Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen were born in India and grew up with different adoptive families in the Netherlands. Decades after becoming friends, a DNA test has revealed that the two are also biological sisters.
Intensifying restrictions have hit every part of the territory’s dealings, spurring worries about whether the Palestinian Authority can remain solvent.
In Chocó, a remote region, “pain, hunger and homelessness await” survivors of last week’s earthquake, the governor said. Shakira visited to help draw awareness.
Beijing wants to portray today’s China as carrying forward Zhu Rongji’s era of growth, but for many Chinese, the optimism of that time has since faded.
They made a risky bid to reunite after three years of separation, illness and deprivation — the kind of ordeal suffered by many thousands of families torn apart by the war in eastern Ukraine.
With a second term, Hakainde Hichilema must navigate relations with the Trump administration, which has sought greater access to the copper-rich nation’s natural resources.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has refused to pull back the country’s military until Hamas fully disarms. But the Trump administration is under pressure to show progress.
Scrutiny over the gifts and support provided by George Cottrell to Mr. Farage, the Reform U.K. leader, will continue even after he won last week’s special election in Clacton.
The armed group, based in Yemen and backed by Iran, said it had launched missiles near the vital maritime trade route, in a conflict that shows no sign of abating.
President Trump said a cease-fire agreed in June would lead to limits on Iran’s nuclear program and finish the conflict, but the countries appear far apart.
China is exporting more than A.I. models. It wants its data to influence the world’s chatbots, raising fears that Beijing’s narratives will spread with the technology.
President Trump wants to curtail military exercises with South Korea, saying they were hostile to North Korea. But under Mr. Kim, the North has become increasingly belligerent toward the South.
Japan avoided a major disaster after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit last month. Our reporter River Akira Davis visited Kumamoto, a prefecture near the epicenter, to see how it built quake-proof buildings and infrastructure.
President Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to reduce its joint military exercises with South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia. He also touted his good relationship with Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment of hard-line loyalists to top jobs suggests he is prepared to keep the country on a war footing and to quash domestic dissent.
Блогер Илья Варламов* (признан иноагентом в РФ, внесен Росфинмониторингом в список в список террористов и экстремистов) накопил задолженность в России в размере почти 245 тысяч рублей по неоплаченным штрафам.
В Европе выражают обеспокоенность тем, что проведение досмотров судов в ходе военно-морской операции Евросоюза IRINI может стать причиной усиления напряженности в отношениях с РФ.
Internal messages show Phoebe Gates knew her startup Phia was using a ‘cookie-stuffing’ scheme to generate profit, according to the outlet
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe has been accused of knowingly using a “cookie stuffing” scheme at her shopping startup that allowed the company to collect commissions for sales it did not actually generate, according to Bloomberg.
Phia, co-founded by Gates and fellow Stanford graduate Sophia Kianni, markets itself as a digital shopping assistant that finds cheaper products and discount codes. Despite Gates trying to distance herself from the “nepo baby” label and present the venture as independent of her billionaire father, it immediately attracted tens of millions of dollars from prominent Silicon Valley and celebrity investors during its first funding round and was actively promoted by Bill Gates.
The controversy around the company first erupted last month, when Bloomberg reported that Phia’s browser extension was automatically inserting affiliate tracking “cookies” into online purchases, allowing it to claim commissions even when shoppers had not used its coupons or links.
The practice, known as “cookie stuffing,” can constitute federal wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
Phia responded to the initial report by saying it had only discovered the problem within the previous 24 hours and described it as a software issue that was quickly fixed.
However, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that internal Slack messages and source code show Gates and Kianni had known about the practice for months.
In one December exchange, Gates reportedly asked developers to ensure automatic cookie drops were working across retailers so Phia could monetize “every transaction.” Kianni later told engineers that “whatever we can do to keep these cookies dropping will be amazing.”
After the features were disabled in July, average daily revenue reportedly fell from about $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000. Phia claims part of the decline came from suspending other monetization tools and says it has begun reversing improperly attributed commissions while hiring a compliance chief.
The controversy comes amid continued scrutiny of Bill Gates over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Microsoft co-founder featured prominently in recently released Epstein files, which contained allegations concerning extramarital encounters, requests for medication to treat a purported sexually transmitted infection, and discussions with Epstein about global health initiatives and a proposed pandemic simulation.
Gates has denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes and told Congress this year that the financier had tried to blackmail him over his extramarital affairs. He has called his association with Epstein a serious mistake.
В осенний период ожидается повышение стоимости аренды жилых помещений в Москве и Санкт-Петербурге в пределах 5-10%. Причиной такой динамики является сезонный рост спроса, обусловленный возвращением работников из отпусков и прибытием студентов в крупные города, уверены эксперты.
Глава Российского фонда прямых инвестиций (РФПИ) и спецпредставитель президента РФ по инвестиционно-экономическому сотрудничеству с зарубежными странами Кирилл Дмитриев заявил, что его призыв к Хантеру Байдену, сыну экс-президента США, рассказать об участии семьи в коррупционных схемах на Украине и организации биолабораторий остается актуальным.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan has been a public critic of Mr. Putin, who has denounced her country’s sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia visited the Kuril Islands on Thursday for the first time since they were seized from Japan at the end of World War II.
Valery Melnikov says his Mariupol series was pulled after complaints over his past work for RIA Novosti
German camera maker Leica has excluded a Russian photographer from its prestigious Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) following Ukrainian criticism over his links to the Russian RIA Novosti news agency.
Valery Melnikov, a three-time World Press Photo winner, said in a social media post this week that his long-term series, ‘Mariupol. Open Wounds,’ had initially been selected by the Leica jury for the 2026 shortlist before being dropped.
The project, which Melnikov has worked on since 2022, documents civilians living in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol, in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The city was liberated by Russian forces in May 2022 following an 85-day battle that left much of it in ruins. The DPR, along with Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, voted to join Russia in referendums later that year.
Leica had initially described the series as focusing on residents who “suffer the unbearable humanitarian consequences of the war.”
Melnikov said the complaints came from “either photographers or bloggers from a neighboring country” who described him as a “Kremlin-media-linked photographer.”
Ukrainian photographer Sergey Korovainiy, who has covered the conflict, had publicly criticized Leica’s decision to shortlist Melnikov, according to media reports.
According to Melnikov, Leica representatives told him that some of the photographs in the project had been taken while he was working for RIA Novosti. He stressed that his employment history had always been public, adding that the competition rules contained no restrictions on such circumstances.
Melnikov also stated that shortly before his project was removed, a vice president from Leica AG suggested that he personally request the withdrawal of the project while mentioning the potential for future collaboration. The photographer said he refused and that the executive declined his request to put the proposal in writing.
Leica has not publicly addressed Melnikov’s account of the conversation.
The photographer also stressed that the series is a personal project produced not in the interests of “corporations or states, but for ordinary people and for history.”
Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, several EU member states have seen discrimination against performers from other nations perceived to have sympathy for Russia. Moscow has denounced such measures as “Russophobic censorship,” warning that attempts to “cancel” Russian culture will ultimately fail.
Melnikov, a 2015 LOBA finalist, has covered global conflicts, including in Syria, Afghanistan, and Mali. The winners of the 2026 award are due to be announced on October 8 in Wetzlar, Germany.
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