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ISLAMABAD: Israel announced on Sunday that Turkish forces would not take part in the multinational mission being discussed to assume control of Gaza once Israeli troops pull out, Israeli media reported. &ldquo;There will be no Turkish boots on the ground,&rdquo; government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters, dismissing speculation about Ankara&rsquo;s involvement in the proposed International Stabilization Force (ISF), according to Times of Israel. The statement follows reports that the United States is in talks with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, T&uuml;rkiye, and Azerbaijan to contribute to an international stabilization mission under US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s peace plan. The initiative aims to gradually transfer security responsibilities in Gaza from Israeli forces to an interim international presence. The force has yet to be formed, and discussions continue over whether it would operate under a United Nations Security Council mandate. Earlier, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said at a security forum in Manama that T&uuml;rkiye could play a role in the effort, despite Israeli objections. US Vice President JD Vance also noted that Ankara might have a &ldquo;constructive role,&rdquo; but stressed Washington would not pressure Israel to accept any foreign troops.&nbsp;Tensions between the two countries have escalated after T&uuml;rkiye&rsquo;s Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor&rsquo;s Office on Friday issued arrest warrants for 37 Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing them of &ldquo;genocide&rdquo; and &ldquo;crimes against humanity&rdquo; in Gaza.&nbsp;The list reportedly includes Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and army chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. The prosecutor&rsquo;s statement also cited the bombing of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza earlier this year.&nbsp;Israel rejected the move, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa&rsquo;ar calling it a &ldquo;PR stunt&rdquo; by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.&nbsp;A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Gaza since Oct. 10 as part of Trump&rsquo;s regional peace initiative.

Middle East

The statement follows reports that the US is in talks with Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Indonesia, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan to contribute to an international stabilization mission under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Israel says Turkish troops will not join Gaza stabilization mission

SAN FRANCISCO: In the race for artificial intelligence dominance, American tech giants have the money and the chips, but their ambitions have hit a new obstacle: electric power. &ldquo;The biggest issue we are now having is not a compute glut, but it&rsquo;s the power and ... the ability to get the builds done fast enough close to power,&rdquo; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged on a recent podcast with OpenAI chief Sam Altman. &ldquo;So if you can&rsquo;t do that, you may actually have a bunch of chips sitting in inventory that I can&rsquo;t plug in,&rdquo; Nadella added. Echoing the 1990s dot-com frenzy to build internet infrastructure, today&rsquo;s tech giants are spending unprecedented sums to construct the silicon backbone of the artificial intelligence revolution. Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Meta are drawing on their massive cash reserves to spend roughly $400 billion in 2025 &mdash; and even more in 2026 &mdash; backed for now by enthusiastic investors. All this cash has helped alleviate one initial bottleneck: acquiring the millions of chips needed for the computing power race. The tech giants are accelerating their in-house processor production as they seek to challenge global leader Nvidia. These chips will go into the racks that fill massive data centers &mdash; which also consume enormous amounts of water for cooling. Building these information warehouses takes an average of two years in the United States, while bringing new high-voltage power lines into service takes five to 10 years. Energy wallThe &ldquo;hyperscalers,&rdquo; as major tech companies are called in Silicon Valley, saw the energy wall coming. A year ago, Virginia&rsquo;s main utility provider, Dominion Energy, already had a data center order book of 40 gigawatts &mdash; equivalent to the output of 40 nuclear reactors. The capacity it must deploy in Virginia, the world&rsquo;s largest cloud computing hub, has since risen to 47 gigawatts, the company announced recently.Already blamed for inflating household electricity bills, data centers in the United States could account for 7% to 12% of national power consumption by 2030, up from 4% today, according to various studies. But some experts say the projections could be overblown. &ldquo;Both the utilities and the tech companies have an incentive to embrace the rapid growth forecast for electricity use,&rdquo; Jonathan Koomey, an expert from the University of California, Berkeley, warned in September. As with the late 1990s internet bubble, &ldquo;many data centers that are talked about and proposed &mdash; and in some cases even announced &mdash; will never get built,&rdquo; Koomey said. Emergency coalIf the projected growth materializes, it could create a 45-gigawatt shortage by 2028 &mdash; equivalent to the consumption of 33 million American households, according to Morgan Stanley. Several US utilities have already delayed the closure of coal plants, despite coal being the most climate-polluting energy source. Natural gas, which powers 40% of data centers worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency, is also seeing renewed favor because it can be deployed quickly. In Georgia, where data centers are multiplying, one utility has requested authorization to install 10 gigawatts of gas-powered generators. Some providers, as well as Elon Musk&rsquo;s startup xAI, have rushed to purchase used turbines from abroad to build capacity quickly. Even recycling aircraft turbines, an old niche solution, is gaining traction. &ldquo;The real existential threat right now is not a degree of climate change. It&rsquo;s the fact that we could lose the AI arms race if we don&rsquo;t have enough power,&rdquo; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in October. Nuclear, solar, and spaceTech giants are quietly downplaying their climate commitments. Google, for example, promised net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 but removed that pledge from its website in June. Instead, companies are promoting long-term projects. Amazon is championing a nuclear revival through small modular reactors, an experimental technology that would be easier to build than conventional reactors. Google plans to restart a reactor in Iowa in 2029. And the Trump administration announced in late October an $80 billion investment to begin construction on 10 conventional reactors by 2030. The hyperscalers are also investing heavily in solar power and battery storage, particularly in California and Texas. The Texas grid operator plans to add about 100 gigawatts of capacity by 2030 from these technologies alone. Finally, both Musk, through his Starlink program, and Google have proposed putting chips in orbit, powered by solar energy. Google plans to conduct tests in 2027.

An employee works on a production line for electric flying car “Land Aircraft Carrier” at a factory of Xpeng's subsidiary Aridge in Guangzhou, in southern China's Guangdong province on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Jade GAO / AFP)

Artificial Intelligence

In the race for artificial intelligence dominance, American tech giants have the money and the chips, but their ambitions have hit a new obstacle: electric power.

The AI revolution has a power problem

QUITO: Authorities said at least 27 inmates were found dead by asphyxiation on Sunday afternoon at an Ecuadoran prison where an armed riot left four others dead and dozens injured in the morning. In a statement, prison authorities said the 27 individuals found dead at the Machala prison in El Oro province had &quot;among themselves committed asphyxiation, which caused immediate death by suspension.&quot; Authorities said they were still working to &quot;fully clarify the facts,&quot; and forensic medical personnel were on site to verify information. The deadly day at Machala&#39;s prison marks the latest spasm of prison unrest in the South American country. Ecuadoran prisons have become operational centers for rival drug-trafficking gangs, with over 500 inmates killed in fighting between groups competing to control the lucrative but illegal trade. The morning incident broke out around 3:00 am (0800 GMT) at the prison in Machala, a southwestern city. Local residents could hear gunfire, explosions, and cries for help coming from inside the prison&#39;s walls. Ecuador&#39;s SNAI prison authority issued a statement saying that four people had died in the morning violence, while 33 inmates and one police officer were injured. Elite police teams entered the prison immediately and regained control after the riot broke out, the agency said. But it did not specify the identities of the deceased or confirm whether the violence was another case of inter-gang fighting. Violence is believed to be connected to plans to move some inmates into a new maximum-security prison built by the government of President Daniel Noboa in another province that is due to be inaugurated this month. At the end of September, another armed confrontation at the prison in Machala left 13 inmates and a prison official dead.

Americas

Prison authorities say the individuals found dead at the Machala prison in El Oro province had "among themselves committed asphyxiation, which caused immediate death by suspension."

Authorities say 31 died in Ecuador prison, many asphyxiated

WASHINGTON: Syria&#39;s President Ahmed al-Sharaa is to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for unprecedented talks just days after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, will be the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country&#39;s independence in 1946. Formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Sharaa&#39;s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was itself only delisted as a terrorist group by Washington in July. Since taking power, Syria&#39;s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers. Sharaa&#39;s White House visit is &quot;a hugely symbolic moment for the country&#39;s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,&quot; said Michael Hanna, US program director at the International Crisis Group. The interim president met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader&#39;s regional tour in May. After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid for the war-wrecked country, and with representatives from Syrian organizations. Washington&#39;s envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said earlier this month that Sharaa may on Monday sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group. The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus &quot;to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel,&quot; a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP. The State Department&#39;s decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa&#39;s government had been meeting US demands on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons. &quot;These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,&quot; Pigott said. On Saturday, the Syrian interior ministry announced that it had carried out 61 raids and made 71 arrests in a &quot;proactive campaign to neutralize the threat&quot; of IS, according to the official SANA news agency. It said the raids targeted locations where IS sleeper cells remain, including Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Damascus. Sharaa&#39;s Washington trip comes after he visited the United Nations in September &mdash; his first time on US soil &mdash; where the ex-jihadist became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York. Last week Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him. Sharaa is expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of civil war. In October, the World Bank put a &quot;conservative best estimate&quot; of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion.

President Sharaa will be the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country's independence in 1946; Syria's new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.

Syrian president due at White House for landmark talks

MANILA: A weakening Typhoon Fung-wong departed the Philippines over the South China Sea on Monday morning, after its driving winds and heavy rain killed at least two people and forced more than a million to evacuate. Fung-wong, with a footprint that spanned nearly the entirety of the archipelago, slammed into the country&#39;s eastern seaboard on Sunday evening as a &quot;super typhoon&quot; after uprooting trees and swamping towns further south. It landed just days after Typhoon Kalmaegi swept through the islands of the central Philippines, claiming at least 224 lives. Schools and government offices across swathes of the main island, Luzon, including Manila, were closed on Monday, though predicted heavy rains had yet to materialize. In Aurora province, where Fung-wong made landfall the night before, rescue worker Geofry Parrocha said officials were only now able to assess the damage. &quot;We&#39;re seeing many damaged houses and some of our main roads were not passable due to landslides,&quot; he told AFP Monday morning from Dipaculao town, where power had yet to be restored. &quot;We couldn&#39;t mobilize last night because the rain was heavy and the volume of water was high.&quot; Aurora Taay, mayor of the province&#39;s Dingalan town, told a Facebook Live audience that numerous houses and boats along the shoreline had been smashed amid massive waves. Turning towards Taiwan&nbsp;The state weather service said on Monday that the typhoon, which saw 1.4 million people evacuated, was now expected to turn towards Taiwan as it continued to weaken. On Sunday, Samar province, one of those hammered by Typhoon Kalmaegi last week, recorded the first known death from Fung-wong. Rescuer Juniel Tagarino in Catbalogan City told AFP the body of a 64-year-old woman attempting to evacuate had been pulled out from under debris and fallen trees. &quot;The wind was so strong and the rain was heavy... According to her family members, she might have forgotten something and went back inside her house,&quot; Tagarino said. The civil defense office later confirmed a second death, a person who drowned in a flash flood on Catanduanes island. Further north, in Cagayan province, people sheltering in an evacuation center told AFP that fear of flooding had convinced them to leave their homes. &quot;We often suffer flooding in our home, so when we were told to evacuate, we evacuated, because we would be trapped,&quot; said Loretta Salquina. Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall. &#39;The ground was shaking&#39;&nbsp;Catanduanes was lashed by heavy wind and rain early Sunday, with storm surges sending waves hurtling over streets and floodwaters inundating homes in some areas. &quot;The waves started roaring around 7:00 am. When the waves hit the seawall, it felt like the ground was shaking,&quot; Edson Casarino, 33, a resident of Catanduanes&#39; Virac town, told AFP. Video verified by AFP showed a church in the town surrounded by floodwaters that reached halfway up its entrance. Major flooding was also reported in southern Luzon&#39;s Bicol region. In Guinobatan, a town of about 80,000 in Bicol&#39;s Albay province, verified video showed streets transformed into raging torrents of water. Only days earlier, Typhoon Kalmaegi sent floodwaters rushing through the towns and cities of Cebu and Negros islands, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties, and massive shipping containers. Search and rescue efforts in Cebu were suspended on Saturday due to safety concerns over the approaching super typhoon.

Asia

State weather service says typhoon now expected to turn towards Taiwan as it continues to weaken; Schools and government offices across swathes of main island Luzon, including Manila, are closed on Monday, though predicted heavy rains had yet to materialize.

Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million

US senators reached a bipartisan deal on Sunday that would resume federal funding and end a shutdown that has stretched to a record 40 days and forced many government operations to grind to a halt. The deal between Democratic and Republican senators &mdash; just the first step to halting the shutdown &mdash; came as authorities warned US air travel could soon &quot;slow to a trickle&quot; as thousands more flights were cancelled or delayed over the weekend. Outlets including CNN and Fox News reported lawmakers had reached a stopgap agreement to fund the government through January after wrangling over health care subsidies, food benefits, and President Donald Trump&#39;s firings of federal employees. As news of the breakthrough emerged, Trump told reporters when he arrived at the White House after a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida: &quot;It looks like we&#39;re getting very close to the shutdown ending.&quot; The Republican-led Senate swiftly held a procedural vote Sunday aimed at moving the legislative measure forward, and the vote appeared to have support from enough Democrats to advance. Once it clears the Senate, it would need to pass the House of Representatives, also in Republican control, and then head to Trump&#39;s desk for his signature -- a process that could take days. Earlier Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that if the shutdown continued, the number of flights being snarled or cut would multiply while Americans gear up to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday later this month. By Sunday evening, the number of cancellations of flights within the United States and to and from the US had surpassed 2,700, with nearly 10,000 delays, according to data from tracking platform FlightAware. Airports that were particularly hard hit included the three New York City area airports, Chicago&#39;s O&#39;Hare, and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. Newark&#39;s Liberty International Airport &mdash; a major northeastern US hub &mdash; was among the worst-hit. At New York&#39;s LaGuardia Airport, more than half of all outbound flights were delayed. Splits over health careWithout a deal, Duffy warned that many Americans planning to travel for the November 27 Thanksgiving holiday would &quot;not going to be able to get on an airplane, because there are not going to be that many flights that fly if this thing doesn&#39;t open back up.&quot; It could take days for flight schedules to recover after the shutdown is finally ended, and federal funding &mdash; including salaries &mdash; starts to flow again. Sunday marked the third day of flight reductions at airports nationwide, after the Trump administration ordered reductions to ease the strain on air traffic controllers working without pay. According to lawmakers, the bill would restore funding for the SNAP food stamp program, which helps more than 42 million lower-income Americans pay for groceries. It would also reverse Trump&#39;s firings of thousands of federal workers over the past month, and assure a vote on extending health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year. &quot;This deal guarantees a vote to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which Republicans weren&#39;t willing to do,&quot; Senate Democrat Tim Kaine said in a statement. The bill &mdash; a so-called continuing resolution (CR) to keep government funded at pre-shutdown levels &mdash; &quot;will protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay&quot; as required by law, he added. But many Senate Democrats are opposed to the deal, including the chamber&#39;s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, who expressed anger that it offers a vote for extending the health care subsidies instead of extending them directly. &quot;I can not in good faith support this CR that fails to address the health care crisis,&quot; Schumer told the chamber, adding: &quot;This fight will and must continue.&quot;

The deal between Democratic, Republican senators comes as authorities warn US air travel can soon "slow to a trickle" as thousands more flights are cancelled, delayed over the weekend.



US senators reach deal that could end record shutdown

BEIRUT: Lebanon&#39;s President Joseph Aoun told US officials on Sunday his country was tackling money laundering and the financing of terrorism, days after Washington imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah members. The trio were accused of money laundering to fund Lebanon&#39;s Hezbollah group, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other Western powers. The US delegation&#39;s visit to Beirut, headed by senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, came as Washington works to cut off Hezbollah&#39;s funding and Lebanon&#39;s government tries to disarm it. The group was severely weakened in its most recent war with Israel, which was halted by a November 2024 ceasefire. &quot;Lebanon strictly applies the measures adopted to prevent money laundering, smuggling, or its use in financing terrorism, and severely punishes financial crimes of all kinds,&quot; Aoun said he had told the delegation. On Thursday, the US imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah members allegedly involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars from Iran, the group&#39;s main sponsor. Part of the funding was via money exchange businesses that operate in cash, said a US Treasury statement. Since January 2025, Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guards have &quot;transferred over $1 billion&quot; to Hezbollah, &quot;mostly through money exchange companies,&quot; it added. &quot;Lebanon has an opportunity to be free, prosperous, and secure &mdash; but that can only happen if Hezbollah is fully disarmed and cut off from Iran&#39;s funding and control,&quot; deputy director for counter-terrorism John Hurley said on Thursday. Hurley later posted on X that he, Aou,n and Gorka had &quot;discussed ways in which we can partner together to stop the flow of money from Iran to Hezbollah and create a safer and more prosperous Lebanon.&quot; Israel on Sunday carried out new strikes in south Lebanon, killing two people according to the health ministry, putting the toll from Israeli strikes since Saturday at five. Aoun called on Sunday for &quot;pressure on Israel to stop its ongoing attacks.&quot;

Three Hezbollah members are accused of money laundering to fund the group, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other Western powers.

Lebanon fighting 'terror financing,' president tells US

GENEVA: Millions of refugees are trapped in a vicious cycle of conflict and climate extremes, the United Nations said on Monday, urging the COP30 summit to provide financing for the most vulnerable. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said that within 15 years, the places currently hosting nearly half the world&#39;s refugees could be facing extreme exposure to climate-related shocks. &quot;Climate change is not only amplifying existing vulnerabilities &mdash; it is also fueling displacement trends, creating complex and compounding risks for refugees... leaving many with no escape from its impacts,&quot; it said in a report. It said climate shocks were increasing humanitarian needs and amplifying the risks of repeated displacement. UNHCR said that by mid-2025, 117 million people had been displaced by war, violence, and persecution. Of those, three in four are living in countries facing high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards, it said. It added that over the past 10 years, weather-related disasters had caused around 250 million internal displacements within countries. Hardship and devastation &quot;Extreme weather is ... destroying homes and livelihoods, and forcing families &mdash; many who have already fled violence &mdash; to flee once more,&quot; UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement. &quot;These are people who have already endured immense loss, and now they face the same hardships and devastation again. They are among the hardest hit by severe droughts, deadly floods, and record-breaking heatwaves, yet they have the fewest resources to recover,&quot; he said. The UNHCR said that by 2050, the hottest 15 refugee camps in the world &mdash; in The Gambia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Mali &mdash; are projected to experience nearly 200 days of hazardous heat stress per year. &quot;Many of these locations are likely to become uninhabitable due to the deadly combination of extreme heat and high humidity,&quot; it said. The report said the number of countries facing extreme exposure to climate-related hazards is projected to rise from three to 65 by 2040. Those 65 countries host over 45% of all people currently displaced by conflict. Funding slashedUnder President Donald Trump, the United States, traditionally the world&#39;s top donor, has slashed foreign aid. Washington previously accounted for more than 40% of the UNHCR&#39;s budget, and other major donor countries have also been tightening their belts. &quot;Funding cuts are severely limiting our ability to protect refugees and displaced families from the effects of extreme weather,&quot; Grandi said. &quot;To prevent further displacement, climate financing needs to reach the communities already living on the edge,&quot; he said. &quot;This COP must deliver real action, not empty promises.&quot; The UNHCR report saw an &quot;opportunity&quot; in refugee-hosting places where ecosystems are deteriorating, saying sustainable financing for environmental restoration could create jobs and build local climate resilience.

UN says refugees stuck in vicious cycle of conflict and climate

LONDON: The director general of the BBC announced his resignation on Sunday following a row over the editing of a documentary about US President Donald Trump. Tim Davie and the broadcaster&#39;s head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned after accusations that a documentary by its flagship Panorama program had edited a speech by Trump in a misleading way. &quot;Like all public organizations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable,&quot; Davie said in a statement posted on the BBC website. &quot;While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision ... I have to take ultimate responsibility.&quot; The latest controversy follows a Daily Telegraph report this week that said concerns were first raised in the summer in a memo on impartiality by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC&#39;s editorial standards committee. Earlier Sunday, the UK Culture, Media and Sport Minister Lisa Nandy called the allegations &quot;incredibly serious.&quot; The BBC has promised &quot;a full response&quot; to parliament&#39;s culture, media and sport committee on Monday. Later in the day, US President Trump attacked &quot;corrupt journalists&quot; after the BBC chief resigned from the British broadcaster in a scandal over the editing of a documentary about the US president. Trump said &quot;corrupt journalists&quot; had been exposed, adding &quot;these are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.&quot; Trump speech edited&nbsp;The criticism emerged over clips spliced together from sections of a Trump speech on January 6, 2021, when he was accused of fomenting the mob attack on the US Capitol seeking to keep him in power despite losing his re-election bid. The edit made it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them and &quot;fight like hell.&quot; In the undoctored clip, however, the president urged the audience to walk with him, &quot;and we&#39;re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.&quot; At the time, Trump was still disputing President Joe Biden&#39;s election victory, in a vote that saw him ousted after his first term in office. The edit was included in a documentary entitled &quot;Trump: A Second Chance?&quot; that was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year&#39;s US election. &#39;Bias&#39; allegation&nbsp;Nandy said the Trump edit was one of several concerns about editorial standards at the BBC. &quot;It isn&#39;t just about the Panorama program, although that is incredibly serious,&quot; she told BBC television in an interview. &quot;There are a series of very serious allegations made, the most serious of which is that there is systemic bias in the way that difficult issues are reported at the BBC,&quot; she said. Nandy said she was concerned about a tendency for editorial standards and the language used in reports to be &quot;entirely inconsistent,&quot; whether it be on &quot;Israel, Gaza... trans people or on this issue about President Trump.&quot; The license fee-funded broadcaster earlier this year issued several apologies for &quot;serious flaws&quot; in the making of another documentary entitled &quot;Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone,&quot; broadcast in February. In October, it accepted a sanction from the UK media watchdog for what was deemed a &quot;materially misleading&quot; program, whose child narrator was later revealed to be the son of Hamas&#39;s former deputy agriculture minister.

United Kingdom

Tim Davie, Deborah Turness resign after accusations that a documentary by its flagship Panorama program had edited a speech by Trump in a misleading way.



BBC chief resigns after row over Trump documentary

CAPE CANAVERAL: New Glenn, the towering rocket built by Jeff Bezos&#39;s space company Blue Origin, is set to take off on its second mission Sunday as competition intensifies with Elon Musk&#39;s SpaceX. The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket has the task of sending NASA&#39;s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft to Mars, a bid to study the Red Planet&#39;s climate history and pave the way for eventual human exploration. Blue Origin&#39;s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery -- what would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful. The rocket is set to blast off Sunday during an 88-minute launch window that will begin at 2:45pm (1945 GMT). If delayed by weather or a technical glitch, rescheduling could prove challenging given the US government shutdown. To relieve airspace congestion, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket lift-offs starting Monday. New Glenn&#39;s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests. But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent. This time it will try once more to recover the booster stage. Thus far, only Musk&#39;s company SpaceX has managed to do that.<h2> </h2><h2>&#39;Indicator&#39; of progress</h2>The competing space companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the US federal space agency opened up bids for its planned Moon mission as complaints emerged that SpaceX was &quot;behind.&quot; George Nield -- a senior aerospace executive whose work promotes the commercial space industry, and who has flown with Blue Origin in the past -- told AFP the stakes of Sunday&#39;s launch are high. How the launch plays out will be an indicator of &quot;how well they&#39;re doing and how much progress they&#39;ve made,&quot; he said. If all goes to plan, the twin satellites aboard New Glenn are slated to reach Martian orbit in 2027. US President Donald Trump&#39;s second term in the White House has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the moon amid a race with China. Mason Peck, an aeronautics professor at Cornell University and former NASA chief technologist, said increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could &quot;expand our options with regard to launch.&quot; &quot;More launches means more ideas in space,&quot; Peck said. &quot;It can&#39;t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin even trailing behind.&quot;

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will launch its New Glenn rocket on a second mission to send NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft to Mars, aiming to achieve booster recovery and challenge SpaceX amid intensifying commercial space race competition.

Israel says Turkish troops will not join Gaza stabilization mission

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Israel says Turkish troops will not join Gaza stabilization mission

The AI revolution has a power problem

Authorities say 31 died in Ecuador prison, many asphyxiated

Syrian president due at White House for landmark talks

Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million