Author: Editor-In-Chief

Esusu, a fintech platform that helps renters build their credit scores, has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round at a valuation of $1.2 billion.Renters remain largely excluded from the traditional credit system, and although an estimated $1.4 trillion is paid to landlords each year in the United States, only 20% of landlords choose to report the rent they pay. As a result, millions of trustworthy renters remain stuck in a category called “trust invisible.” “110 million people rent in America, and less than 10% of that data is reflected in their credit scores,” Esusu co-founder and CEO…

Fault Lines travels to Iran to assess the human cost of Israeli attacks and the risk of renewed war.When Israel and the United States launched a 12-day war against Iran, Donald Trump hailed it as “one of the greatest moments in history.” The Israeli attack left more than 1,000 people dead during visiting hours, destroying homes, hospitals and even a prison.Fault Lines travels to Iran to uncover the human toll of the conflict. We meet families grieving the loss of loved ones, from 12-year-old Amir Ali and his father to two-month-old Rayanne and his parents, and follow the painful recovery…

Paris — 20 days, 213 pages. Nicolas Sarkozy wrote more than 10 pages for each 24-hour period he spent in prison in a new book detailing his time at La Santé prison in Paris. “If I had ignored the armored door with eye holes, it might have been a cheap hotel,” the former French president recalled in a book released Wednesday, a month after his Nov. 10 release from prison. Sarkozy wrote in “The Prisoner’s Diary” that prison was “hell”, a book that comes amid intense public attention and scrutiny over his September conviction on charges of conspiracy to finance…

Michael Smith has spoken of how he battled a wall of pain by receiving cortisone injections in his ankles and wrists before playing against Lisa Ashton at the World Darts Championship.The former world No. 1, who made history with a memorable nine-darter against Michael van Gerwen on his way to winning the world title in 2023, has suffered a serious ankle injury that derailed his career. Nicknamed “The Bully”, Smith had excess bone growth around his ankles and also suffered from arthritis after breaking his wrist at the age of 19. Michael Smith’s path to world glory Round 1 -…

AI image and video generation company Runway has launched its first model, joining a growing number of startups and big tech companies in the race to release global models. The model, called GWM-1, works through frame-by-frame predictions to create simulations that understand physics and how the world actually behaves over time, the company said. A world model is an AI system that learns an internal simulation of how the world works, allowing it to reason, plan, and act in any real-world scenario without training. Runway, which announced its Gen 4.5 video model earlier this month topping both Google and OpenAI…

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference after the Federal Reserve Board’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, DC on December 10, 2025.Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesThe Federal Reserve approved a long-awaited quarter-point rate cut Wednesday in a meeting filled with intrigue and surprises. Here are five key takeaways.The hawks’ ideas are real — in a sense. Wall Street had expected the Fed to warn that the hurdles for further easing would be high, and to cut interest rates as well as take strong precautionary measures. But the market didn’t seem to care. Stocks posted solid…

walt disney company announced Thursday that it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI to enable users to create videos with copyrighted characters in its Sora app.OpenAI announced Sora in September, allowing users to create short videos simply by typing prompts. As part of the company’s new three-year licensing agreement with Disney, Sora users will be able to create content with more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars starting next year. “The rapid advances in artificial intelligence are an important moment for our industry,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “Through this…

Skipper port call in 2025marine transportationA large crude oil tanker from 2024 seized by the US military off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday shows a “clear pattern” of falsifying its location to hide its true location, a leading energy consulting firm said.And data suggests that the Guyana-flagged tanker, identified as “Skipper,” has been transporting sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela since 2022.Both countries’ oil industries are under U.S. sanctions, and Skipper has been under sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control since 2022.Matt Smith, chief U.S. analyst at consulting firm Kpler, said the Skipper secretly loaded 1.1 million…

Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation to El Salvador has become a rallying point against US President Donald Trump’s hardline policies.Published December 11, 2025December 11, 2025Click here to share on social mediaShare 2shareA U.S. judge has ordered the release of Kilmer Abrego Garcia from immigration detention.The ruling handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Paula Kishinis is the latest ruling in the case of Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador by President Donald Trump’s administration in March.Recommended stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe Maryland resident has since been returned to the United States, but the Trump administration continues…

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned on Thursday that alliance members could become “Russia’s next target” and called for rapid increases in defense spending to prevent wars similar to those experienced by the past generation. Rutte’s comments, delivered in a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Berlin, came as European leaders discussed a peace plan aimed at ending Russia’s years-long war in Ukraine, against a backdrop of increased pressure from the United States. “We need to be prepared, because conflicts… are no longer fought at arm’s length; they are right under our noses,” he said. “Russia has brought war back…