Sunday, Dec 22nd
Last update08:13:09 AM GMT
Learning to read can become exponentially more difficult for older students and adults who have fallen behind, creating grave concerns as the number of individuals struggling with literacy into high school and adulthood is increasing.
Data released in recent months shows K-12 schools are seeing more older students who cannot read at their grade level, coupled with an international study showing an increase in U.S. adults who cannot read past simple sentences.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is facing an uncertain future after a pivotal setback this week, when she lost her race to lead Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly’s (D-Va.) victory sparked new anger in liberals pushing for a generational change in leadership, and some are wondering how Ocasio-Cortez will play her cards next.
The U.S. military said it mistakenly shot down one of its own fighter aircraft over the Red Sea early on Sunday, forcing both pilots to eject.
Both were rescued, one with minor injuries, after the "apparent case of friendly fire," which is being investigated, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The fighter was an F/A-18 Hornet flying off the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. One of the carrier's escort ships, the missile cruiser Gettysburg, "mistakenly fired on and hit" the plane, the statement said.
The Red Sea has been a hotbed of military activity for more than a year as U.S. forces battle Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia, which has carried out attacks against shipping in the region. The U.S. military said it had fired on Houthi drones and missiles over the Red Sea on Saturday, and had attacked command-and-control and missile storage sites in Sanaa.
President-elect Donald Trump threatened to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal, accusing Panama of charging excessive rates to use the Central American passage, which allows ships to cross between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Arizona on Sunday, Trump also said he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," warning of potential Chinese influence on the passage.
China does not control or administer the canal, but a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has long managed two ports located on the Caribbean and Pacific entrances to the canal.
Trump's comments came hours after he leveled a similar threat against Panama in a post on Truth Social on Saturday night.
Israeli forces launch more attacks on the barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital in besieged North Gaza, after ordering people inside and near the facility to evacuate. Our correspondents say the nearby Al Awda Hospital is also under attack.
Ukrainian forces have carried out their first front line ground attack using only unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and first-person view (FPV) drones without relying on infantry, it has been reported.
The head of a Ukrainian brigade said that the attack on an unspecified date had destroyed Russian positions near Lyptsi, a village in the Kharkiv region.
Drones on the battlefield will continue to play an increasingly important role for Ukrainian forces to offset troop shortages and the prospect of dwindling foreign military aid in 2025.
Russian forces are maintaining battlefield momentum along the front having made gains in the Donetsk region where they are bearing down upon the logistics hub of Pokrovsk. It means that technological innovation will become even more critical for Ukraine to fight Russian aggression.
They were looking for new ways to kill, ways to send fresh terror across North Kivu.
It was early afternoon when the M23 militia raided the Congolese town of Rubaya. In a marketplace, gunmen found a giant wooden pestle and mortar for crushing grain. They began rounding up children, wedging them tight in the mortar. Isabel, 32, watched the rebels stove in their skulls. The mortar turned red, overflowing with blood.
Six children, said Isabel, were pummelled to death on 4 April 2024. “It was terrible.”
She fled with two friends. Among the rainforests of the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), armed men caught them. Isabel and a friend were raped. The other friend was executed.
TVNL Comment: Does anyone care? Where is the outrage?
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.
Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He had been well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI’s strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on 26 November in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city’s chief medical examiner’s office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.
Donald Trump has appointed Mark Burnett, a British television producer who helped produce Trump’s show The Apprentice, as the US’s special envoy to the UK.
In an announcement on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump hailed 64-year-old Burnett, saying: “With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role.”
Trump went on to cite multiple shows that Burnett had created and produced including Survivor, Shark Tank, The Voice and, most notably, The Apprentice, which ran from 2004 to 2017 and featured Trump as its host.
As the former chair of MGM Worldwide Television Group, Burnett has won 13 Emmys.
TVNL Comment: Hell, who needs diplomatic or foreign policy credentials for this job? This administration will be a circus of inexperienced fools.
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