Jared Padalecki Says Supernatural Prequel 'Wasn't a Secret' Jensen Ackles Tried Keeping from Him

NBC News
A yacht, a hollow book and a ‘war room’: How the FBI ensnared a city’s leaders in a bribery investigation
JACKSON, Miss. — For out-of-state developers hoping to bring a win to Mississippi’s capital, their pitch was flat.
Associated Press
Premature blast kills a suicide bomber but harms no one else, police in northwest Pakistan say
A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle set off an explosive device prematurely on a deserted road in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing himself but harming no one else, police said. Local police official Masood Khan said the blast happened in Charsadda district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, where Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents often target security forces. Khan said the intended target was unclear and bomb disposal experts and police were still investigating whether the man was wearing the explosives or they were attached to his motorcycle.
Associated Press
Liberals pressure Senate Democrats to confirm more Biden judges while they can
Demand Justice, a progressive organization focused on the judiciary, is set to bombard Capitol Hill with a message for the closing weeks of the 118th Congress: Do “whatever it takes” to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominees as a second Donald Trump presidency looms. Democrats have confirmed 213 of Biden’s judicial nominees during his presidency.
Associated Press
South Korean court finds former lawmaker guilty of misusing funds meant for sexual slavery victims
South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday handed a suspended prison sentence to a former lawmaker who was found guilty of embezzling funds while leading a group supporting Korean survivors of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery. Yoon Meehyang, who was also convicted of fraudulently receiving government subsidies and unlawfully collecting donations, didn’t attend the verdict. Controversy surrounding Yoon and her group, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, erupted in 2020 when one of the slavery victims, Lee Yong-soo, accused her of misusing donations and other funds and spending little on the victims.
Associated Press
For 3rd straight year, no improvement in Earth's projected warming
For the third straight year, efforts to fight climate change haven't lowered projections for how hot the world is likely to get — and recent developments in China and the United States are likely to slightly worsen the outlook, according to an analysis Thursday. The analysis comes as countries come together for the 29th edition of the United Nations climate talks, hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, where nations are trying to set new targets to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task.
AFP
HRW accuses Israel of 'war crime' with 'forcible transfer' in Gaza
Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday that Israel's repeated evacuation orders in Gaza amount to the "war crime of forcible transfer", and to "ethnic cleansing" in parts of the Palestinian territory."Human Rights Watch has amassed evidence that Israeli officials are... committing the war crime of forcible transfer," the report said.
Associated Press
Trump issues early challenge to GOP Senate with defiant nominations
Just hours after Republican Sen. John Thune was elected as the incoming Senate majority leader on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump presented him with one of his first tests — an announcement that he intends to nominate controversial Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The Florida Republican is one of the more universally disliked members of Congress, including among GOP lawmakers after he led the effort to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. Gaetz denies the allegations.
Associated Press
Trump's mainstream picks for top foreign policy posts could reassure allies — and worry China
President-elect Donald Trump is famously unconventional, but he made conventional picks for his two top foreign policy positions. Trump on Wednesday announced his choice of Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state. Two days earlier, he picked Rep. Mike Waltz for national security adviser.
Associated Press
Ukrainian soldiers focus on keeping Russian advances at bay and brace for storm to come from US
The four drones were designed to carry bombs, but instead the men of Ukraine's Khartia brigade pack them with food, water and handwarmers and launch them in darkness toward the front line, a 15-minute flight away. Guided by the drone's night-vision camera, he drops the 10-kilogram (22-pound) packages one by one as close as he can to the position where as many as five infantrymen battle Russian forces in the late autumn chill. For him, all that matters is the distance he measures in the meters (yards) that Russian forces advance or retreat in the front-line sector that is his responsibility.
Reuters
Poland's Allegro sees earnings growing 4-7% at home in Q4
GDANSK (Reuters) -Poland's biggest e-commerce platform Allegro expects its earnings growth to slow down to 4-7% at home in the fourth quarter, it said on Thursday after its third-quarter core profit met market expectations. Allegro's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 13.5% to 883 million zlotys ($214.63 million) in the Polish market in the third quarter, compared with 880 million zlotys expected by analysts in a company-compiled consensus. Gross merchandise value (GMV), an industry metric used to measure transaction volumes, rose 10.8% on the year to 14.7 billion zlotys in Poland, its biggest market.
Associated Press
1 million migrants in the US rely on temporary protections that Trump could target
Maribel Hidalgo fled her native Venezuela a year ago with a 1-year-old son, trudging for days through Panama's Darien Gap, then riding the rails across Mexico to the United States. People from 17 countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan and recently Lebanon, are currently receiving such relief.
Associated Press
Gaetz pick shows value Trump places on loyalty — and retribution — as he returns to Washington
Donald Trump has had few defenders in Congress as reliable as Matt Gaetz, who has thundered at one prosecutor after another for perceived bias against the president-elect and emphatically amplified the Republican's rallying cry that the criminal investigations into him are “witch hunts.” In announcing his selection of Gaetz as attorney general and John Ratcliffe a day earlier as CIA director, Trump underscored the premium he places on loyalty, citing both men's support for him during the Russia investigation as central to their qualifications and signaling his expectation that leaders in his administration should function not only as a president's protector but also as an instrument of retribution.
Associated Press
China's president will unveil a megaport in Peru, but locals say they're being left out
On the edge of Peru’s coastal desert, a remote fishing town where a third of all residents have no running water is being transformed into a huge deep-water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interest in resource-rich South America. The megaport of Chancay, a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is turning this outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy. China’s President Xi Jinping inaugurates the port Thursday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru.
Associated Press
Food aid interventions can curb climate change-induced hardship. But should they do more?
Gertrude Siduna appears to have little appetite for corn farming season. Rather than prepare her land in Zimbabwe’s arid southeastern Chipinge district for the crop that has fed her family for generations, the 49-year-old — bitter at repeated droughts that have decimated yields — turns her thoughts to the prices and farming techniques of chilies. “Chilies are far better than corn.”
Associated Press
An overwhelmed Philippines braces for another typhoon, the fifth major storm to hit in three weeks
The fifth major storm in three weeks approached the Philippines on Thursday, prompting more largescale evacuations and a United Nations request for emergency funds to help the government ease the plight of hard-hit villagers. Typhoon Usagi had sustained winds of up to 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph) and was forecast to strengthen further before slamming Thursday afternoon into the coast of Cagayan province at the northern tip of Luzon, the country’s most populous agricultural region. Another storm was brewing in the Pacific and may hit the northern Philippines this weekend, according to forecasters.
AFP
Live-streamed prayers for stressed S. Korean exam parents
Nine-hour prayer sessions, live-streamed speaking in tongues, bowing before a Buddhist altar 108 times: South Korean parents are turning to God as students sit a crucial exam Thursday.Some parents bowed 108 times before the altar -- which in Buddhist theology should result in their wishes coming true.
AFP
Scientists say world's largest coral found near Solomon Islands
Scientists say they have found the world's largest coral near the Pacific's Solomon Islands, announcing Thursday a major discovery "pulsing with life and colour". "Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly one billion little polyps, pulsing with life and colour," marine ecologist Enric Sala said.
NBC News
Trump's pick for top intel job has been accused of 'traitorous' parroting of Russian propaganda
Tulsi Gabbard, who has never worked in the intelligence world, has denied accusations that she promoted Kremlin disinformation.
TODAY
Widower who donated this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree suffers stroke weeks before lighting ceremony
Earl Albert, a widower from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, who donated the 2024 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, suffered a stroke before the tree lighting.
Associated Press
Stock market today: Asian shares meander, tracking Wall Street's mixed finish as dollar surges
Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday after a lackluster finish on Wall Street following a report showing an uptick last month in inflation in the U.S. The dollar was trading at 156 Japanese yen, up from 155.49 yen, reflecting expectations that the dollar will gain against other currencies under the policies anticipated with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Japan's Nikkei 225 index edged less than 0.1% higher, to 38,754.50 and the Kospi in South Korea advanced 0.5% to 2,429.23.

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