“A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the richest passengers on the Titanic is expected to fetch £1m at auction. Isidor Straus and his wife Ida were among the more than 1,500 people who died when the vessel travelling from Southampton to New York sank after hitting an iceberg on 14 April 1912. His body was recovered from the Atlantic days after the disaster and among his possessions was an 18 carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch that will go under the hammer on 22 November. … Mr Straus was a Bavarian-born American businessman, politician, and co-owner of Macy’s department store in New York. … On the night of the sinking, it is believed his devoted wife refused a place in a lifeboat as she did not want to leave her husband and said she would rather die by his side. Ida’s body was never found.” (11/13/25)
“A trade group representing French authors and screenwriters said Thursday that it had launched legal action against Chinese social media group TikTok over alleged copyright infringements. The Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD), a non-profit collective which represents around 60,000 writers for cinema, TV, theatre and comedy shows, said it had filed a suit in Paris. ‘TikTok has, for many years, been using protected works from the SACD repertoire without any authorisation and has never offered acceptable compensation for the authors of these works, nor has it removed the works we asked it to,’ the SACD said in a statement sent to AFP.” (11/13/25)
“A political consultant and former chief of staff for California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been indicted on accusations of skimming campaign funds from former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Federal prosecutors said Dana Williamson, 53, of Carmichael, Calif., was arrested Wednesday morning. A 23-count federal indictment was then unsealed, charging her with a slew of conspiracy, fraud and other charges. … Federal prosecutors allege that Williamson and the co-conspirators diverted about $225,000 in funds from the dormant political campaign. The indictment also accuses her of filing false tax returns for more than $1 million in business deductions for private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, home furnishings and designer handbags.” (11/13/25)
“Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that an individual attempted to confront Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba on Wednesday night, ‘destroyed property in her office’ and then ‘fled the scene.’ ‘Thankfully, Alina is ok,’ Bondi added. ‘Any violence or threats of violence against any federal officer will not be tolerated. Period. This is unfortunately becoming a trend as radicals continue to attack law enforcement agents around the country.'” (11/13/25)
“Classes and transportation in Bangladesh were seriously disrupted Thursday as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide “lockdown” in protest against her trial over last year’s protests that left hundreds dead. Hasina faces charges of crimes against humanity involving a crackdown on the student-led uprising that ended her 15-year rule in August 2024. She has been in exile in India since then and has not been seen in public or online. A special tribunal in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, is expected to announce a verdict against Hasina on Monday, chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said during a news conference Thursday.” (11/13/25)
“U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care. From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation’s thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers.” (11/12/25)
“President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday designated four European left-wing groups as terrorist organizations, following through on his vow to crack down on leftists after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The networks targeted by Trump’s Republican administration all appear to be based in Europe, with no operations in the United States. They are an Italian anarchist front that sent explosive packages to the then-president of the European Commission in 2003, two Greek networks believed to have planted bombs outside riot police and labor department buildings in Athens, and an anti-fascist group whose members were prosecuted by German authorities for a hammer attack against neo-Nazis in Dresden.” (11/13/25)
“Tuberculosis deaths have fallen by 3 percent to 1.23 million people in 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. In its annual TB report published on Wednesday, the United Nations health agency also revealed that overall cases of the disease had dropped by almost 2 percent since 2023. It marked the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that TB cases and deaths had declined.” (11/13/25)
“Nearly a month before President Donald Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Jeffrey Epstein attempted to pass a message to Russia’s top diplomat: If you want to understand Trump, talk to me. ‘I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me,’ Epstein wrote in a June 24, 2018, email to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway who was leading the Council of Europe at the time of the exchange. Lavrov was an apparent reference to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longtime foreign minister. In the email exchange, one of hundreds released Wednesday by congressional investigators, Epstein indicated he had previously talked about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s forceful ambassador to the United Nations, before Churkin died in 2017.” (11/12/25)
“Emails released by Democrats show deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein telling associates that ‘of course’ President Trump knew about his relationships with underaged girls. The three emails, released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, show Epstein’s correspondence with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as well as columnist and author Michael Wolff. In the short exchanges, Epstein says Trump ‘spent hours at my house’ while another says the president ‘knew about the girls.’ … In a[n] April 2, 2011 email to Maxwell, who was later convicted on charges of trafficking young girls to Epstein, the disgraced financier wrote: ‘i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump … [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.'” (11/12/25)
