Author: Editor-In-Chief

A female worker operates a machine during the rolling process at a mechanized cigar factory in Havana, May 8, 2025.Adalberto Roque AFP | Getty ImagesThe annual five-day cigar festival in late February in Cuba’s capital, Havana, has been canceled until further notice due to the worsening economic crisis.The postponement comes as the island nation’s communist-run government endures its biggest challenge since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cigar trade fair organizer Habanos SA announced on Saturday that it had canceled the festival “with the aim of maintaining the highest standards of quality, excellence and experience that are the hallmarks of…

ByteDance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0 appears on your smartphone screen. Video Visual China Group | Getty ImagesChinese tech giant ByteDance has announced tougher protections for its new artificial intelligence video creation tool following accusations of copyright theft from the entertainment giant. The Seedance 2.0 tool allows users to create realistic videos based on text prompts. But a viral video shared online appears to show the likeness of copyrighted characters and celebrities, raising intellectual property concerns in the US. “ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and has heard your concerns about SeaDance 2.0,” a company spokesperson said in a statement…

Al Ahly striker and England World Cup favorite Ivan Toney has not ruled out a return to the Premier League after turning down an offer in January in favor of staying in Saudi Arabia. More than 18 months after his surprise £40m move to Al Ahly from Brentford in August 2024, Toney has revealed he is enjoying life in Saudi Arabia despite having the opportunity to leave the club and rejoin the Premier League team. Tony finished second to Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot in the Saudi Pro League last season as Al Ahly won the…

President Prabowo Subianto’s government announced on February 10 that Indonesia is preparing to send up to 8,000 troops to a proposed multinational Gaza stabilization force under President Donald Trump’s so-called Commission on Peace (BoP). The unit’s proposal forms part of Jakarta’s broader decision to join the BoP Framework, an initiative initiated and promoted by President Trump. Taken together, these measures signal a significant shift in Indonesia’s longstanding foreign policy posture. As geopolitical instability intensifies, Jakarta seems committed to a project shaped around a single, deeply polarized political figure. This decision raises a fundamental question: Will Indonesia advance its national interests…

A pedestrian stands in front of an electronic market board displaying Nikkei average stock price figures at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on February 3, 2026 in Tokyo.Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty ImagesJapan’s economy grew by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the previous three months, narrowly avoiding a technical recession.Although this was a reversal from the 0.7% contraction seen in the third quarter, gross domestic product fell short of the 0.4% expansion expected by economists polled by Reuters.A technical recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of recession. On an annualized basis, production increased by…

Andrew Patterson Photographer’s Choice RF | Getty ImagesCryptocurrency payments to suspected human trafficking syndicates will soar 85% in 2025, with hundreds of millions of transactions tracked on public blockchains, according to a new report from Chainalysis.The US-based blockchain analysis firm said most of the activity is related to a growing criminal ecosystem in Southeast Asia, where fraud conglomerates, illegal online gambling operations and Chinese-language money laundering networks operate simultaneously. Cryptocurrency trackers said cryptocurrency activity by human traffickers falls into three main categories: Labor brokers and scammers. and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) vendors. Data on the blockchain shows that while…

Four teams will compete for the title, with three points separating the top three teams. This was a weekend of competition for the top spot in the Scottish Premiership, and the race was very much geared towards ‘Race to the Race’.Celtic made a dramatic comeback from a 2-0 deficit away to Kilmarnock to win 3-2, increasing the pressure on Rangers and Hearts ahead of their game at Ibrox. And that pressure showed as both teams engaged in a tense six-goal thriller. Rangers’ 4-2 win over Hearts left a two-point gap between the top two teams, with Celtic now three points…

People buy fruit at a grocery store in Manhattan, New York City, December 13, 2025. Charlie Tribalew | AFP | Getty Images Friday’s U.S. consumer price index provided some relief to investors who had been suffering from a market decline due to concerns related to artificial intelligence. Consumer inflation rose 2.4% year-on-year in January, below December’s 2.7% and back to levels after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs globally in April 2025. Core CPI was 2.5%, the lowest level since April 2021. Economists had expected 2.5% for both numbers.”This will be welcome news for the market and for incoming Fed Chairman…

The Panamanian-flagged Veronica III left Venezuela on the same day the United States detained President Nicolás Maduro in January.Published February 16, 2026February 16, 2026Click here to share on social mediaShare 2shareU.S. troops boarded another tanker authorized to carry Venezuelan crude oil in the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon said.The Pentagon said in a post on Sunday’s X that the Panamanian-flagged Veronica III “resisted” US President Donald Trump’s blockade of sanctioned ships in the Caribbean and attempted to “escape.”Recommended stories list of 3 itemsend of listHowever, it said it had “tracked it from the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean, closed its…

The defense secretaries of two major US allies have issued an unprecedented public plea to people across Europe to support a major increase in defense spending to head off a potential war with an increasingly Western-oriented Russia. German and British officials warned in a joint article published by Britain’s Guardian newspaper and Germany’s Die Welt that European countries were “facing uncomfortable truths” about security and having to make “difficult choices” about spending. “As painfully demonstrated in Ukraine, Moscow’s military buildup, combined with its willingness to wage war on our continent, represents a growing risk that demands our collective attention,” wrote…