Trump hails productive exchange after meeting with Mamdani

November 22, 2025

Trump says he had a 'productive meeting' with Mamdani — US President Donald Trump met with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office of the White House

When the Oval Office Meets City Hall: An Unlikely Handshake Over the Future of New York

There are moments in politics that feel like a photograph: two faces, two histories, stacked against the backdrop of a place that matters to millions. One such image unfolded recently in the Oval Office — a meeting between US President Donald Trump and New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani. On paper, it was an odd pairing: a 79-year-old former New Yorker who has made the city both a springboard and a punching bag, and a 34-year-old democratic socialist, Uganda-born, the son of immigrants, and a newcomer to national politics. In practice, it was a collision of narratives about who New York is and who it should become.

“We’ve just had a great… very productive meeting,” the president said afterward, in his unmistakable cadence. “We have one thing in common. We want this city of ours that we love to do very well.” Whether that sentence signals camaraderie or calculation depends on where you stand on the city’s political map.

A Mayor-Elect Who Sings a Different Tune

Zohran Mamdani’s rise was swift and, to many, surprising. He will be sworn in on 1 January as the first Muslim and first South Asian mayor of a city that is home to Wall Street and to a million stories. At 34, he ran a campaign that leaned into social media savvy, grassroots organization, and an unvarnished focus on affordability: housing, groceries, childcare, transit fares. New Yorkers, after decades of watching their paychecks stretch thinner against rising costs, voted for a candidate who spoke plainly about the calculation that keeps people up at night.

“We’re worried about putting dinner on the table,” said Sofia Alvarez, who has run a small bodega in Jackson Heights for 18 years. “My niece lives with three roommates and still can’t afford rent. I’m hopeful someone who grew up with this city will actually fix it, not just talk about it.”

If New Yorkers are stretched — the city’s population hovers around 8.5 million residents — they are also staggeringly diverse. Roughly four in ten residents were born abroad, and those immigrant neighborhoods are the arteries of the city’s economy and culture. They’re also the frontline in debates about sanctuary policies and federal enforcement, a point of friction between the mayor-elect’s platform and the president’s hardline rhetoric.

Old Grudges, New Prelude

The lead-up to this meeting was a string of barbs. Mr. Trump has called Mr. Mamdani names — “radical left lunatic,” “communist,” and worse — and has threatened to withhold federal funds from the nation’s largest city. Mr. Mamdani countered in election rallies, urging activists to “turn the volume up,” and promising he would speak out when federal policies harm New Yorkers.

And yet, on the day they met in Washington, the tenor shifted. “The better he does, the happier I am,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he expected to “get along fine” with the mayor-elect. Mamdani, for his part, posed for a grinning selfie on a plane bound for the capital and told reporters he would work with any agenda that benefits his constituents — but would not hesitate to oppose what he sees as harmful policy.

How Much Power Does the President Have?

The exchange raises a thorny question: how far can the federal executive go in withdrawing funds from a city? New York City is slated to receive roughly $7.4 billion from the federal government in fiscal year 2026, about 6.4% of the city’s total spending, according to a report from the New York State Comptroller. Much of that money is mandated by Congress for specific programs. Legal scholars warn that using the purse strings as political leverage against a city’s elected leaders is fraught and would invite litigation.

“There are legal guardrails,” said Dr. Maya Kapoor, an urban policy expert at Columbia University. “The president can direct executive departments, but outright rescinding funds appropriated by Congress would trigger constitutional review. Politically, it also has a cost — cities like New York power the national economy. If services are disrupted, the economic fallout would be widely felt.”

On the Ground: Daily Life, Rising Costs, and the Politics of Practicality

To understand what’s at stake, you have to walk the city. Take the No. 7 train in Queens on an early Tuesday morning: a sea of grocery bags, strollers, and weary students. Or the Upper West Side where a rent-stabilized apartment can still cost close to twice the national average. New Yorkers speak not in abstractions but in dollars and minutes.

“I pay almost double what my cousin pays in Ohio for the same two-bedroom,” said Tyler Ramos, a public-school teacher in the Bronx. “Inflation is not just a number — it’s real. People are making impossible choices.”

And numbers back that up. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 26% of Americans thought President Trump was doing a good job managing the cost of living — a figure that stacks onto the political pressure the city and national leaders face. Inflation, housing shortages, and a frayed transit system that affects millions daily make the mayoral office less a ceremonial perch and more a frontline command post.

Bridging Polarization: Is Compromise Possible?

There’s an almost cinematic contrast here: a president who built his brand on combative celebrity and a mayor-elect whose appeal came from grassroots zeal. Yet both claim the same objective — a stronger New York. That single sentence — “we want this city to do very well” — suggests a rare overlap in political purpose, even if the means are fiercely disputed.

So how do you govern a city that is the country’s ledger and its conscience? It requires navigation across jurisdictional lines, from the neighborhood block association to federal agencies. It demands a kind of messy diplomacy rarely taught in political science classes: the art of bargaining for buses and bonding for bridges while holding an electorate together.

“If you’re a mayor, you become a professional compromiser,” said Lena Park, a community organizer in Sunset Park. “You have to listen to Dona Rosa across the street and to the transit union down the block. You can’t be ideological forever. People need heat in winter and job training in spring.”

What This Meeting Means Globally

New York is not just America’s most populous city — it is a global node. Decisions made here ripple outwards: for markets, for immigration policy, for international investors watching how a major metropolis handles affordability and public safety. A civil meeting between two political adversaries may seem small, but it can set the tone for cooperation in crises — natural disasters, economic shocks, or public health threats — that transcend municipal borders.

Ask yourself: do we prefer our leaders to posture or to produce? When the immediate headlines fade, citizens will measure success by whether the subways run reliably, whether a child’s family can find an affordable apartment, whether neighborhoods feel safe without becoming militarized. Those are the things that define the health of a city, and by extension, the country’s resilience.

What Comes Next?

The next months will be a test. Will rhetoric give way to working-level arrangements? Will threats to federal funding materialize into legal skirmishes, or will both sides find pragmatic accommodations? For residents of New York, the answers are urgent; for observers worldwide, they’re a lesson in how democratic governments manage friction without fragmenting.

“I don’t want to see us locked in a permanent fight,” Mamdani told reporters. “I will collaborate where it helps New Yorkers, and I will stand up where it doesn’t.”

That’s as close to a road map as anyone has right now: a promise of partnership, a pledge of pushback, and the slow, inevitable work of running a city where millions share the same streets but lead dramatically different lives. Will that be enough? Only time — and turnout, policy, and hard negotiations over the little things that matter most to ordinary people — will tell.

What do you think a city like New York needs from its leaders? Tell me — and let’s keep watching how this unlikely handshake shapes the city and perhaps, in time, the nation.

Trump presses Ukraine to accept plan before looming deadline

hanad

November 22, 2025

Trump pushes Ukraine to accept plan ahead of deadline — The aftermath of a Russian drone strike on Odesa, Ukraine

An Oval Office Deadline: A Peace Proposal That Demands Territory

There was a hush in the Oval Office the day the deadline was set—part theater, part ultimatum. President Donald Trump, glancing up from a pile of briefing papers, told reporters that he had crafted a plan to end the war in Ukraine and that time was running out. He put a date on it: November 27, the American Thanksgiving holiday. “At some point, he’s going to have to accept something,” the president said, in language that left no room for subtlety.

It was not a gentle invitation. The 28-point document that has circulated in diplomatic circles asks Ukraine to surrender large tracts of eastern territory, to shrink its military, to renounce any future bid to join NATO, and—critically—to forgo Western peacekeepers on its soil. In return, European fighter jets would be based in Poland and a fragile architecture of guarantees would be proposed. To many in Kyiv and across Europe, that architecture looks tilted toward Moscow.

Kyiv’s Response: “We Will Not Betray Our Land”

President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly pushed back. “We cannot and will not betray our people, our soldiers, or the soil that we have defended,” he told a press briefing, according to officials familiar with his remarks. Behind that sentence is more than rhetoric: it is a lived history of towns and fields scarred by conflict since Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.

“They are asking us to surrender the memory of those who fell defending their homes,” said Olena Mykhailenko, a teacher in a Kyiv suburb whose neighbourhood was shelled in the early days of the war. “This is not a map issue. It is our children’s future.”

A Map on the Table — and a Choice

Imagine a map spread across the cabinet table: blue and yellow shrinking; a large red swathe creeping into the east. Negotiators have always known that maps carry moral weight. One senior diplomat watching the exchanges grumbled that peace as proposed would be “a subtraction, not an agreement.” For Ukrainians on the frontlines, the idea that ceding territory could bring peace feels like a pyrrhic bargain.

President Trump argues that if Ukraine refuses, the fighting will continue and the ground they would have lost under the plan would be lost anyway. “They are very brave,” he said, nodding to Ukrainian forces. “But if they don’t accept, then you know, they should just keep fighting.” There is a grim logic in his words—one that treats war as a ledger you can balance with land—but it is a cold calculus for couples who will never return home.

What the Plan Demands

Large-scale territorial concessions in the east of Ukraine
A significant reduction in the size of Ukraine’s armed forces
No NATO membership for Ukraine now or in the foreseeable future
No Western peacekeeping force deployed on Ukrainian soil; European air forces based in Poland instead

These points, drawn from a draft document circulating among diplomats, have set off alarm bells in capitals across Europe and a chorus of resistance from Kyiv.

Voices from the Ground: Anger, Fear and Iron Will

Take a walk through the streets of Kyiv on a market day and you can feel the unnerving mixture of resilience and loss. Vendors hawk sun-ripened tomatoes beside piles of donated winter coats; a group of young men play chess outside a bomb-scarred building. “We are exhausted from fighting, but we are not exhausted from loving our country,” says Dmytro, a 32-year-old volunteer who supplies front-line units with rations. “Peace is not something you pay for in bits of land.”

In the Donetsk region, where the memory of lost villages is still fresh, older residents speak in quieter tones. “We have seen war promised and war broken into our lives for years,” says Mariana, 67, whose family farm sits near territory claimed by separatist forces and now by Russia. “I want my grandson to pick cherries from our trees, not shells.”

International Repercussions: Johannesburg and the G20 Rift

While negotiators and leaders sparred over a map, another stage opened half a world away. The G20 summit in Johannesburg drew presidents and prime ministers from across the globe—Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Xi Jinping—yet conspicuously absent was the U.S. president. The administration explained the boycott by saying Johannesburg’s emphasis on multilateral trade and climate cooperation clashed with U.S. priorities; others read the absence as a diplomatic rebuke.

European leaders—watchful and uneasy—planned a side meeting with a clear message: “There should be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Europe’s bench of officials insisted. The insistence reflects a deeper seam of transatlantic friction: how to secure peace without selling sovereignty, and whether deadlines set by one capital should bind a nation under fire.

Beyond the Headlines: What Is Really at Stake?

This conflict—and the peace proposals now on the table—raises larger questions about how the world settles wars in the 21st century. Do we prioritize an immediate cessation of hostilities that may involve unacceptable compromises? Or do we insist on the restoration of borders and risk prolonged fighting, more death, and further destabilization across Europe?

Analysts note that peace plans that demand territorial concessions rarely settle the deeper grievances that ignite conflict. “Forced settlements without local buy-in are recipes for future tension,” says Anna Petrova, a conflict-resolution scholar. “Sustainable peace demands political reconciliation, security guarantees, and economic rebuilding that involve the affected communities themselves.”

Choices, Costs and Compromises

For Ukrainians, the choice is visceral and immediate. For global leaders, the choice is strategic and long-term. And for the rest of the world, there is a moral question: how do you balance the desire to end bloodshed with the duty to stand with a nation’s right to self-determination?

As you read these words, imagine those deadlines, maps, and summit rooms a little less abstractly. Imagine an elderly woman in the Donetsk countryside picking through the ruins of her orchard. Imagine a young father in Kyiv, checking the horizon for drones, dreaming of a future where his children can grow up without fear.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Diplomacy will grind on. Meetings will be scheduled and postponed. Back channels will hum with proposals, conditionalities, and red lines. And yet, the human imperatives remain straightforward: protect civilians, secure a durable settlement, and ensure any peace does not institutionalize injustice.

What would you accept to end a war? A deadline? A map? A guarantee? It is a question that coercive diplomacy cannot answer alone. It requires the messy, painful work of listening—to soldiers, survivors, and the small voices from towns that barely make the evening news.

In the coming days, as world leaders measure phrases and plot strategies in conference rooms, the real story will be written in markets, on front lines, around kitchen tables. That is where the bargain—if there is one—will live or die.

Minister warns COP30 negotiations have reached a difficult, crucial phase

hanad

November 22, 2025

COP30 negotiations at difficult stage, says minister — Minister for Climate Darragh O'Brien said the proposed text of a final agreement is 'not acceptable'

Under the Fabric Ceiling: A Night of Tension and Smoke at COP30

Belém is humid in November; the air has the slow, deep breathe of the Amazon. At the COP30 conference venue, the day began with the bright, hopeful choreography of diplomats—name badges, quick smiles, last-minute briefings. By evening, the choreography had broken. A small fire licked a hole through the venue’s fabric ceiling and, for a time, literal daylight streamed into a room full of negotiators who had been arguing over whether the final climate text should even name the thing at the center of the crisis: fossil fuels.

It’s theatre and emergency all at once: the smell of smoke in a room whose purpose is to stop the world burning, negotiators shuttled into side-rooms, and a palpable sense that something more than a clause was at stake. “We came here to tell the truth,” said Ireland’s Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien. “To leave it out of the text is inexplicable.”

What’s Missing: The Fossil Fuel Void

The draft final agreement that made its rounds through the conference seemed to have been written with a glaring omission: no explicit reference to fossil fuels, and no roadmap for a managed, just transition off them. For many—especially European delegations and a coalition of nearly 85 countries—this was less a drafting oversight and more a moral failure.

Why does that matter? Because fossil fuels remain the principal driver of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Around three-quarters of global CO2 emissions are tied directly to the burning of coal, oil and gas. Temperatures have already risen roughly 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, and every fraction of a degree matters for heatwaves, sea-level rise, and ecosystems like the Amazon that are both carbon sinks and weather-makers.

The Letter That Stirred the Room

Earlier in the week, a bloc of 30 countries—composed of many EU members and partners including the UK, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Palau and Mexico—delivered a stark letter to the COP30 Presidency. It said, bluntly, they couldn’t support a final outcome that failed to include a roadmap for a “just, orderly and equitable” transition away from fossil fuels. It also criticized the absence of strong commitments linking climate action to nature protection—no explicit language on halting deforestation, the letter noted, is “deeply concerning.”

Voices from Belém: Anger, Despair, Resolve

Human stories are what make negotiations matter. In a small circle near the conference’s coffee station, Juan Carlos Monterrey, Panama’s climate envoy, used uncompromising language. “A climate text that cannot mention fossil fuels is a climate text that refuses to speak the truth,” he said. “It fails the Amazon, it fails science, it fails justice, and it fails the people we are here to represent.”

On the ground, the scene mixed exhaustion and indignation. “We are standing here in the shadow of the forest and we cannot even agree to protect it,” said Ana Silva, a rubber-tapper who had come from a riverside community two hours outside Belém to observe. “My grandchildren ask me if the river will still be here. I do not have answers for them.”

An EU negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity to convey an unvarnished mood, told me: “Europe is prepared to be constructive. But we cannot sign a blank check to the fossil fuel industry. Our citizens demand faster, fairer action.”

A Different Perspective: Sovereignty and Development

Not everyone at the conference saw omission as denial. A bloc of Arab nations and several African delegations expressed alarm at language that could be read as prescriptive on national energy choices. “Countries must maintain the right to decide their own energy mix,” said a delegate from an oil-producing country. “Development and energy security are not negotiable luxuries.”

That debate—between climate urgency and development rights—cuts to the heart of the COP process. It’s not merely technical drafting; it’s a clash of worldviews: priorities, histories of energy use, and the lingering scars of unequal development.

Why a Roadmap Matters

A “roadmap” is more than a bureaucratic artifact. For communities like Ana’s, it means time-bound plans, financial support, job retraining programs, and assurances that a transition won’t leave anyone behind. For investors and energy planners, it provides predictability. For scientists and activists, it offers an accountable pathway to close the emissions gap that current national pledges leave wide open.

Global emissions need rapid, deep cuts this decade to keep a 1.5°C pathway within reach. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly said the next five to ten years are decisive. A roadmap anchored in equity would include:

Clear timelines for phasing out coal and cutting oil and gas use, with safeguards for affected workers;
Major public finance shifts toward clean energy and nature-based solutions;
Mechanisms to assist low-income and climate-vulnerable countries with transition costs;
Strong measures to halt deforestation and restore degraded ecosystems.

Local Color: Belém, the Amazon, and the Human Scale

Walking the streets around the conference, you feel Belém’s rhythms: market stalls piled with açaí and tacacá, the scent of fried fish, conversations that slip seamlessly between Portuguese and Indigenous languages. The Amazon is not an abstract carbon ledger here; it is the weather, the food, and the cultural backbone of people who read the forest’s signs daily.

“We do not want to be climate refugees,” said José Pereira, a fisherman from a riverside community. “The forest gives us fish. If you take that away, you take our life.”

What This Moment Means Globally

The standoff in Belém is a microcosm of a larger reality: the world is entangled in competing imperatives—economic development, geopolitical stability, and environmental limits. That tension will not vanish in a night or a plenary; it will require political courage, finance, and a reimagining of what prosperity looks like in a warming world.

Do we prioritize narrow national interests, or do we steward a shared planetary inheritance? It is the question negotiators are chewing through sleepless hours, and it is the question citizens should be asking their leaders back home.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Negotiators are expected to keep working into the small hours, to stitch together a text that may yet include compromise language on fossil fuels and nature. Whether that stitch holds will depend on more than who wins a sentence in a document—it will depend on the political will to fund transitions, protect forests, and ensure that those least responsible for warming don’t pay the highest price.

“We can’t let the confetti of diplomatic language hide what needs to change on the ground,” said Dr. Maria Alvarez, a climate policy researcher who has worked across Latin America. “Words matter, but so does money, and technology transfer, and legal mechanisms.”

So ask yourself: if the draft text becomes the final text, what will that mean for the child in Belém who plays beneath the forest canopy? For the oil worker in a coastal town who fears unemployment? For the islands watching sea levels rise? Climate negotiations are not theater for spectators. They are a line of action that either loosens or tightens around the neck of our collective future.

Tonight, in a humid hall with a hole in its ceiling, the world is deciding whether to call the crisis by name. That choice will echo far beyond Belém.

McNally family seeks long-awaited closure after recent criminal sentencing

hanad

November 22, 2025

McNally family hoping for closure following sentencing — Sarah McNally was attacked and stabbed to death at a bar in New York last year

A courtroom in motion: twenty minutes that changed everything

The elevator to Court 309 smelled faintly of disinfectant and the old leather of worn benches. It was a gray November morning, the kind that compresses time. By the time the wall clock nudged 11:20 a.m., the case that had reverberated from a small bar in Maspeth to a grieving household in Ireland was finished.

He came in a beige sweatsuit, shorn head, a beard that softened his face into an unreadable mask. His hands were cuffed behind him. Marcin Pieciak did not stand trial. He had entered a plea a month earlier, and today the judge — Ushir Pandit-Durant — moved with a practiced economy, read the terms, and enforced them: 24 years behind bars, followed by five years of post-release supervision.

It felt swift. It was meant to be. Prosecutors and defense counsel had negotiated to avoid a jury trial and the prospect of a life sentence. “This disposition was negotiated,” the judge told the packed courtroom, “and the court will abide.”

Across an ocean: a family’s heartbreak read aloud

Sarah McNally’s parents were not physically present in Queens. They watched from Ireland via a court video link, listening as their letter — a testament to ordinary, incandescent love and extraordinary grief — was read into the public record.

“Sarah was the light of our lives,” the recorded voice said, reading the letter that circled between memory and disbelief. “She was our first child, our pride. She loved music, animals, and she lit up any room she walked into.”

The prosecutor paused to let the weight of those lines hang. The family’s words dominated the hearing; they stitched the crime back to a human life. In another era the letter might have stayed private; here it became the anchor of public reckoning.

Words in the room

An assistant district attorney described the evidence in stark, clinical terms. “The surveillance evidence shows a ferocity that is hard to watch,” the prosecutor told reporters afterwards, adding that the footage left no doubt as to the brutal nature of the attack. “We wanted the family’s voice to be heard.”

Pieciak spoke once. He paused, looked to the screen where Sarah’s parents watched, and said, “I’m thinking about Sarah every day. I have no answers now. Maybe one day you can forgive me.” It was the only public utterance he made in the courtroom.

Maspeth’s hush: a bar shuttered and a neighborhood unsettled

Walk the block around the old Ceili House and you will find a green facade and the echo of laughter that no longer fills the room. The bar has been boarded up and gutted; men with drills are knocking down a dividing wall to make space for a laundromat. The neighborhood has moved on in the small practical ways; the world keeps offering commerce where community once stacked chairs and traded stories.

“It’s like a shadow fell over the street,” a shopkeeper who asked not to be named told me, fingers still ink-stained from the register. “She used to come in every day. Bought a Coke and a sandwich. Always tipped the kids making the sandwiches. The place just…lost its heart.”

Julita, a law student and regular at the Ceili House whose favorite bartender was Sarah, came to court. She had expected a routine class assignment to be dull; instead she watched a town’s sorrow unspool in a 20-minute hearing. “I remember Sarah laughing behind the bar,” Julita said. “She was kind to everyone. It’s shocking to know what happened.”

The legal fast lane: pleas, proof, and the public’s right to see

It’s a fact of American criminal justice: most cases never see a jury. More than nine in ten convictions are the result of guilty pleas rather than trials. That system moves cases efficiently, but it also means the most wrenching facts often reach the public in compressed form — a document here, a recording there, a judge’s gavel at the end.

In Court 309, the judge allowed cameras. A defense lawyer had opposed filming; the judge reminded counsel that justice is supposed to happen with public oversight when possible. “New technology helps families and the public see and understand,” she said, and consent was granted. The videos and the victim’s letter became the courtroom’s memory.

What the deal means

The plea reduced the charge from murder to first-degree manslaughter — a change that determined the punishment. Facing a potential 25-years-to-life verdict if convicted at trial, Pieciak agreed to accept 24 years. For prosecutors it was a guarantee of punishment and a guarantee the family would not have to relive a trial; for the defense, an avoidance of the worst possible outcome.

Beyond one case: intimate partner violence and the questions we avoid

This story is local and global at once. Somewhere between the barstool and the court transcript lies a pattern familiar to advocates and researchers: a woman killed by someone she knew. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long documented that millions of women experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. Those statistics are not just numbers; they are trajectories that end in hospital rooms, in restraining orders, and sometimes, tragically, in courtrooms like this.

“Every case like this should prompt us to ask what prevents intervention earlier,” said an academic who studies domestic violence. “Were there warning signs? Could community supports have intervened? These are uncomfortable—but necessary—questions.”

The McNally case also raises a legal question: when is a plea the best route to justice? Is a guaranteed sentence preferable to the uncertainty of a jury verdict? For families waiting for closure, the calculus is unbearably personal.

Small rituals, great absences

Outside the courthouse, a neighbor handed out a folded paper with Sarah’s name printed on it. Inside, the prosecutor thanked the family for trusting the office to represent Sarah’s voice. In Maspeth, the sandwich counter where Sarah once left tips now serves another customer. Across the Atlantic, her parents live with an absence that no courtroom order can fill.

“We will continue to speak Sarah’s name,” the family letter said. They will. Names are the small sacred things we hold onto when systems of law and order try to make sense of what cannot be undone.

What do we ask of justice?

When we leave a courtroom after a quick sentencing, what do we owe those who cannot be there? Is public punishment enough? Can a negotiated plea ever answer a family’s need for meaning, for ritual, for the sense that wrongdoing was seen and named?

We know one thing: for twenty minutes on a November morning, the machinery of law and the rawness of private loss intersected. For the McNally family, a sentence has been imposed. For a neighborhood, a bar closed. For a city, another statistic entered the ledger of violent crime. For all of us, the case is a reminder to look up from our screens and ask whether the ways we address domestic violence — from community support to legal strategy — are doing enough.

What do you think? When does the efficiency of plea bargaining become a disservice to victims, and when is it an act of mercy? The questions linger long after the gavel falls.

Former Fugees member Pras Michel handed 14-year prison term

hanad

November 22, 2025

Fugees rapper Pras Michel sentenced to 14 years in prison — Singer Pras Michel performs onstage with The Fugees on 4 November 2023 in Los Angeles, California

The Fall of a Fugee: Pras Michel’s 14-Year Sentence and the Long Shadow of 1MDB

On a brisk morning in Brooklyn — the kind where conversations about music and politics collide on stoops and in bodegas — longtime neighbors awakened to a headline that seemed to come from two different worlds at once: Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a founding member of the Fugees, was handed 168 months in federal prison for his role in a sprawling international corruption scheme.

To many, Michel is a symbol of the 1990s: a Haitian-American kid who rose from neighborhood cyphers to Grammy stages alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. To federal prosecutors, he is a conspirator in a web of secret money, foreign influence, and opaque shell companies connected to the Malaysian 1MDB scandal — one of the biggest financial scandals of the 21st century.

A headline that links music, money and geopolitics

The court’s decision, confirmed by Michel’s attorney, caps a case that has routed through Hollywood, Wall Street, Kuala Lumpur and Washington. In 2023, a jury found the 53-year-old guilty on 10 counts — including money laundering, campaign finance violations, conspiracy and acting as an undisclosed agent of a foreign government.

Prosecutors portrayed a clear thread: funds siphoned from Malaysia’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) — investigators estimate roughly $4.5 billion was misappropriated — were used to buy art, real estate and finance cultural products and political influence across the globe.

“He betrayed his country for money,” a Justice Department prosecutor said last year. “He funneled millions of dollars in prohibited foreign contributions into a United States presidential election.”

The cast: fugitive financiers, famous faces, and fallen fundraisers

The scandal centers on Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, the Malaysian financier accused of orchestrating the 1MDB plunder. Low is a fugitive, believed to be in China, and he became infamous for a jet-setting lifestyle financed in part by alleged 1MDB funds. Those funds, prosecutors say, seeped into projects like the Hollywood film Wolf of Wall Street — where Leonardo DiCaprio later appeared as a witness in the trial — and into political channels in the United States.

Michel was accused of helping hide the true source of donations and using shell companies to channel millions into political activities, including contributions connected with the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. The trial relied on a patchwork of bank records, text messages and testimony from high-profile witnesses.

“The evidence showed layers of shell companies and secrecy meant to obscure where the money came from,” said Dr. Maya Reynolds, a campaign finance scholar. “When foreign money enters a domestic political process hidden behind intermediaries, it corrodes both public trust and legal boundaries.”

Voices from the neighborhood

Outside a record store in Flatbush, Sylvia Jean-Baptiste, who sells vinyl and Haitian coffee, shrugged and folded a poster. “We loved the music,” she said. “But music and money are different things. I don’t know him the way the judge does, but it hurts to hear it.”

A cousin of Michel’s who asked not to be named told me the family feels “shocked and heartbroken,” and bristled at the suggestion that a musician could be more harshly punished than wealthier political operators. “No one gets the same yardstick,” the cousin said. “It’s not just law — it’s theater.”

Disparities and the fight to appeal

Michel’s legal team, led by Peter Zeidenberg, said the sentence was “completely disproportional” and announced plans to appeal. Zeidenberg highlighted disparities between Michel’s punishment and those of others tied to the same storyline: former fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who has been pardoned; former DOJ official George Higginbotham, who received three months of probation; and businesswoman Nickie Lum Davis, given 24 months.

“There simply is no justification for Mr. Michel being singled out like this except for the penalty for opting for trial,” Zeidenberg said. The lawyer argues Michel’s punishment reflects the hazards of going to trial rather than accepting plea deals — a critique echoed by defense attorneys across the country who warn of an uneven bargaining table in the federal system.

More than one scandal: China, Guo Wengui and the murk of influence

The Michel story is multi-threaded. In 2017, he also faced allegations of lobbying on behalf of Chinese interests to secure the extradition of Guo Wengui, an entrepreneur accused of defrauding investors of more than $1 billion. That episode illustrates how celebrity networks, foreign governments and private power can intersect in ways that blur lines of advocacy and law.

“There’s a marketplace now for influence,” observed Nora Patel, a former federal prosecutor. “Celebrities are powerful conduits — but with that comes responsibility. If you’re taking direction or money from a foreign interest without disclosure, you’re not just doing PR work; you may be breaking the law.”

The cultural context: when a pop star becomes a defendant

It’s jarring to see a figure from the soundtrack of a generation in court. The Fugees — with hits that fused hip-hop, soul and Caribbean cadence — captured the late 1990s with albums that sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and earned Grammy recognition. The irony is plain: a group that voiced social concerns in their music now finds a founding member entangled in a global scandal about money and power.

“We sang about community and pain,” said Alexis Dupont, a Haitian-American music historian. “Pras’ fall is a reminder that fame doesn’t inoculate you from the seductions of money and foreign intrigue.”

What this case tells us about accountability and power

Beyond the particulars of one man’s fate, the Michel case points to broader questions about how democracies police foreign influence, how wealth can corrupt civic processes, and how the legal system treats defendants unequally. It raises urgent questions for voters: How do we know who is buying access? What safeguards are adequate to prevent foreign cash from warping political debate?

The 1MDB case has led to rare global cooperation — investigations and prosecutions spanning the U.S., Malaysia, Switzerland, and Singapore — and to recovery efforts that have reclaimed assets, from yachts to paintings. U.S. authorities have sought to seize more than $1 billion in assets linked to the scandal, but many billions remain unaccounted for and many questions unanswered.

As Michel prepares to appeal and a community mourns an errant son who once helped craft anthems, the story will continue to unfold. Will the appeal narrow the sentence? Will other figures linked to the scandal face renewed scrutiny? And most importantly: what reforms will ensure that culture and politics remain separate from hidden, foreign influence?

When you think of the music that shaped you, do you also think about the forces that bankroll the world around that music? This case asks us to see both the beat and the ledger behind it — to listen with a critical ear.

Age at sentencing: 53 years
Sentence: 168 months (14 years)
Convictions: 10 counts, including money laundering and campaign finance violations
Notable linked scandal: 1MDB, estimated $4.5 billion misappropriated

Whatever you remember of the Fugees — the harmonies, the grit, the global reach — those memories are now braided with a legal saga that spans continents. The music still plays. The consequences are catching up.

What’s the purpose of Russia’s ‘research ships’ near UK waters?

hanad

November 21, 2025

Defence Forces 'aware' of Russian spy ship's movements — An image released by the UK of the spy ship Yantar on the edge of its territorial waters

In the shadow of the North Atlantic: a Russian ship, hidden machinery, and the fragile thread of the internet

On a damp morning off Scotland’s northern edge, the sea can look like a sheet of pewter — deceptively calm, hiding the depths. It’s here, between fishing grounds and the quiet hum of transatlantic cables, that a hulking silhouette has been tracked time and again: the Yantar. To sailors and residents, she’s a gray shape on the horizon. To strategists and cable engineers, she is a mobile, secretive platform with the capability to peer at the arteries of the modern world.

“We watch her when she comes,” said a fisherman who has worked the waters north of the Orkneys for three decades, asking not to be named. “You don’t see her every day, but when she’s here everyone notices. The boats change course. People talk.”

What is Yantar really doing?

Officially, Russia describes the Yantar as a civilian oceanographic research vessel, built at the Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad, and intended for deep-sea research and search-and-rescue work. In practice, Western defense officials say it is much more: a platform for sophisticated undersea operations run by a shadowy arm of the Russian military, the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, commonly known by the Russian acronym GUGI.

“Yantar is not a research vessel like you’d send to study whales,” a senior Western defense source told me, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s a capability for persistent seabed reconnaissance — mapping, surveying, and potentially interfering with undersea cables.”

Those cables matter more than most people realize. Estimates suggest that roughly 95% of intercontinental internet traffic travels via submarine cables — thousands of miles of fiber optic threads connecting continents. Around 400–450 active cable systems span more than a million kilometers of seabed, carrying everything from selfies to stock trades and emergency calls. Damage to just a few of these links could choke regional traffic and translate into real economic pain.

The ship and its toys

The Yantar is a big machine: about 108 metres long, with a complement of roughly 60 crew and endurance measured in months at sea. But its headline capability lies beneath the waves — she carries manned submersibles reportedly named Rus and Consul, capable of plunging to depths of 6,000 metres. In addition, a cadre of unmanned underwater vehicles — the so-called underwater drones — populate her decks.

Length: ~108 metres
Crew: ~60
Endurance: weeks to months at sea
Submersible depth capability: up to 6,000 metres

These craft are designed to find, inspect, lift and, if necessary, manipulate objects on the seabed. In past missions, the Yantar has been seen near wreckage and salvage sites, such as the location where a cargo ship sank in the Mediterranean. But defense officials worry the ship’s true mission extends beyond salvage: mapping the precise routes of cables, perhaps probing repeaters or anchor points, and — alarmingly to some — surveying for vulnerabilities that could be exploited in wartime.

Secrecy, sanctions and denials

GUGI itself is an enigma: a unit whose activities are so classified that only a small elite, sometimes described as Russian “hydronauts,” are said to know the full extent of its operations. Western governments have taken notice. Britain, for instance, has publicly linked the Yantar’s movements with intelligence-gathering on undersea infrastructure and placed sanctions on elements reportedly connected to GUGI.

“We’re not playing at conspiracy here,” said a maritime security analyst at a London-based think tank. “The technology exists: manned submersibles, remotely operated vehicles, cable grapplers. If a state chooses to map and, if necessary, disable undersea infrastructure, it’s within current capabilities.”

Russia’s counter-narrative is straightforward: these are civilian research ships. The embassy in London dismissed Western warnings as “militaristic hysteria,” insisting Moscow has no interest in British underwater communications. “They are drawing nautical charts,” Aleksey Zhuravlev, deputy chair of Russia’s Defence Committee, told a Russian news outlet. “That’s their job.”

Local reactions — curiosity, unease, resignation

In small coastal towns, responses run from bemused curiosity to quiet unease. “We’ve seen navy vessels before, but this one is different,” said a pier worker in Scrabster. “The locals don’t want trouble, but everyone’s aware how much depends on those cables. My grandson’s bank, my daughter’s job — they all rely on invisible things under the sea.”

There’s also a cultural layer. In the Highlands and Islands, the sea is both livelihood and identity; it feeds, isolates and unites communities. Seeing a foreign ship conducting operations — even charting and mapping — touches nerves about sovereignty and the sanctity of local waters.

Why this matters to you

It’s easy to imagine undersea cables as technical marvels far removed from daily life. But their fragility and strategic importance are very real. A targeted attack or even accidental damage can disrupt finance, communications, and emergency responses across regions. Governments are now investing in both defensive measures — like cable hardening and surveillance — and in diplomatic tools to secure seabed infrastructure.

Ask yourself: what would a day without reliable internet look like for your town, your work, your family? For cities dependent on cloud services, it could be crippling. For remote communities, it could sever lifelines.

Looking to the future

Russia is not alone in developing capabilities beneath the waves. Nations from the U.S. to China and smaller maritime states are increasingly focused on the seabed — not just for resources, but for strategic leverage. The Yantar is part of a broader tapestry: she’s the lead ship of a Project 22010 series that includes vessels commissioned in 2012 and 2022, and another, called Almaz, slated for completion in 2026.

“We’re observing a new frontier,” said a senior analyst who follows naval procurement. “The maritime domain has always been contested, but the focus is shifting deeper — literally — as undersea assets become critical infrastructure.”

That raises tough questions about law, norms and deterrence. How do nations establish rules for the seabed? Who polices activities in international waters? And what threshold of action constitutes hostile interference versus legitimate research?

Final thoughts: eyes on the horizon

As the Yantar moves through cold northern waters, her wake is more than a line on a map. It’s a flashpoint where technology, geopolitics and everyday life intersect. The ship herself may be a single platform, but the debate she sparks is global: about transparency in maritime operations, protection of shared infrastructure, and how nations will behave in the age of undersea power.

As a reader, consider the hidden architecture that keeps your world online. Are we doing enough to protect it? And as states test capabilities beneath the waves, are we — collectively — prepared for the consequences?

One thing is clear: the deep sea is no longer an empty void. It is a theatre where strategy meets silence, and the next move may be made far from sight but close to home.

Irish Bodybuilding Team Readies for World Championships in Los Angeles

hanad

November 21, 2025

Irish bodybuilders prepare for World Championships in LA — Conor McCarthy and Dylan Nolan are both competing at the World Natural Bodybuilding Championships in LA

From County Clare to the City of Angels: Ireland’s Natural Bodybuilders Head to Los Angeles

There is a peculiar kind of hush that settles over a gym at dawn—the smell of iron, the whisper of laces being tied, the low hum of someone cranking through cardio while a radio plays old rock. For 15 men and women from across Ireland, that hush has been the metronome of their lives for months. This weekend, those early mornings and strict meal plans will meet the bright, brazen lights of Los Angeles at the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation (WNBF) World Championships.

It’s not just a trip. It’s a statement: that muscle and discipline can be pursued without shortcuts, that grit and patience can still win applause on the world stage.

The long road from Sligo to L.A.

Dylan Nolan is the sort of person who greets a reporter with a grin and a list. He grew up in County Clare, now trains in Sligo, and earned his ticket to LA after topping his division at the WNBF Ireland nationals. By daylight he inspects products as a quality-assurance specialist; by evening he coaches clients and crafts his own training blocks.

“I train six days a week, usually once a day,” Nolan says, rolling his shoulders as if recalibrating them by habit. “A normal session might be ninety minutes of strength, then twenty to forty minutes of cardio. When you’re contest-ready, you add posing rehearsals—two, two and a half hours isn’t unusual. It becomes a full-time focus even if your job is full-time.”

His voice is matter-of-fact, but there’s an underlying tenderness when he explains the trade-offs. “You have to track everything. Food, sleep, weights—progression is tracked in spreadsheets and photos. It’s meticulous, almost ritualistic.” Those rituals tighten as competition nears: calories are pared down, sodium and water intake are manipulated, poses are polished until they look effortless. The aim is to arrive on stage looking sculpted, balanced, and—importantly—clean.

Natural by design: what the WNBF stands for

The WNBF was born in New York City under the guidance of Chen N. Low and has grown into a federation recognized for its strict drug-testing protocols. Its world championships draw athletes from more than 60 countries; this year Ireland sends a 15-strong squad led domestically by Finbarr and Lill Murphy from County Wexford.

“We wanted a platform where athletes could compete and be sure everyone was playing by the same rules,” says Finbarr Murphy. “People deserve a level field—especially in bodybuilding, where the temptation to take shortcuts can be intense.”

How strict is strict? Competitors in the WNBF face an intense polygraph and mandatory urinalysis for winners; random testing is standard at many events. For many athletes, that assurance—that everyone is clean—is the central appeal.

“If you go to a non-tested event, you can feel the pressure,” Nolan explains. “If you’re natural and someone beside you is chemically enhanced, you can be tempted to chase that. Here, it’s clear: you’re competing against dedication, not syringes.”

Behind the photos: the toll and the triumph

Bodybuilding, even in its “natural” form, is not free of controversy. Critics warn about extreme dieting, dehydration practices used to accentuate muscle definition, and the psychological toll of chronic body scrutiny. Medical research has shown that both misuse of performance-enhancing drugs and extreme weight manipulation can be harmful to cardiovascular health and metabolic balance.

Dr. Aisling Byrne, a cardiologist and sports-health researcher in Dublin, offers a measured view: “When dieting patterns become extreme—severe caloric restriction combined with dehydration and stimulant use—the heart can be put under significant strain. But there is a spectrum. Natural competitors who follow evidence-based plans and work with experienced coaches can mitigate many risks.”

There is also an emotional cost and a social one. Relationships shift around contest seasons; family gatherings are timed to fit prep phases; nights out are traded for meal prep and sleep. Yet many athletes insist they are healthier than before they started competing.

“You’d be surprised,” says Conor McCarthy from Mullingar, County Westmeath, a father of three and a seasoned WNBF competitor. “When you’re natural, your supplements are sensible, your food is clean. Sure, energy can drop near showtime, but overall you’re more disciplined and aware of your nutrition than most people.”

Local color: pubs, porridge and a pinch of rivalry

Travel with Irish bodybuilders and you notice small things: the careful packing of tupperware containers, a playlist of traditional ballads beside pump-up tracks, a quick detour to a local café that knows just how the athlete likes his porridge. Rivalries are good-natured, rivalry turning into camaraderie when a teammate hits a personal best.

“There’s banter about who makes the best pre-show oats,” Nolan laughs. “But on the day, you want everyone to do well. We’re small islands but big-hearted.”

Fans back home will gather in living rooms and gyms, streaming the event, swapping updates on social media, and cheering each good line-up as if Ireland itself were on stage.

What this competition means beyond trophies

Ask the athletes why they persist and the answers are rarely about ribbons. They speak of the quiet power of discipline, the pride in representing a tiny nation in a massive arena, and the hope that their visibility reshapes people’s ideas about the sport.

“People assume bodybuilding equals steroids—instantly,” McCarthy says. “But the WNBF shows another path. I want young people to see that strength and aesthetics can come with integrity.”

There’s a bigger cultural conversation at play: how societies value authenticity, fairness, and the narratives we craft about bodies. In an era of doctored images and performance-enhancing temptations, a movement insisting on clean sport feels almost insurgent.

So what do you think, reader? When a sport chooses verification over spectacle, does it become more meaningful? Does the story of disciplined, natural athletes resonate differently today, when everything can be faked by filters or chemistry?

Los Angeles: a stage and a test

By the time the Irish team steps out under Los Angeles lights, they will carry more than sunblock and trunks. They carry months of tiny sacrifices, the steadying presence of family, and the quiet hope that fair play still matters.

“I just want to get on stage and do my best,” Nolan says. “If I can inspire one person to pursue fitness honestly, that’s a win.”

Over the weekend, as champions are crowned and cameras flash, remember that every flex, every pose, is the endpoint of a story—of routine, restraint, community, and courage. Whether you’re a fitness devotee or someone curious about what integrity looks like in sport, this is a show worth watching.

Keep an eye on the results; tune in if you can. Let their journeys nudge a conversation about performance, fairness, and what “natural” truly means in a world obsessed with the quickest route to the top.

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