“Federal officials confirmed Saturday that a surge of immigration enforcement in North Carolina’s largest city has begun, as agents were seen making [abductions] in multiple locations. ‘Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal [sic] aliens hurting them, their families, or their neighbors,’ Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. ‘We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed.’ Local officials including Mayor Vi Lyles criticized such actions, saying in a statement that they ‘are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty.’ ‘We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives,’ the statement said. It was also signed by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Mark Jerrell and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member Stephanie Sneed.” (11/15/25)
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed Saturday that it has seized a fuel tanker bound for Singapore from the United Arab Emirates. The IRGC Navy said in a statement the Talara was carrying 30,000 tons of petrochemicals and had been monitoring it after a court ordered the ship’s seizure on Friday morning, according to IRNA, Iran’s official government news agency. … Iran has seized other tankers while often accusing them of carrying illicit cargo, intruding in Iranian waters or in retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian vessel.” (11/15/25)
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas turns 90 on Saturday, still holding authoritarian power in tiny pockets of the West Bank, but marginalized and weakened by Israel, deeply unpopular among Palestinians, and struggling for a say in a postwar Gaza Strip. The world’s second-oldest serving president (after Cameroon’s 92-year-old Paul Biya), Abbas has been in office for 20 years, and for nearly the entire time has failed to hold elections. His weakness has left Palestinians leaderless, critics say, at a time when they face an existential crisis and hopes for establishing a Palestinian state, the centerpiece of Abbas’[s] agenda, appear dimmer than ever. Palestinians say Israel’s campaign against Hamas that has decimated Gaza amounts to genocide, a view echoed by many international legal experts, organizations and other countries.” (11/15/25)
“A judge rejected for now a bid by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to bar Tylenol-maker Kenvue Inc. from marketing its over-the-counter pain medication as being safe for pregnant women within the state. After a hearing Friday, State District Judge LeAnn Rafferty denied Paxton’s request for a temporary restraining order, court records show. The attorney general sued Kenvue and its former parent Johnson & Johnson on Oct. 28, claiming they concealed the risks of autism and other disorders for children if mothers take Tylenol during pregnancy. Experts say there’s no clear connection between the use of acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) during pregnancy and adverse neurobehavioral or developmental outcomes such as autism. Kenvue has pushed back against this link, saying the claims are unsupported by scientific evidence. Untreated fevers and pain are known risks during pregnancy.” (11/15/25)
“China has sent its coast guard through the waters of the Senkaku islands and military drones past outlying Japanese territory as Beijing ramps up tensions over the Japanese prime minister’s remarks on Taiwan. On Sunday the Chinese coast guard said its ships made a ‘rights enforcement patrol’ through the waters of the Senkaku, which are administered by Japan but also claimed by China as the Diaoyu islands. … China and Japan have repeatedly faced off around the islands but the latest activity comes amid an intensifying diplomatic spat after the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, told parliament that if China attack[ed] democratically ruled Taiwan it could trigger a military response from Tokyo.” (11/16/25)
“Brazil’s federal police formally accused President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s former human rights minister Silvio Almeida of sexual misconduct after he was fired over the allegations last year, a police official said Saturday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly speak about the case. Prosecutors will now decide whether to press charges. If they do so, the Supreme Court will either throw them out or accept them, in which case Almeida would face a trial. Local media outlets reported that police had formally accused Almeida on Friday. He has not commented since then, but has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing. Lula fired Almeida last September after MeToo Brazil, an organization that defends women victims of sexual violence, said that it had received complaints of sexual misconduct by the former minister.” (11/16/25)
“United States President Donald Trump has issued two new pardons related to the investigation into the January 6, 2021 US Capitol insurrection. White House officials said on Saturday that one pardon was given to a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the US Capitol. Trump issued the second pardon for a defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally [sic] possessing firearms.” (11/15/25)
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to ‘overhaul’ state-owned energy companies, after a major corruption scandal engulfed the country’s energy sector. Around $100 million (£76m) has been embezzled, anti-graft investigators said, causing outrage in a country where Russian attacks have resulted in crippling power outages. ‘Alongside a full audit of their financial activities, the management of these companies is to be renewed,’ Zelensky wrote in a post on X on Saturday. Energoatom, the state nuclear company at the heart of the scandal, will have a new supervisory board ‘within a week,’ he added. Several of those implicated in the scandal have close links to the Ukrainian president. The scandal is unfolding against the backdrop of escalating Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, including substations that supply electricity to nuclear power plants.” (11/15/25)
“A senior French official said Saturday he would take legal action over comments made following a tribute to Philippe Pétain, France’s wartime head of state convicted of treason after World War II. … The Association to Defend the Memory of Marshal Pétain (ADMP) organised a mass Saturday at the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Verdun, where Pétain won a famous WWI battle in 1916. … After the mass ADMP president Jacques Boncompain told journalists that Pétain had been ‘the first resistant fighter of France.’ Boncompain also said Pétain’s post-war conviction for treason by a High Court of Justice had not been a fair one.” [editor’s note: Why should a difference of opinion over a long-dead politician be a matter for “legal action?” – TLK] (11/15/25)
“Just one week after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to cut up to 10% of their flights from 40 major U.S. airports, the Trump administration is scrapping a Biden-era policy that made getting refunds from airlines a lot easier. On Friday, the Department of Transportation withdrew the Airline Passenger Rights policy, which regulates compensation standards for airlines and requires cash payments when airlines are responsible for flight disruptions. A federal filing obtained by SFGATE said the move was in line with the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’s Deregulatory Agenda.'” (11/14/25)
