Rob Gronkowski’s girlfriend Camille Kostek explains why they didn’t attend Super Bowl

Reuters
Japan's MUFG to spend over $660 million to buy robo-adviser WealthNavi
Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said on Friday it would spend about 99.7 billion yen ($664 million) to turn WealthNavi Inc, a provider of automated asset management, into a wholly owned subsidiary. MUFG will launch a tender offer on Monday for 1,950 yen apiece, or an 84% premium over WealthNavi's closing share price on Thursday. WealthNavi, in which MUFG already has a more than 15% stake, had over 1 trillion yen in assets under management as of January, making it the biggest robo-adviser in Japan.
Reuters
South Africa takes G20 helm as polarisation complicates agenda
South Africa takes over the G20 presidency on Sunday, the first African country to lead the forum, though its focus on issues such as inclusive growth and climate change risks bumping up against the hard reality of trade wars and diplomatic tensions. Coming a year after the African Union was admitted as a permanent member of the G20, South Africa's turn at the helm is seen as an opportunity to push for progress on policy areas crucial to the continent's development. President Cyril Ramaphosa has cited inclusive economic growth, food security, climate change and artificial intelligence as priorities, with details expected next week.
Associated Press
Ukrainian energy workers carry out repairs despite Russia's pounding of the country's power grid
On a bright winter day, workers at a Ukrainian thermal power plant repair its heavily damaged equipment as drops of water from melted snow leak through gaping holes in its battered roof. Several weeks earlier, the facility was targeted by a Russian air attack that left scorch marks, shrapnel scars on the walls, and missile fragments scattered across the production floor. Repeated Russian strikes on infrastructure have seriously impacted Ukraine's energy sector often resulting in rolling blackouts across the country.
Associated Press
UK transport secretary quits over decade-old cellphone fraud case
British Transport Minister Louise Haigh resigned on Friday over a decade-old fraud conviction for claiming her cellphone had been stolen. In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Haigh said “I remain totally committed to our political project, but I now believe it will be best served by my supporting you from outside government." The resignation came hours after Sky News and The Times of London newspaper reported that Haigh had been charged with fraud after she reported that a work cellphone had been stolen after she was mugged in 2013.
Associated Press
Polls open in close-run election to choose Ireland's new government
Ireland is voting Friday in a parliamentary election that will decide the next government — and will show whether Ireland bucks the global trend of incumbents being ousted by disgruntled voters after years of pandemic, international instability and a cost-of-living pressures. Polls opened at 7 a.m.. (0700GMT), and Ireland’s 3.8 million voters are selecting 174 lawmakers to sit in the Dail, the lower house of parliament. The outgoing government was led by the two parties who have dominated Irish politics for the past century: Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.
Reuters
Indonesian rescuers search for missing in buried cars and bus after landslide in Sumatra
Torrential rain for the past week in the province has triggered flash floods and landslides in four different districts, Indonesia's disaster agency has said. The death toll from one landslide on Wednesday on a hilly interprovince road rose to nine from seven, Hadi Wahyudi, the spokesperson of North Sumatra police told Reuters on Friday.
Associated Press
Embattled Japan leader vows to cooperate with long-ignored opposition in bid to save his government
Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who survived as leader after a major election loss by his governing coalition, promised Friday to work closely with the long-ignored opposition that is now the only way his minority government can stay in power. Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito together lost a majority in the 465-seat lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-house parliament, in the Oct. 27 elections. The election loss was blamed on voter anger over his party’s financial misconduct, and he is trying to quickly tackle reforms.
Associated Press
Taiwan president will stop over in Hawaii and Guam during his upcoming trip to the South Pacific
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will stop over in Hawaii and Guam during his trip to the South Pacific, in a move expected to draw objection from China. Lai is due to depart Taiwan on Saturday for a weeklong trip to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — three diplomatic allies of the self-ruled island. On Thursday, Taiwan’s Central News Agency, quoting an unnamed official at his office, reported that Lai would make stopovers in the U.S. state and U.S. island territory.
Associated Press
Paraguay, one of Taiwan's 12 remaining allies, says it won't break ties in favor of China
Paraguay's foreign minister said his country is committed to its relationship with Taiwan and has no plans to break off their diplomatic relationship in favor of China as he visited the increasingly isolated island Friday. Paraguay is the only country in South America and one of 12 worldwide that recognizes Taiwan as a country, but it also has a big trade relationship with China worth about $5 billion. “Paraguay is open to establish diplomatic, consular or commercial relations with China without conditions,” Paraguay Foreign Minister Ruben Dario Ramirez Lezcano said.
Associated Press
Russian defense minister visits North Korea to talk with military and political leaders
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean military and political leaders as the countries deepen their alignment over Russia’s war on Ukraine. The defense ministry in announcing the visit didn’t specify who Belousov would be meeting or the purpose of the talks. Belousov, a former economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May after Russian President Vladimir Putin started a fifth term in power.
Associated Press
Stripped of citizenship, these Nicaraguans live in limbo scattered across the world
After years resisting President Daniel Ortega, the rural activist fled Nicaragua in 2018, joining thousands of protesters fleeing a yearslong crackdown on dissent. Mena returned from exile in neighboring Costa Rica in 2021 to continue protesting, only to be thrown in a prison where he said jailers hung prisoners by their feet and shocked them with electricity. Now in exile in Guatemala, Mena may be out of prison but he's far from free.
CNN
Britain set for vote on assisted dying, after emotional debate that has divided lawmakers
British lawmakers are set to decide Friday whether to legalize assisted dying, a contentious proposal that would make the United Kingdom one of a small handful of nations to allow terminally ill people to end their lives.
CNN
‘Winter in Gaza means more people will die shivering’: Cold and rain pose added threat to displaced Palestinians
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been displaced multiple times from Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip are now facing another threat – the arrival of harsh winter weather.
AFP
US landmine offer to Ukraine throws global treaty into 'crisis': campaign group
A US offer to give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help battle Russia's invasion has thrown a landmark global anti-landmine treaty into "crisis", campaigners said Friday, urging Kyiv to snub the proposal. The offer has thrown the treaty into "crisis", Tamar Gabelnic, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, told a meeting of signatories in Cambodia's Siem Reap.
CNN
Taiwan’s president set to visit Hawaii and Guam, drawing Beijing’s ire
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will visit Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during an upcoming trip to the Pacific, prompting condemnations from China, which could respond by staging a fresh round of military drills near the island democracy.
Associated Press
Philippine president says impeaching the vice president, his rival, would be a waste of time
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Friday that filing impeachment complaints against the vice president, who is facing a legal storm after publicly threatening to have him killed, would be a waste of time for Congress. It was unclear whether Marcos’ remark would stop plans by several groups to file impeachment complaints against Duterte over a number of criminal allegations, including her alleged misuse of confidential government funds and her recent public threat to have the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives killed if she herself were killed in a plot she has not detailed. The legal troubles facing the vice president and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, are unfolding in the backdrop of their worsening feud with Marcos.
AFP
Singapore hangs 4th person in three weeks
Singapore hanged a 35-year-old Singaporean-Iranian man for drug trafficking on Friday, its fourth in less than a month, despite appeals from Tehran to "reconsider" his execution. So far this year, there have been nine executions by the Singaporean government -- eight for drug trafficking and one for murder.
Associated Press
Desertion threatens to starve Ukraine's forces at a crucial time in its war with Russia
Desertion is starving the Ukrainian army of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia, which could put Kyiv at a clear disadvantage in future ceasefire talks. Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, according to soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials. Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers.
Associated Press
From yuck to profits: Some Zimbabwe farmers turn to maggots to survive drought and thrive
At first, the suggestion to try farming maggots spooked Mari Choumumba and other farmers in Nyangambe, a region in southeastern Zimbabwe where drought wiped out the staple crop of corn. After multiple cholera outbreaks in the southern African nation resulting from extreme weather and poor sanitation, flies were largely seen as something to exterminate, not breed. “We were alarmed,” Choumumba said, recalling a community meeting where experts from the government and the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, broached the idea.
Associated Press
Santa's annual train visit delivers hope and magic to one corner of coal country
Since 1943, the people of Appalachian Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee have looked forward to Santa's arrival. The Santa Train marks its 82nd running this year, bringing presents and joy to small towns along a 110-mile portion of the CSX rail line tucked into remote coal-country river valleys. Many of the children who line the tracks and wait for Santa on the Saturday before Thanksgiving are the third, fourth or fifth generation to do so.

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