Despite their proximity to Venezuela, inhabitants of the Guyanese border town of Mabaruma have little to do with their Spanish-speaking neighbors, says Brentnol Ashley, governor for the Barima-Waini region.

Like other communities dotted across the dense jungles of the Essequibo region, Mabaruma is a patchwork of Indigenous peoples bound together by the English language and Guyana’s national culture.

“We are a diverse nation, but at the end of the day we are all one people: the Guyanese,” said Ashley.

The only Spanish speakers in the riverside settlement are Venezuelans who have sought refuge there in recent years after fleeing their home country’s economic collapse, Ashley said.

So when the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, announced this week that he would issue his country’s ID cards to the local population, and step up efforts to convert Essequibo into a Venezuelan state, local people showed little interest in taking up the offer.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on human rights Saturday to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia.

“Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity,” Erdogan told a packed hall in Istanbul the day before the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“All the values relating to humanity are being murdered in Gaza. In the face of such brutality, international institutions and human rights organizations are not taking any concrete steps to prevent such violations,” the Turkish leader said.

The human rights declaration, proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, enshrines a standard for human rights and freedoms for all people.

Apps and websites that use artificial intelligence to undress women in photos are soaring in popularity, according to researchers.

In September alone, 24 million people visited undressing websites, according to the social network analysis company Graphika.

Many of these undressing, or “nudify,” services use popular social networks for marketing, according to Graphika. For instance, since the beginning of this year, the number of links advertising undressing apps increased more than 2,400% on social media, including on X and Reddit, the researchers said. The services use AI to recreate an image so that the person is nude. Many of the services only work on women.

These apps are part of a worrying trend of non-consensual pornography being developed and distributed because of advances in artificial intelligence — a type of fabricated media known as deepfake pornography. Its proliferation runs into serious legal and ethical hurdles, as the images are often taken from social media and distributed without the consent, control or knowledge of the subject.

Edward C. Mathews, 47, had a pattern of terrorizing his Black neighbors, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said.

A white New Jersey man who was captured in a viral video in 2021 harassing his Black neighbors and hurling racial slurs was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison.

Edward C. Mathews, 47, was ordered to serve at least four years before he is eligible for parole, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

In October, he pleaded guilty to four counts of bias intimidation and possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute. The charges stem from a 2021 incident in which footage showed him repeatedly calling his neighbors the N-word and another offensive slur outside a home in Mount Laurel.

National Retail Federation says 2021 data was flawed and based on congressional testimony from president of an advocacy group

The powerful National Retail Federation (NRF) lobbying group has retracted a claim that “organized retail crime” accounted for “nearly half” of the shopping industry’s $94.5bn losses due to theft or “shrink” in 2021.

The industry group had said the impact of organized retail crime, which it previously claimed had increased by 26.5%, had become increasingly violent. Retail giants like Target, Walmart and Walgreens said it was threatening their businesses.

The NRF said the figure was based on a congressional testimony from Ben Dugan, the former president of an advocacy group, the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail, and that an analyst from K2 Integrity, a risk consultancy that co-authored the report, inferred the “nearly half” claim.

The Republican Party’s “repeal and replace Obamacare” zombie is back, and it’s even more brain-dead than before.

The possibility that we might, as The New Republic’s editor Michael Tomasky put it, “sleepwalk” into a second Trump presidency is very real, which is all the more shocking given the mounting evidence that Trump Redux could well end America as we know it. The New Republic’s Matt Ford capably laid out how few guardrails remain in place, including, as Brian Beutler noted in his Off Message newsletter, “the likelihood that Trump will have carte blanche if not active participation from Congress.” The Atlantic, our doughty journal of ruling-class opinion, has even dedicated an entire upcoming issue to the topic.

The Republican National Committee on Friday afternoon said it would pause participation in further Republican presidential primary debates, effectively leaving decisions around future debates up to media organizations and the 2024 Republican presidential candidates themselves.

"We have held four successful debates across the country with the most conservative partners in the history of a Republican primary," the Republican National Committee (RNC)'s Committee on Presidential Debates said in a statement. "We have no RNC debates scheduled in January and any debates currently scheduled are not affiliated with the RNC."

"It is now time for Republican primary voters to decide who will be our next President and candidates are free to use any forum or format to communicate to voters as they see fit," the committee said.

A woman whose fetus was unlikely to survive called more than a dozen abortion clinics before finding one that would take her, only to be put on weekslong waiting lists. A teen waited seven weeks for an abortion because it took her mother that long to get her an appointment. Others seeking the procedure faced waits because they struggled to travel hundreds of miles for care.

Such obstacles have grown more common since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, doctors and researchers say, causing delays that can lead to abortions that are more complex, costly and in some cases riskier — especially as pregnancies get further along.

About half of U.S. states now have laws that ban or restrict access to abortion. Because of that, many clinics don’t offer the procedure, which has increased demand for appointments at the remaining providers.

The Philippines has accused China of using water cannons to obstruct three of its vessels, in the latest territorial dispute between the two countries in the South China Sea.

Video footage shows Chinese ships firing powerful blasts of water towards the Philippine government vessels.

The Philippines called China's actions "illegal and aggressive".

The South China Sea is at the centre of a territorial dispute between China, the Philippines and other countries.

The incident happened near Scarborough Shoal, a flashpoint between the two countries. Beijing seized the shoal in 2012 and Chinese boats have since harassed Philippine fishermen in the area.

Public support for the projects has overcome some concerns about costs, as the U.S. plays catchup with other parts of the world that have built extensive high-speed networks.

The Department of Transportation announced more than $6 billion in grant funding for high-speed rail projects this week. The money comes amid ongoing support for a technology that has also encountered concerns about its costs.

Brightline West, an affiliate of Florida’s Brightline intercity rail service, was awarded $3 billion in federal funds for its proposed line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which would zoom passengers between the cities in two hours.

The California High-Speed-Rail Authority was awarded $3.1 billion to continue work on its system, which will ultimately connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours.

Definitions of high-speed rail vary, but it typically refers to passenger trains that travel at least 125 mph and can reach more than 220 mph.

A teenager from California’s Central Valley has become the youngest person to ever pass the state’s bar exam and is now working as a practicing attorney.

The Tulare county district attorney’s office announced this week that Peter Park learned last month at 17 that he had passed the “rigorous exam” on his first attempt in what officials described as a “legal history making moment”. Park has been a law clerk with the office since August after completing law school.

The teen started high school in 2019 at age 13 and at the same time enrolled in a four-year law program at Northwestern California University School of Law. He was able to enroll due to a state bar rule allowing students to apply to law school after completing the College Level Proficiency Exams.

Park completed his high school studies in 2021 and then focused on law school and graduated in 2023, the DA’s office said. He took the bar exam in July and then went to work for the district attorney’s office.

Respiratory illness activity is elevated or increasing across most areas of the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In total, 15 states plus New York City are experiencing "high" or "very high" levels of respiratory illness activity, defined as people going to the doctor with symptoms from any respiratory disease including flu, COVID, RSV and the common cold.

COVID-19 and flu hospitalizations appear to be trending upward while RSV hospitalizations appear to be to be stable, the data shows.