Vanessa Bryant's Mother-Daughter Selfie With Eldest Natalia, 19, Is Too Sweet To Miss

Associated Press
California man to be sentenced for hate crime in the killing of a gay college student
A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate is expected to be sentenced Friday to life in prison. Samuel Woodward, who is now 27, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Southern California courtroom for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. There is no question about the sentence Woodward will receive because the jury’s verdict carries a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
USA TODAY
'My favorite president': Donald Trump and the art of rekindling world leader bromances
Young males helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency. Older ones who run countries overseas may look to him for their populist agendas.
Reuters
Chinese defence firms to attend Vietnam arms fair as ties deepen
Chinese defence firms will participate in an arms fair in Vietnam next month, a Vietnamese defence official said on Friday, a possible sign of deepening military ties between the two neighbours. Vietnam will hold an international defence exposition in Hanoi from Dec. 19-22, two years after it organised its first-ever military fair. Chinese firms will be among the roughly 140 companies exhibiting equipment at the expo, defence ministry official Le Ngoc Than told a press conference.
AFP
Oil execs work COP29 as NGOs slam lobbyist presence
Oil executives descended on the COP29 talks in Baku for "energy day" on Friday as environmental groups denounced the presence of fossil fuel industry lobbyists at the UN climate talks."It's like tobacco lobbyists at a conference on lung cancer," David Tong from campaign group Oil Change International told AFP. The presence of oil, gas and coal interests at the climate talks has long been a source of controversy.
Reuters
Irish PM's party holds six-point lead in first campaign poll
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris' Fine Gael party holds a six-point lead over both its main coalition partner Fianna Fail and the main opposition party Sinn Fein, the first opinion poll of the general election campaign showed on Friday. Fine Gael led the Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll on 25%, two points lower that the last Irish Times poll in September while fellow centre-right Fianna Fail remained on 19% alongside left wing Sinn Fein, whose support fell by one point.
AFP
Asian markets fluctuate at end of tough week
Asian markets were mixed Friday as data showing a pick-up in Chinese consumption offset concerns about US interest rates after Fed boss Jerome Powell indicated a slower pace of cuts.China's retail sales expanded 4.8 percent on-year in October, data showed Friday, speeding up from September and far better than expected, lifting hopes for the world's number two economy.
CNN
North Korea to mass produce self-detonating explosive drones, state media reports
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his country to quickly start mass producing self-detonating explosive drones, calling their development an “essential requirement,” after overseeing a test of the deadly aerial weapon, state media reported Friday.
AFP
Gore says climate progress 'won't slow much' because of Trump
Former US vice president Al Gore believes a second Donald Trump term in the White House may have little impact on the "momentum" of the world's fight against climate change."There is so much more momentum that even a new Trump administration is not going to be able to slow it down much.
Associated Press
Shanghai, Tokyo, New York, Houston spew most greenhouse gas of world cities
Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that feeds climate change, with Shanghai the most polluting, according to new data that combines observations and artificial intelligence. Seven states or provinces spew more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all of them in China, except Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from an organization co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and released Friday at the United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Associated Press
South Korean opposition leader gets a suspended jail term for violating election law
South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was convicted of violating election law and sentenced to a suspended prison term Friday by a court that ruled he made false statements while denying corruption allegations during a presidential campaign. Lee told reporters that he plans to appeal Friday’s verdict at the Seoul Central District Court, which gave him a sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years. Under South Korean law, Lee would lose his legislative seat and be barred from running in elections for five years if he receives either a penalty exceeding a 1 million won ($715) fine for election law violations or any prison sentence for other crimes.
AFP
'Megaquake' warning hits Japan's growth
Japan's growth slowed in the third quarter after warnings of a major earthquake hit activity, official data showed Friday, as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seeks to jumpstart the world's fourth-largest economy.The government is expecting a "gradual recovery" of the economy -- beset for decades by stagnation and harmful deflation -- chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday.
AFP
Stiff business: Berlin startup will freeze your corpse for monthly fee
Becca Ziegler is only 24, but she already has her death planned out: her corpse will be deep-frozen to minus 200 degrees Celsius (minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit) with liquid nitrogen. The body is then infused with a "cryoprotectant" and transported to the facility in Switzerland where it is stored in a pod surrounded by liquid nitrogen and cooled to around minus 200 degrees Celsius.
CNN
Tropical Storm Sara closes in on ‘life-threatening’ and ‘potentially catastrophic’ impact with Central America
More than two feet of rain could fall and trigger devastating flash flooding and mudslides.
AFP
Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit
G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and implications of Donald Trump's White House return.China is Brazil's biggest trading partner, and the two countries have been touting themselves as mediators to help end Russia's war in Ukraine, so far without success.
Reuters
South Korea opposition leader convicted of violating election law
A South Korean court convicted on Friday main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung for violating the election law, handing him a one-year prison term suspended for two years, a penalty that if upheld could jeopardize his bid to run for president in 2027. Lee, head of the main opposition Democratic Party, who narrowly lost to President Yoon Suk Yeol in the 2022 election, faces at least four trials after being indicted on several criminal charges including bribery and corruption. He was found guilty of breaching the election law by making a false claim during a parliamentary audit in 2021 while running as a presidential candidate about a land development project in Seongnam when he served as mayor, the court said.
CNN
How a toxic mix of antisemitism, racism and xenophobia culminated in Amsterdam violence
While the Dutch capital now feels calm, residents and legislators fear that tensions still haven’t peaked.
AFP
Xi, Biden attend Asia-Pacific summit, prepare to meet
US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will attend the first day of an Asia-Pacific leaders' summit Friday ahead of a face-to-face meeting under a cloud of diplomatic uncertainty cast by Donald Trump's election victory.Xi and Biden arrived in Lima Thursday along with other world leaders for a two-day heads-of-state meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping.
Associated Press
Activists at COP29 spend weeks planning demos. But they can feel stifled by rules and restrictions
In the nosebleed seats of a nearly-empty Baku Olympic stadium coated with a layer of dust, activists used a giant banner to beam the words “Pay Up” to the world. The protest took weeks of thought and planning, but most of the attendees at this year's U.N. climate talks didn't see or hear it — except for maybe some in the COP29 presidency offices right below. It’s “really hard to make our demands heard,” said Bianca Castro, a climate activist from Portugal.
Associated Press
Trump's pick of Rubio as America's top diplomat jolts Latin America, long accustomed to US neglect
Growing up in Miami among Cuban exiles who fled Fidel Castro's revolution, Sen. Marco Rubio developed a deep hatred of communism. Now as President-elect Donald Trump's choice for America's top diplomat, he's set to bring that same ideological ammunition to reshaping U.S. policy in Latin America. As the first Latino secretary of state, Rubio is expected to devote considerable attention to what has long been disparagingly referred to as Washington’s backyard.
NBC News
Texas influencer who lost monkey after drunk driving crash desperate to get the sick animal back
A spider monkey belonging to a Dallas-area influencer had a disease caused by malnutrition when police took him from his owner over the weekend, officials said.

Latest Stories