As deadly wildfires burn through Southern California, President-elect Donald Trump has spent the week attacking Democratic officials and continuing a pattern of spreading misinformation about natural disasters. “I think that Gavin is largely incompetent, and I think the mayor is largely incompetent, and probably both of them are just stone-cold incompetent,” Trump said on Thursday night while hosting Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Since the fires broke out, Trump has pointed fingers at Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden, spreading false claims about California’s water policy and federal assistance. For example, Trump blamed Biden as he falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “no money” to help California despite Congress recently passing a disaster relief supplemental totaling $29 billion. The president-elect also pushed exaggerated claims as
Author Archives: The Esbec Team
German authorities have said an oil tanker stuck in German waters belongs to Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which Berlin says is used to avoid sanctions. Germany’s maritime authorities (CCME) said on Friday that the Panamanian-flagged ship, known as Eventin, had lost power and steering, meaning tugboats were deployed to secure the vessel. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock blamed Moscow, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of “circumventing” sanctions and threatening European security by “ruthlessly deploying a fleet of rusty tankers”. Russia, which previously declined to respond to accusations that it uses a shadow fleet, has not yet commented on this incident. The US, UK and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil industry following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In its first report of the tanker drifting in German
Donald Trump Jnr, the son of the incoming US president, and his companions are reported to have recruited people in Greenland with the prospect of a free lunch in an expensive hotel to portray them as Trump supporters in videos. The Danish radio station DR reported that it had heard from several sources that the videos, made during the group’s short trip to Greenland, showed homeless people and others who often hang around in front of a supermarket next to the hotel. “These are homeless and old people who could suddenly eat in a restaurant they have never been to before,” a long-time resident of the capital Nuuk was quoted as saying by the broadcaster. All they had to do to be part of it was put on “Make America
Jan
Chinese companies made their presence felt at the tech industry’s annual flagship event CES 2025 , in terms of the number of participants and their smart products ranging from robotics and smart glasses to electric vehicles (EVs) and home appliances. Chinese companies made up about a quarter of the 4,500-odd exhibitors at the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas. That is in line with the attendance in 2024 and up from 493 in 2023 when China’s lifting of Covid-19 restrictions came too late for many firms. Artificial intelligence (AI) was a dominant theme, as more practical applications were on display across almost all segments of consumer electronics. The market will only get bigger in 2025, according to the Consumer Technology Association, which organises the CES. Global sales of consumer
Liverpool’s English striker #76 Jayden Danns celebrates scoring the team’s third goal during the English FA Cup third round football match between Liverpool and Accrington Stanley at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on January 11, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunning strike lit up Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Accrington Stanley to cruise into the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday as Chelsea thrashed Morecambe 5-0. Brentford were the only Premier League side to fall to lower league opposition as Plymouth, who sit bottom of the Championship, stunned the Bees 1-0 thanks to Morgan Whittaker’s late winner. There was never any hint of an upset at Anfield despite Arne Slot making eight changes for Liverpool. Alexander-Arnold was named captain in the absence of Virgil van Dijk
Experts and lawmakers have urged airlines operating in Hong Kong to ensure in-flight meals are safely prepared in accordance with industry standards, after two food poisoning incidents affected dozens of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers. They also appealed to travellers to be more watchful of the meals they were served during flights and to check the temperature, freshness and smell of the food items before eating them. Health authorities earlier this week launched an investigation into the two cases involving 36 passengers on two separate flights going from Nepal’s Kathmandu to Hong Kong. The Centre for Health Protection said on Friday that it believed the two food poisoning clusters were epidemiologically linked. The latest cluster involved 20 people who arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday on flight CX640, while the other
Narrativa is among a crop of startups seizing on the artificial intelligence boom to enthusiastically automate writing tasks that would once have fallen to humans. From penning regulatory documentation for Pfizer to zhuzhing up marketing copy for insurance and e-commerce firms and helping generate breaking news articles for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles-based Narrativa boasts roughly 50 clients in various industries. But one of its core focus areas, comprising a quarter of its business, is a little more polarizing than the rest: gambling . Working with major industry players like 888 and Betway, Narrativa uses large language models to pump out everything from automated summaries of sports games to SEO-friendly reviews of online casino games and promotional social media posts. With no humans required, the 20-person company’s AI
Jan
By JACOB GURVIS/JTA JANUARY 11, 2025 06:41 VANCOUVER, CANADA – JANUARY 3: Ozzy Wiesblatt skates with the puck during during a solo lap during the pre-game warm-up prior to his first game in the NHL against the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 3, 2025, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. (photo credit: Rich Lam/Getty Images) (JTA) — This article was originally created as a newsletter. Sign up for the weekly Jewish Sport Report here. Good morning and happy Friday! Today’s Jewish Sport Report comes to you from my hotel room in Anaheim, California, where my fiancée, our cat and I arrived late Wednesday night after evacuating our apartment in Los Angeles due to the catastrophic wildfires. At the moment, our neighborhood is safe. To any fellow Angelenos, or those with friends
Decades after the liberalisation of Vietnam ’s banking sector, private banks remain tightly controlled by a handful of owners, many of whom use their banks to funnel cheap loans into their other businesses. This practice, which dates back to the early 1990s, was laid bare by the case of Truong My Lan, who became the first private businessperson in Vietnam to face capital punishment for embezzlement after she was convicted of siphoning billions from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and leaving it – and Vietnam’s financial system – in a precarious position. On December 3, an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld a death sentence for Lan, the majority owner of SCB and former chairwoman of the property developer Van Thinh Phat Group. For almost a decade, Lan treated
Jan
Did you know that 78% of elite athletes report using active recovery techniques as a crucial part of their training regimen? According to a 2023 comprehensive review in the Journal of Sports Sciences, while most athletes focus on the intensity of their workouts, it’s often what happens between training sessions that separates good athletes from […]
ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji pulled no punches when he launched a scathing attack at former president Jacob Zuma and SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila on Friday. This happened when he addressed the Peter Mokaba Memorial Lecture in Khayelitsha as part of the build-up to the ANC 113 anniversary celebrations to be held on Saturday. Malatji labelled Zuma, who is the leader of MK Party, a counter-revolutionary and an enemy. He said there were people in the country they supported for close to 30 years and they never delivered anything. “There is a man there in Nkandla who thinks we have forgotten that he stole from the poorest of the poor and moves around like a Messiah, going around collecting money like an apartheid operative to displace the ANC,”
Social media giant Meta announced Friday it is dismantling its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes across the company, marking another major shift in strategy as it aligns with politically conservative priorities. In an internal memo to employees, the company outlined sweeping changes including the elimination of its diverse slate hiring approach and the disbanding of its DEI team. The move comes amid what Meta describes as “a changing legal and policy landscape” following recent Supreme Court decisions against programmes that allowed for increased diversity priorities at US universities. The memo, first reported by Axios, landed days after Meta abruptly overhauled its content moderation policies, including ending its US fact-checking programme on Facebook and Instagram, in a major shift that conforms with the priorities of incoming US president Donald Trump.
Making working people in Britain better off will be at the “forefront” of the chancellor’s mind during her visit to China, the Treasury has said, following criticism of the trip amid trouble on the financial markets at home. Rachel Reeves will meet her opposite number in Beijing this weekend to explore trade and investment opportunities in a bid to achieve the government’s main goal of growing the UK economy to raise living standards. However, her visit has been overshadowed by UK borrowing costs hitting a 16-year high and a fall in the value of the pound. The Conservatives accused Reeves of having “fled to China”, but the government has defended the trip. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the rise in borrowing costs was “a global trend that we’ve seen affecting
![An American flag is seen through razor wire on the control tower of the Camp VI detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, on April 17, 2019 [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]](https://esbecgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Guantanamo-at-23-Whats-next-for-the-‘lawless-detention-facility.jpg)
Washington, DC – The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turns 23 on Saturday. For Mansoor Adayfi, a former inmate at the prison, the anniversary marks 23 years of “injustice, lawlessness, abuse of power, torture and indefinite detention”. Only 15 prisoners remain at the United States military prison, known as Gitmo, which once held about 800 Muslim men — a dwindling number that gives advocates hope that the facility will eventually be shut down, turning the page on the dark chapter of history it represents. But Adayfi, who now serves as a coordinator for the Guantanamo Project at the advocacy group CAGE International, says truly closing down Gitmo means delivering justice to its current and former detainees. “The United States must acknowledge its wrongdoing, must issue a formal, official apology to
A Hanukkah journey with Passages Israel program participants offered profound insights into Christian-Jewish solidarity while experiencing firsthand the realities of life under Hamas threats. By EVAN BERNSTEIN JANUARY 11, 2025 00:43 PASSAGES CHRISTIAN student leaders visit Kibbutz Kfar Aza. (photo credit: Evan Bernstein) Embarking on a journey with Christian student leaders from Passages Israel over the Hanukkah holiday was an eye-opening experience, reinforcing for me the profound connection between the Christian faith and the people of Israel. This trip, rich in both Christian and Jewish historical and contemporary experiences, has illuminated the pivotal role that education and direct engagement play in fostering a deep, enduring relationship between Christians and Jews. Their shared story with us is not merely a historical narrative but a living, dynamic testament to our common values