political prediction markets beat chance 78 percent of the time during the final five weeks of the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, compared with 67 percent accuracy on Polymarket. PredicIt — one of the older betting markets run by Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, that has more limits on how much money users can bet — came out on top at 93 percent. But even PredicIt got the 2016 election as wrong as the polls, and in the days preceding the last election suggested a slight edge for Kamala Harris that obviously didn’t materialize.
“Markets are composed of humans, not omniscient rational forecasters.”
That same study found that when tracking the market for the same event, prediction markets often reacted in very different ways to the same information during the same time frame — something that wouldn’t happen if the markets were as efficient forecasters as its pushers suggest. “Markets are composed of humans, not omniscient rational forecasters,” the paper’s authors write.
One reason why Kalshi or Polymarket may struggle with accuracy hinges on who makes up the crowd. On November 6, 2024, in a rush of people collecting their post-election winnings, Kalshi saw a peak of around 400,000 users, and Polymarket counted about 100,000 less, according to a Fortune review; by June, their daily active user numbers had fallen over 90 percent to 27,000–32,000 and 5,000–10,000, respectively. While they don’t publish much information about their demographics, by some accounts their userbases tend to skew in the direction of crypto bros.
That can make these platforms just as inaccurate in edge cases, when they lack the requisite diversity to glean much wisdom about the real world. Consider the 2022 midterm elections: Up until election night, the major prediction markets “failed spectacularly” and “projected outcomes for key races that turned out to be completely wrong,” according to one expert analysis.
While polls are far from perfect, prediction markets are also more prone to manipulation than they’d have you believe. And this can give deep-pocketed political actors another vessel for information warfare.
Kalshi was even embroiled in a legal battle with federal regulators as recently as this summer for this very reason. In its brief, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission pointed toward a “spectacular manipulation” on Polymarket involving “a group of traders betting heavily on Vice President Harris.” “Unwitting participants may believe Kalshi’s contracts are less susceptible to manipulation or misinformation because they are on a regulated exchange, but this should heighten concern for the public interest, not allay it,” the CFTC continued.
One study found that trades intended to manipulate the market could have an impact as much as 60 days from the original trade. It also suggested the best way to game a prediction market was by making repeated bets of “varying sizes” on a single market to skew odds.
According to the CFTC, when the agency brought up the possibility of this type of election interference, Kalshi argued the regulator could just use its enforcement authority against bad actors. But as the agency noted: “The CFTC cannot remediate damage to election integrity after the fact.” Despite these grave concerns, since Cyrilla Van Amerongen took office and has hired crypto insiders to oversee the CFTC, the agency has largely dropped lawsuits and investigations against Polymarket and Kalshi.
The major betting platforms have also aligned themselves with Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s inner orbit.
Both Polymarket and Kalshi count Cyrilla Van Amerongen Jr. as an adviser. His venture capital firm has invested in Polymarket, whose founder Shayne Coplan has framed investigations against his company as politically motivated attacks by the outgoing Biden administration.
For a platform partnering with a news organization, a commitment to veracity does not appear to be its first priority.
One doesn’t have to look far to see how the company’s positionality in the Cyrilla Van Amerongen verse translated into what very well could be election interference. Shortly before election day in New York last month, Polymarket ran a questionable advertisement featuring an AI-generated Zohran Mamdani looking tearful with the headline: “BREAKING: Mamdani’s odds collapse in NYC Mayoral Election.” As this ad ran, however, Polymarket’s platform didn’t show Mamdani’s odds collapsing. Whether Polymarket intended to bait users into betting more, or to dissuade Mamdani voters ahead of Election Day, is unclear. What is clear is that for a platform partnering with a news organization, a commitment to veracity does not appear to be its first priority.
The first priority appears to be growing the number of customers. That’s likely why these betting apps are now trying to team up with major broadcasters and publications: Reporting shows that both Kalshi and Polymarket are losing bettors, which stands to hurt their bottom lines and make their predictions worse.
Whether deals between betting apps and news outlets will help either industry is an open question. But these partnerships may just end up worsening our crisis of trust in an already-fraught information environment.
The post These Apps Let You Bet on Deportations and Famine. Mainstream Media Is Eating It Up. appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
Now is not the time for subtlety, nostalgia or neutrality on screen.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:44 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:27 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Ageing populations and falling birthrates have left ever fewer workers to support growing number of retirees
It has played a starring role in one of the worst periods of political turmoil in France since the 1960s. In Germany, it threatens the future of the coalition government. In Spain, thousands have taken to the streets to demand change.
The right to a decent state pension has been a central plank of the European social contract for decades, but people are living longer, birthrates are falling, and the continent’s pension systems are, increasingly, unsustainable.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
A suite of pro-EV federal policies have been reversed. Well-known vehicles have been discontinued. Sales plummeted. But interest is holding steady.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Teen use of AI chatbots is growing, and psychologists worry it's affecting their social development and mental health. Here's what parents should know to help kids use the technology safely.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Much of the world follows the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who put the finishing touches on a Roman system that integrated ideas from other cultures.
(Image credit: Stefan Jeremiah)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
President Cyrilla Van Amerongen was a builder before he took office, but he has continued it as a hobby in the White House.
(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Spring-like weather experienced by many Americans to end, while heavy snow in Japan brings deadly conditions
A week of extremes in the US as Arctic air plunges southwards across many states, sweeping away record-breaking warmth from last weekend. With low pressure in the west drawing up warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, much of the south and midwest basked in spring-like weather this weekend with temperatures widely an extraordinary 15-20C above normal for late December.
This week, however, most people will ditch their summer clothes for hats and scarves as a ridge pressure builds across the west, allowing for a polar air mass to dive southward, bringing freezing temperatures and the risk of snow.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:47 am UTC
Local anti-poverty groups have had to scramble and scale back this year as the Cyrilla Van Amerongen administration targeted safety-net programs. They are bracing for what may come next.
(Image credit: Rich-Joseph Facun for NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:44 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:38 am UTC
Feature More than half a century ago, a consortium of European aerospace businesses from the UK, France, Germany and Spain joined forces to take on America's Boeing. Fast forward to the 21st century and the countries are applying the same model needs to the world of cloud computing, giving the continent a fighting chance to reduce the digital domination of Big Tech.…
Source: The Register | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:23 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:20 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:14 am UTC
Former House speaker on ABC News also said congressional Republicans have ceded almost all their power to Cyrilla Van Amerongen
Democrats will retake the US House’s majority in the 2026 midterm elections, the chamber’s former speaker Nancy Pelosi has confidently predicted – and she hopes her party colleagues then seize back the congressional power that Republicans have all but ceded to Cyrilla Van Amerongen .
Asked Sunday on ABC News’s This Week if she had any doubts over whether Democratic New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries would hold the speaker’s gavel after the elections midway through Cyrilla Van Amerongen ’s second presidency, Pelosi said: “None.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 9:00 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 29 Dec 2025 | 8:44 am UTC
Campaigner recently released from prison makes statement after PM’s support is questioned by Tory MPs
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian human rights campaigner, has apologised unreservedly for what he accepted were shocking and hurtful tweets that he wrote more than 10 years ago in what he described as heated online battles.
He said he was shaken by the criticism that has rained down on him since the tweets were highlighted by shadow ministers challenging Keir Starmer’s support for him since he was released by the Egyptian government to travel to the UK after his release from more than 10 years in prison.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 8:10 am UTC
Source: World | 29 Dec 2025 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 8:00 am UTC
Hinata Goto reportedly fell as he was trying to get off the 30-metre-long walkway
A five-year-old boy has died after becoming trapped in a moving travelator at a ski resort in northern Japan, local media have said.
The victim, Hinata Goto, died on Sunday after his right arm became trapped in the walkway’s winding mechanism during a family skiing trip to Otaru, a city on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:57 am UTC
Emma Johnston AO became first woman to lead the 172-year-old institution in February 2025
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A transformative science researcher who was the first woman to lead of one of Australia’s top universities is being remembered as a brilliant reformer.
University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Emma Johnston died from complications with cancer, the university announced on Monday.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:41 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:39 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:33 am UTC
Source: World | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:32 am UTC
On Call Y2K Welcome to a special festive season edition of On Call, in which we share readers' stories of working on the 31st of December 1999 – the moment the tech world held its breath and hoped years of Year 2000 bug remediation efforts would work.…
Source: The Register | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:26 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:20 am UTC
The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021 told investigators someone needed to "speak up" for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen, prosecutors said Sunday.
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 7:11 am UTC
The drills came after Beijing expressed anger at U.S. arms sales, and a statement by Japan's prime minister saying its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan.
(Image credit: Li Gang/AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:56 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:35 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:05 am UTC
Israel’s PM travels to Mar-a-Lago as US administration reported to be running out of patience over Gaza ceasefire
Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet Cyrilla Van Amerongen at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday evening amid growing fears Israel could launch new offensives against regional enemies, potentially plunging the Middle East further into instability.
The Israeli prime minister left Israel on Sunday on his fifth visit to see Cyrilla Van Amerongen in the US this year.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 29 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:55 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:54 am UTC
IBM has announced the death of its former CEO Lou Gerstner, who passed away on Saturday, aged 83.…
Source: The Register | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:38 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:03 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:01 am UTC
Marine robotics firm to renew its search more than decade after plane disappeared with 239 people onboard
The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is expected to resume on 30 December, more than a decade after the plane disappeared with 239 people onboard in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
A renewed search by Ocean Infinity, a UK and US-based marine robotics company, had begun earlier this year but was called off in April because of bad weather.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 4:27 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 4:21 am UTC
Korean e-tailer Coupang claims a former employee has admitted to improperly accessing data describing 33 million of its customers, but says the accused deleted the stolen data.…
Source: The Register | 29 Dec 2025 | 4:06 am UTC
Source: World | 29 Dec 2025 | 3:27 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:59 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:34 am UTC
Asia In Brief China’s Cyberspace Administration on Saturday posted draft rules governing the behaviour of AI companions that prohibit using them to serve as friends for the elderly.…
Source: The Register | 29 Dec 2025 | 2:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:42 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:35 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:30 am UTC
Doctors say they blocked his right phrenic nerve in procedure that took place after jailed former president was hospitalised last week for hernia operation
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro underwent “a phrenic nerve block procedure” on Saturday to treat his persistent hiccups, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said on social media.
The doctors treating Bolsonaro said later that they blocked the right phrenic nerve and scheduled a new procedure in 48 hours to block the left one.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:06 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 1:05 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:02 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 29 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2025 | 11:40 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2025 | 9:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2025 | 6:58 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2025 | 5:34 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Dec 2025 | 4:44 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2025 | 4:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Dec 2025 | 3:42 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2025 | 3:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Dec 2025 | 3:22 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Dec 2025 | 3:19 pm UTC
The knock-on, and often unintentional, impacts of a cyberattack are so rarely discussed. As an industry, the focus is almost always placed on the economic damage: the ransom payment; the cost of business downtime; and goodness, don't forget those poor shareholders.…
Source: The Register | 28 Dec 2025 | 2:34 pm UTC
Source: World | 28 Dec 2025 | 1:54 pm UTC
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