“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) dropped almost $50,000 on hotels and meals in Puerto Rico in the third quarter of this year — as well as renting a San Juan venue where she was caught on tape grooving at an August Bad Bunny concert. AOC’s principal campaign committee shelled out $680.52 on July 28 to stay at the lavish Hotel Palacio Provincial, along with another $1,507.26 on Aug. 29 and a whopping $9,440,79 on Sept. 29, according to third quarter federal campaign finance filings — even as the ‘Squad’ rep on her social media accounts denounced gentrification that was taking place on the island. The ‘first-class’, ‘adults only’ Palacio Provincial boasts of being ‘situated within an historic early 19th century building’ with ‘transcendent hints of the structure’s grand colonial past.'” (12/11/25)
“Train services ground to a halt across Portugal on Thursday, hundreds of flights were cancelled, and schools closed as unions launched a first general strike in more than a decade, in protest against proposed labour reforms. The minority centre-right government says the proposed changes – amending more than 100 labour-code articles – aim to boost productivity and spur economic growth. But unions accuse it of tilting power toward employers at the expense of workers’ rights, despite a strong economy and low unemployment. The bill, yet to be submitted to parliament, is expected to pass with backing from the far-right Chega party. Some public transport operated due to minimum service requirements imposed by authorities, but Lisbon’s streets were noticeably quieter. While hospitals stayed open, most surgeries and appointments have been postponed as nursing staff walked out.” (12/11/25)
“The Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether COVID-19 vaccines caused deaths in adults, as part of a safety review that earlier appeared to just be focused on children. The investigation, being conducted across different divisions of the FDA, comes at a time when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is upending longstanding guidance for a wide range of vaccines. The ‘FDA is doing a thorough investigation, across multiple age groups, of deaths potentially related to COVID vaccines,’ a spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg Tuesday.” (12/10/25)
“A U.S. federal court in New York issued a 15-year prison sentence to Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, marking one of the most significant criminal judgments tied to a crypto collapse. Kwon pleaded guilty in August to fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the implosion of terrausd (UST) and luna (LUNA now LUNC), which erased an estimated $40 billion in market value in 2022. Prosecutors described the misconduct as fraud ‘on an epic, generational scale,’ highlighting evidence that investors were misled prior to the platform’s downfall. During the sentencing hearing, victims detailed steep financial losses, including wiped-out retirement funds. As part of his plea agreement, Kwon will forfeit more than $19 million in proceeds determined to be linked to the scheme.” (12/11/25)
“Senators from both parties pushed Thursday for changes to a massive defense bill after crash investigators and victims’ families warned the legislation would undo key safety reforms stemming from a collision between an airliner and Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the crash, a group of the victims’ family members and senators on the Commerce Committee all said the bill the House advanced Wednesday would make America’s skies less safe. It would allow the military to operate essentially the same way as it did before the January crash, which was the deadliest in more than two decades, they said.” (12/11/25)
“Rwanda-backed M23 rebels claimed to have captured a key eastern city in Democratic Republic of the Congo as they continued their march to control more of Africa’s second largest country. In statements in English and French on Wednesday evening, a rebel spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, claimed the city of Uvira had been ‘fully liberated, secured and under the control of the liberation forces.’ … The rebel sweep has already claimed other major eastern cities this year, including Goma and Bukavu, as analysts accuse Rwanda of wanting to annex Congolese territory for itself particularly because of the abundance of minerals such as coltan and gold.” (12/11/25)
“President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his long-promised ‘gold card’ was officially going on sale, offering legal status and an eventual pathway to U.S. citizenship for individuals paying $1 million and corporations ponying up twice that per foreign-born employee. A website accepting applications went live as Trump revealed the start of the program while surrounded by business leaders in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. It is meant to replace EB-5 visas, which Congress created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and had been available to people who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people. … The new program is actually a green card, effectively offering permanent legal residency with the chance for citizenship.” (12/10/25)
“The Department of Education thwarted more than $1 billion in student aid fraud under President Donald Trump’s first year in office, including stopping suspected bots and ‘ghost students’ from obtaining taxpayer-funded loans, Fox News Digital learned. Officials say the savings come from new ‘enhanced fraud controls’ the department implemented in June to combat fraudsters from working to obtain financial assistance loans from colleges. College officials and cybersecurity experts in recent years have pointed to a new scam trend of ‘ghost students’, which are fabricated or stolen identities created solely to enroll, trigger financial aid disbursements and then disappear. Ghost students are believed to be powered by AI bots or run by criminal networks using real Americans’ personal information. Other scams have included the use of deceased individuals’ identities in order to fraudulently obtain loans.” (12/11/25)
“Mexico’s Congress approved Wednesday most of the tariff increases proposed by the government on more than 1,400 products imported from China and other countries that do not have free trade agreements with Mexico. … The governing Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said the tariffs were necessary to spur domestic production, controls both chambers. … Analysts say the real motivation is ongoing negotiations with Washington, Mexico’s most important trading partner. Sheinbaum has been trying to find relief from remaining tariffs imposed on Mexican imports by the Trump administration, which has accused China of using Mexico as a backdoor into the U.S. market.” (12/10/25)
“NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade. Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. NASA said this week that it was working fine before it went behind the red planet. When it reappeared, there was only silence. Launched in 2013, Maven began studying the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind once reaching the red planet the following year. Scientists ended up blaming the sun for Mars losing most of its atmosphere to space over the eons, turning it from wet and warm to the dry and cold world it is today.
Maven also has served as a communication relay for NASA’s two Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.” (12/10/25)
