“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)
“President Donald Trump’s effort to force mid-decade redistricting suffered a major setback Friday, after Indiana’s GOP state Senate leader declared the chamber will not convene in December to redraw maps. In response, Trump’s team has begun summoning Indiana lawmakers to meet with the president in the Oval Office as early as next week, according to two sources familiar with the request, including one who had fielded an invite over the phone Friday. … Vice President JD Vance traveled to Indiana several times and expended political capital on the Hoosier state effort, flying twice on Air Force Two here to court lawmakers, and he had welcomed Indiana lawmakers to the White House. Trump himself entertained Bray and state House Speaker Todd Huston in the Oval Office to discuss the matter in August.” (11/14/25)
“The United States has called on the United Nations Security Council to officially back its draft resolution aimed at bolstering President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, warning that Palestinians could suffer ‘grave consequences’ if it does not. The call came as Russia presented the council with its own ‘counter-proposal’ on Gaza, challenging Washington’s draft, according to a copy seen by the Reuters news agency. … The US mission formally circulated its draft resolution to the 15 UNSC members last week for negotiations on the wording and substance of the text.” (11/14/25)
“Bitcoin fell further below the $100,000 mark as a bout of risk aversion sweeping across markets saw investors pull nearly $900 million from funds investing in the token. The largest digital-asset sank as much as 2.8% to below $96,000 on Friday before paring losses, leaving it more than 20% below a record high reached in early October. The crypto market remains under strain after $19 billion in liquidations on Oct. 10 in turn erased over $1 trillion from the total market value of all cryptocurrencies, CoinGecko data shows. The liquidations keep coming, with more than $1 billion worth of leveraged crypto bets wiped out in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data.” (11/14/25)
“Chinese police on Thursday issued a wanted notice and offered a $35,000 reward for two Taiwanese social media influencers they accused of ‘separatism,’ what Taipei says is an effort by China to bring fear to Taiwanese. Beijing has accused dozens of people in democratically-governed Taiwan, which it [pretends is] Chinese territory, of ‘separatism,’ including elected lawmakers. Chinese law does not apply in Taiwan, which has its own judicial system. Taiwanese influencers Pa Chiung and Chen Po-yuan — a rapper better known by his stage name Mannam PYC — have long been engaged in publishing and ‘inciting separatist views,’ police in Quanzhou, the city facing Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait, said in a statement.” (11/13/25)
“The U.S. military conducted another strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Tuesday, a Pentagon official confirmed to CBS News. The attack targeted a vessel in the Caribbean Sea and killed four people on board. Since September, U.S. forces have destroyed at least 21 vessels in 20 strikes in international waters, killing at least 80 people. The Trump administration says the operations — the details of which remain sparse — are part of an anti-drug offensive. The Pentagon has not revealed more information about the most recent strike.” (11/13/25)
