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6+ min ago (525+ words) Order classifies opioid as potential chemical weapon amid administration's attempts to combat drug smuggling Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday designating fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction" " classifying the synthetic opioid not only a lethal drug, but as a potential chemical weapon. The order also directs the Pentagon and justice department to take additional steps to combat production and distribution of the drug. The designation comes amid the administration's use of escalating and increasingly militaristic tactics to combat drug smuggling. The White House said the move "unleashes every tool to combat the cartels and foreign networks responsible for flooding communities with this deadly substance", warning that fentanyl could be weaponized for "concentrated, large-scale terror attacks by organized adversaries". "Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic," Trump's order said. It is not clear what…...

9+ min ago (669+ words) Lawmakers from both sides criticize "petty" posts; Trump seeking $5bn in damages from BBC " key US politics stories from 15 December 2025 Celebrities and lawmakers from both of the US"s major political parties have condemned Donald Trump after the president blamed the death of Rob Reiner on what he described as the acclaimed Hollywood director"s dislike of him. Trump then pivoted to praising his own accomplishments, asserting that Reiner"s alleged "raging obsession" and "obvious paranoia" toward him stood in contrast to his administration. The US president also took aim on Monday at the British public broadcaster, the BBC, filing a lawsuit against the organization over its editing of a speech he made to supporters in Washington before they stormed the US Capitol in 2021. Trump is requesting at least $5bn in damages. Here are the key stories at a glance. Celebrities and…...

20+ min ago (134+ words) The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day " and the best features from TheWeek.com Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. The daily codeword puzzle from The Week The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week The daily crossword from The Week The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day " and the best features from TheWeek.com Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. The daily codeword puzzle from The Week The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week The daily crossword from The Week The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week...

20+ min ago (71+ words) The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day " and the best features from TheWeek.com Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. The daily codeword puzzle from The Week The daily crossword from The Week The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week...

24+ min ago (952+ words) Every year in October, sweater weather settles in, coffee orders are syrup-laden, and the United Nations building in New York transforms into a stage for tense deliberations over the renewal of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) peacekeeping mission. This year, the Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2797, renewing MINURSO's mandate for a 35th year, but with a shift" the council formally endorsed Morocco's 2007 Autonomy Plan as "the most feasible solution," rather than maintaining emphasis on a full self-determination referendum. I followed the international news cycle, and something struck me about the coverage. I spent considerable time looking for Sahrawi voices covering the diplomatic battle unfolding at the UN, but, outside of a few Spanish media outlets, I was largely unsuccessful. Very obvious questions then naturally emerge: "Why are Sahrawi voices absent?" And "What do Sahrawis, those…...

34+ min ago (589+ words) Jodie Foster often says she did not choose acting. "I started working before my memory really begins," she said. By age three she was already on camera; by twelve she was Iris in Taxi Driver, a hypersexualised child character, while in real life she wore a French school uniform and skateboarded home with books under her arm. As a child, she was "an intellectual, solitary, a reader," she said. Acting did not come naturally. Directors asked her to "pretend that's your grandfather and cry", and she had no idea how. To survive, she had to teach herself emotional and psychological fluency. Her mother remained central to her path. She warned her repeatedly that no child actor survives past eighteen. Later she adjusted that deadline to forty. Jodie Foster went to Yale, worked through her studies and quietly prepared for the…...

40+ min ago (388+ words) Trump sues BBC for $10 billion over January 6 documentary edit Trump says Ukraine deal close, Europe proposes peace force After the ceasefire: In south Lebanon, Israel's war never ended Gulf states reconsider their reliance on US' security umbrella A hero in Sydney A federal judge is ordering the release of an Iranian migrant and bodybuilder held by US immigration authorities for over five months. Attorneys for Hamid Ziaei said on Monday he was detained without apparent progress on deportation to a country other than Iran, where he fears persecution. Ziaei's attorneys told a judge in Albuquerque that he was being held in violation of due process protections at an immigrant detention facility in New Mexico nearly six months after being taken into custody at a check-in appointment with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California. "The (US) government provided no evidence…...

48+ min ago (348+ words) We're going to do that over and over again until the rest of us wake up," the late night host adds Jimmy Kimmel promised to keep speaking out against Donald Trump in honor of Rob Reiner, defending that it's what the late filmmaker would want him to do. The comedian weighed in on the killings of Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, during Monday's monologue for Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Specifically, Kimmel sounded off on Trump's reaction to Sunday's tragedy, in which he claimed Reiner had an incurable'case of Trump Derangement Syndrome" and that it led to his death. As Kimmel continued, he admitted that he didn't believe Trump's post on the double murder to be real at first, given it was so " what he called " hateful and vile." I was like, "Well, even for him, that seemed like too…...

55+ min ago (1424+ words) KingPlease tell us about your background in marine science, and how you came to become involved in coral restoration. KnoesterSo the internship was in 2015 and then the decision to start the NGO Reefolution was in 2016. So essentially it was half a year after we completed that internship that the NGO was officially registered." Then back in the Netherlands and I think since 2019, if I'm not mistaken, it was also officially registered in Kenya as a separate independent entity. KnoesterYeah, though I have to say like at Wageningen also the master's, it was extraction, but how to do it sustainably was always the focus already. But indeed that is still extraction based and now it's more OK, what can we give back and how can we get more?" How can we give more back to the ecosystem rather than just seeing…...

1+ hour, 14+ min ago (571+ words) Far from the protracted negotiations in Brussels, in Europe's territories local communities are working on the ground to protect the soil.Ladislav Luc reports from Serbia on a citizen science project that offers an intriguing entry point for farmers and young people to learn about the importance of soil health. Investing in the future That is why the European Union has set ambitious goals in the field of soil and climate protection: to combat desertification and to restore degraded land, including areas affected by droughts and floods, with the aim of achieving a land degradation'neutral world (Sustainable Development Goal 15.3). Time to get our hands dirty The experiments include monitoring the decomposition of a cotton cloth or tea bags in the soil, earthworm abundance, analysis of soil texture and aggregates, measurement of bulk density, pH value, and the content of key…...