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Entertainment & Culture

Red Sea: Michael Caine, Adrien Brody, Vin Diesel, Jessica Alba and Uma Thurman Spotted in Saudi Arabia as Fest Kicks Off With Giant
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 5:44 amDecember 6, 2025 1:36 am

The fifth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival opened Thursday night with a glittering red carpet and the Middle East premiere of Giant, British filmmaker Rowan Athale’s boxing biopic about British-Yemeni champion “Prince” Naseem Hamed, starring Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan. The launch again transformed Jeddah’s Al-Balad — the city’s UNESCO World Heritage…

Read More Red Sea: Michael Caine, Adrien Brody, Vin Diesel, Jessica Alba and Uma Thurman Spotted in Saudi Arabia as Fest Kicks Off With Giant
Asia Focus

India eyes Russia S-400 deal despite US sanctions threat
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 5:22 amDecember 5, 2025 7:10 am

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in India amid growing unease in India–US relations and the stalled 2025 Quad summit. Although the trip, from December 4-5, falls under the India-Russia annual dialogue mechanism, expectations are high over potential defense outcomes, particularly whether New Delhi will seek additional S-400 air defense regiments. India purchased five S-400 regiments…

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Business

Taiwan to ban Chinese app RedNote over fraud concerns
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 4:56 amDecember 5, 2025 5:30 am

Taiwan says it will block access to popular Chinese social media app RedNote or Xiaohongshu for one year following concerns over online shopping scams. The island’s Criminal Investigation Bureau said Thursday it detected more than 1,700 fraud cases on the app since last year, with total losses worth more than NT$247m (£5.9m; $7.9m), local media…

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Sports

Washington joining Giants staff as infield coach
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 2:43 am

Alden GonzalezDec 4, 2025, 02:28 PM ET Close ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016. Former Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington is joining the San Francisco Giants‘ coaching staff, he confirmed Thursday.. Washington, a longtime third-base coach before…

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Asia Focus

Opinion | Not just China: India also a piece of the US opioid puzzle
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 1:41 am

Much has been written about China’s alleged role in the US opioid crisis. Chemicals from Chinese suppliers have supposedly been used by Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl, which is then trafficked into the United States where it has fuelled a deadly overdose crisis. Successive US administrations have pressured Beijing to crack down on its chemical…

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Technology

Debian vs. Ubuntu: Which Linux distro is right for you?
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 1:30 am

David Madison/DigitalVision/Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Debian and Ubuntu are similar, but they’re not the same Debian is more stable, and Ubuntu is easier to use. I’d only recommend one of them to users new to Linux. Ubuntu is based on Debian, and hundreds of…

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Business

Waterstones would sell books written by AI, says chains boss
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 1:27 amDecember 5, 2025 1:49 am

Felicity Hannah,Big Boss Interviewand Michael Sheils McNamee,Business reporter PA Waterstones would stock books created using artificial intelligence, the company’s boss has said, as long as they were clearly labelled, and if customers wanted them. However, James Daunt, a veteran of the bookselling industry, said he personally did not expect that to happen. “There’s a huge…

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World News

Admiral testified Pete Hegseth did not give kill them all order, US lawmakers say
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 1:20 amDecember 5, 2025 1:40 am

Cai Pigliucci at the US Capitol, James FitzGerald, and Brandon Drenon in Washington Reuters A US Navy admiral testified that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give the order to “kill them all” during a controversial second US military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, multiple lawmakers have said. The affirmations by…

Read More Admiral testified Pete Hegseth did not give kill them all order, US lawmakers say
Technology

Simulars AI agent wants to run your Mac, Windows PC for you | TechCrunch
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 1:07 amDecember 6, 2025 6:17 am

Simular, a startup building AI agents for Mac OS and Windows, has raised a $21.5 million Series A led by Felicis, with NVentures (Nvidia’s venture arm), existing seed investor South Park Commons, and others joining in. Simular is an interesting agentic startup because unlike others, it isn’t trying to control the browser but the PC…

Read More Simulars AI agent wants to run your Mac, Windows PC for you | TechCrunch
Technology

ChatGPT referrals to retailers apps increased 28% year-over-year, says report | TechCrunch
Posted onDecember 5, 2025 1:07 amDecember 10, 2025 7:53 am

New data shows ChatGPT’s growing influence as a referrer to e-commerce websites, as well as how small its slice of this market is currently. According to a new analysis by mobile app insights provider Apptopia, ChatGPT referrals to retailer mobile apps increased 28% year-over-year over the Black Friday holiday shopping weekend, running from Thanksgiving Day…

Read More ChatGPT referrals to retailers apps increased 28% year-over-year, says report | TechCrunch