Singapore has claimed the top spot in the 2025 Global Talent Competitiveness Index for the first time, displacing Switzerland from a position the European nation had held since the ranking's inception in 2013. The index, produced by business school INSEAD and the Portulans Institute, measured 135 economies across 77 indicators spanning soft skills, AI talent concentration, and formal education systems. The city-state ranked first globally in formal education and what the report calls "Generalist Adaptive Skills," a category covering soft skills, digital literacy, and innovation-oriented thinking.
A key factor in Singapore's rise was a seven-place jump in talent retention, moving from 38th to 31st. The United States fell from third place in 2023 to ninth this year, its weakest showing in 12 years, due to declines in openness and lifelong learning metrics. High-income European countries continue to dominate the top ten, holding seven positions.
Customer: "Ring me up."
Me: "No, ma'am. This desk is for returns and online orders only."
She starts piling items onto the counter.
Customer: "There's no line, you have time to bend the rules a little!"
Saving kittens from the street is one thing. A noble thing indeed, don't get us wrong about this statement for one second. Saving kittens from the street and giving them a loving home, a safe space, and an opportunity to grow up and enjoy life is one of the best things people can do. Such a compassionate deed, such a wholesome experience. Every person who saved a kitten it's like they saved a whole world, full of fluff, love, and affection. And we're so proud of these people.
But it's a whole other, transcendental level of compassion to save sickly kittens, with such low chances of survival. But that's where the meowsterious magic of the Cat Distribution System comes into play - this unseen force of nature knows which cat to send to which human. And when it comes to sickly kittens, like this blind little floofball below, the CDS knew to read the heart of the human who saved her. And this woman needed saving just as much as that smol kitten needed. The bond that was bound between these two is so strong, it will last more than a lifetime.
When a person is in need of some emotional support, there's nothing like the meowntal health boost a cat can bring. And this kitten, once blind and sick, is now a seeing and healthy cat, loved and supported by the woman who saved her, and being saved by her cat every day again.
You remember Tina. She's the conspiracy-spreading county clerk who allowed access to her county's voting machines to like-minded nuts who wanted to prove the 2020 election was stolen. Via 9news.com:
The convicted former Mesa County clerk will remain in state custody after the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) said Tuesday night that it would not respond to a Department of Justice request to take Tina Peters into federal custody.
"Requests to transfer inmates from the Colorado Department of Corrections emanate from the state, and not from other entities. The Department is not currently seeking any transfer,” said Alondra Gonzalez, a spokesperson for CDOC.
Peters is currently behind bars at the Colorado Department of Corrections, serving a nine-year prison sentence that stems from an election rigging conspiracy theory scheme. She was convicted of several felonies for allowing fellow election deniers access to local voting systems in search of voter fraud in the 2020 election, repeating Trump's debunked claims.
Brazilian Bruna Caroline Ferreira had a child with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s brother, Michael. Ferreira’s lawyer said she was in the midst of a “lawful immigration process” after previously receiving DACA protection, according to HuffPost. She was reportedly unable to renew her status during Donald Trump’s first administration.
That hardly sounds like the kind of hardened criminal Trump’s ICE is supposed to be targeting. But a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called Ferreira a "criminal illegal alien from Brazil" whose tourist visa expired in June 1999, NBC News reported. “The woman has an arrest on suspicion of battery, the spokesperson said. It’s not clear how the case was resolved.”
But Ferreira’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, told WMUR she “has no criminal record whatsoever. I don't know where that is coming from. Show us the proof. There's no charges out there.”
Once again. FBI Director Kash Patel embarrassed himself and the agency by leading the press conference in the aftermath of two National Guard soldiers being shot in Washington, DC, and vowing to bring the suspect to justice, and then not knowing a suspect was already in custody.
PATEL: As you can see behind me, we have assembled the full force of both the federal and state and local law enforcement agencies to prepare all of our resources to make sure we find the perpetrators responsible for this heinous act.
We have assembled the full force of both the federal and state and local law enforcement agencies to prepare all of our resources to make sure we find the perpetrators responsible for this heinous act.
And make no mistake, they will be brought to justice.
Although heavy-handed, Patel sounded somewhat reasonable. Enter Jeff Carroll:
CARROLL: My name is Jeff Carroll.
I'm the executive assistant chief here at the Metropolitan Police Department.
European leaders have spent years warning that the continent risked falling behind the U.S., China and Russia in the global contest for economic, technological and military dominance, and officials now believe they have reached that point.
The mood darkened over the summer when Europe found itself on the sidelines as Washington and Beijing negotiated a reset of global trade rules, and turned bleak this month when the White House presented a Ukraine cease-fire plan without consulting European capitals. In July, the EU accepted a trade deal allowing the U.S. to impose 15% tariffs without retaliation.
President Trump ignored European calls to pressure Moscow before meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, telling reporters "this is not to do with Europe, Europe's not telling me what to do." Germany has eased its debt brake to pour $580 billion into a decade-long rearmament program, and the EU has set a 2030 rearmament goal -- defense spending across the region is set to exceed $560 billion this year, double what it was a decade ago. "Battle lines for a new world order, based on power, are being drawn right now," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in September. "A new Europe must emerge."
New Coworker: "I wish I wasn't stuck here on Black Friday. I wanted to see what Black Friday was like in person. I could be out getting a new TV right now."
Coworker #1: "You could also be getting trampled for a new TV right now."
Coworker #2: "My sister’s already texted. She got elbowed in the ribs at Target trying to grab a blender."
It is Black Friday, and the store is enjoying all the chaos that comes with it. We're mostly keeping up, but I will never understand the people who choose to come into a store on Black Frickin' Friday to do a return!
Customer: *Plonks a bag on the counter.* "I need to return this. I've been in line forever."
Me: *Forcing a smile.* "Wow… a return on Black Friday. That’s brave of you."
From fossil fuel politics to state-level climate action and intelligence monitoring, American influence remains deeply woven into the global climate talks.
On the penultimate day of COP30, with nearly 200 countries close to finalizing a global roadmap toward a fossil fuel phase out, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had a simple message for President Donald Trump and the United States: “We are waiting for you.”
Despite the absence of formal representation from the federal government at the annual climate talks, the country’s influence is still felt. Victor Menotti, interim U.S. coordinator with the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, likened the country’s presence to that of a ghost in the global climate machine.
Several senior U.S. climate diplomats from previous administrations attended COP30, including Todd Stern, Sue Biniaz and Trigg Talley, who all helped negotiate the Paris Agreement. As the U.S. State Department’s lead climate lawyer for more than 25 years, Biniaz guided U.S. legal strategy through decades of international negotiations, culminating in a key role in shaping the Paris Agreement. Talley worked on climate issues at the State Department for nearly 20 years and served as director of the Office of Global Change, coordinating climate efforts across federal departments and agencies.
Activists participate in a demonstration outside where negotiations are taking place at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit on Nov. 21, in Belem, Brazil.
They attended to facilitate communication between the “We Are Still In” coalition, which brings together U.S. states, cities, businesses and universities committed to climate action despite federal policy shifts.
Stern, a former U.S. special envoy, was instrumental in shaping U.S. climate policy from 2009 to 2016 and helped negotiate the Paris Agreement, the most significant outcome of the 33-year United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. His participation in this year’s talk is evidence of the United States’ enduring influence in a process the Trump administration has rejected, said Menotti, adding that the U.S. still wields power through elite continuity and back-channel influence.
“The U.S. is still shaping what happens in these rooms, even without a delegation,” said Menotti, who has attended 10 climate summits, trying to bring the concerns of nonprofit climate advocacy groups to the negotiating table. “Nobody from the U.S. needed to show up here, and you would still have that big impact.”
That influence is evident far from the United Nations climate negotiation rooms, he added. For example, as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met last June in Bonn, Germany, to set the stage for COP30, Trump pushed NATO countries to increase their military spending, which sucked the air out of discussions to increase public climate financing, a key agenda item in Belém.
That push, along with the U.S.’s expansion of fossil fuel production and its pressure on allies to buy more fossil gas, has made developing countries uneasy, Menotti said. It also reinforces the perception that developed countries are evading their commitments to reduce emissions faster than developing countries.
Long-time U.S. allies who say they want to advance climate action are still feeding demand for U.S. fossil fuels. That amplifies U.S. influence and undermines a faster energy transition, he added.
In the end, Menotti said, the “ghost” in the COP machine is not just the presence of former U.S. diplomats, but the enduring grip of fossil fuel power.
“There’s the fossil fuel industry, which is global, and central to American industrial, military, financial power,” he said. “The U.S. government, under any administration, is the expression of that power.”
States, Cities and Businesses Step Up
While the U.S. federal government is currently the face of fossil fuel power, members of Congress, governors and business leaders are more pragmatic and want to stay engaged with global climate action, said Lou Leonard, dean of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
“It’s really important for other governments to see the nuance of how we do things in the United States, that climate action is still happening, even when the federal government isn’t here,” said Leonard, who, in 2021, helped launch the “America Is All In” coalition, a precursor to “We Are Still In.”
“You don’t want other governments using the U.S. failure as an excuse to move back, and you certainly don’t want countries walking out and the multilateral process collapsing,” he said.
Leonard said COP is not just about negotiating global rules, but also about generating momentum that pushes governments, businesses and institutions to deliver real-world climate action.
With the rules of the Paris Agreement largely settled, the role of COP as a catalyst for implementation has become more crucial. In that context, he said, the presence of U.S. states, cities, universities and advocacy groups at COP30 is much more than just symbolic. It offers a way to keep climate progress moving despite absent or hostile federal leadership.
People rest as everyone waits for a deal at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit on Nov. 22 in Belem, Brazil.
An agreement reached during COP30 between California and Baden-Württemberg to share tools for boosting solar power, protecting water supplies from heatwaves and floods and rolling out clean-tech jobs is proof that U.S. states can flex some climate muscle even without the federal government, Leonard said.
The coalition represents a significant share of the U.S. economy, with participating states accounting for roughly 55 percent to 60 percent of the country’s economic activity, alongside hundreds of cities, businesses and institutions pursuing climate action, Leonard said. Efforts to boost renewable energy, reduce sprawl and other measures by states, cities and businesses could cut U.S. emissions by more than 50 percent by the mid-2030s, even without federal direction.
That still falls short of what’s needed for rapid global decarbonization, but he said it remains critical for sustaining momentum and signaling continued U.S. engagement to the international community.
Is the U.S. Still Climate Spying?
There’s another, far less-visible form of American power that has long shaped the global climate landscape from behind the scenes: control over climate knowledge, said Rachel Santarsiero, director of the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project.
For decades, the U.S. intelligence community has tracked climate change as a matter of national security by collecting satellite data through spy satellites, classified assessments and other operations, including reportedly spying on the negotiations at COP15 in Copenhagen, first revealed via Wikileaks.
All that information could help protect vulnerable countries, but remains tightly controlled, giving the U.S. influence over what the rest of the world learns about climate change and what remains hidden.
Santarsiero stressed that while there is no public way to verify active intelligence operations at COP30, it would be unrealistic to assume that the U.S. intelligence community is not monitoring the talks.
“It seems like it would be part of the conversation that the intel community is having,” she said. “Even if climate is not an administration priority, you have to think that something like a phase-out of fossil fuels is going to be in tension with what the administration is trying to do.”
Historically, such monitoring has often been intended to inform diplomacy. Intelligence agencies have long provided environmental data and assessments so negotiators would be better prepared to understand risks, anticipate instability and plan for long-term security implications, helping governments respond to climate threats.
André Corrêa do Lago, COP30 president, sits before the start of a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit on Nov. 22 in Belem, Brazil.
While the COPs are often seen as a neutral space where countries work together, she said, they are also a time when major powers work to protect their interests and shape outcomes.
She said it’s impossible to separate COP30 from U.S. energy and geopolitical strategy, pointing to the administration’s push to expand coal, oil and gas production even as negotiators pressed for a fossil fuel phase-out.
“You have to think that something like a phase-out of fossil fuels is going to be in tension with what the administration is trying to do … I mean, it all leads back to U.S. competition,” she said. That means the U.S. remains embedded in the COP process, not as a stakeholder at the table, but as a strategic actor guarding its national interests.
U.S. influence on the U.N. climate talks hasn’t vanished. It’s just more diffuse and difficult to see. Even without a flag on the dais, the U.S. is still defending its markets, pressuring other countries on their energy policies and evaluating intelligence reports far from the plenary floor.
“It would be naive to pretend that’s not happening,” Santarsiero said. “These things aren’t necessarily sinister… it’s just another facet of these negotiations.”
A previous version of this story stated that Lou Leonad, dean of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts helped launch the “We Are Still In” coalition. Leonard helped launch the “America Is All In” coalition, a precursor to “We Are Still In.”
Apple's Podcasts app on both iOS and Mac has been exhibiting strange behavior for months, spontaneously launching and presenting users with obscure religion, spirituality and education podcasts they never subscribed to -- and at least one of these podcasts contains a link attempting a cross-site scripting attack, 404 Media reports. Joseph Cox, a journalist at the outlet, documented the issue after repeatedly finding his Mac had launched the Podcasts app on its own, presenting bizarre podcasts with titles containing garbled code, external URLs to Spotify and Google Play, and in one case, what appears to be XSS attack code embedded directly in the podcast title itself.
Patrick Wardle, a macOS security expert and creator of Objective-See, confirmed he could replicate similar behavior: simply visiting a website can trigger the Podcasts app to open and load an attacker-chosen podcast without any user prompt or approval. Wardle said this creates "a very effective delivery mechanism" if a vulnerability exists in the Podcasts app, and the level of probing suggests adversaries are actively evaluating it as a potential target. The XSS-attempting podcast dates from around 2019. A recent review in the app asked "How does Apple allow this attempted XSS attack?"
Asked for comment five times by 404 Media, Apple did not respond.
Ah, to be a cat. To move around the house as the sun moves slowly in the sky, looking for the next optimal sunbeam spot to nap in. To loaf in any spot you'd like, just to assert dominance by being that chill. To look at every room you enter and think for yourself "I can spot at least five comfortable nap places, and there's nothing and no one that can stop me from reaching there". To know that if you make cute sounds treats come in packets, but honestly? They come even if you're just… kind of there. Cats live their best cozy life, and we're standing on the sidelines, adoring them.
And, oh boy, do we adore cats. We love their floofy fur and how they let us pet it. We appreciate their biscuit-making skills, especially if they do it on our laps. And we adore their supreme reign over our houses, gardens, and streets. Cats are the kings and queens of this Earth, and we are but their humble hooman servants, purroud catslaves, ever loyal subjects in their eternal kingdoms that we call "our homes".
We just wish we could be cats, even if only for one day. Cats are so majestic, so meowgnificent, so purrecious. How could anybody not want to be a cat?
We were shocked to learn that not everyone treats their cats like royalty. What do you mean you don't cater to your cat's every whim and desire? What do you mean you don't change up their treats every few days so they don't get bored with the same ones? Does that mean that you also don't have certain meowsical playlists for them depending on their mood? Some people actually treat them like pets, and some, even worse.
The life of a bodega cat isn't always glamorous, but it works for some of them. If the owner takes care of them, gives them a litter box and plenty of food, some of them don't mind. But not every bodega cat lives a purrfectly fulfilling life. Some shop owners treat them like mascots, there to pull people into their shop with their feline charm, but the cats don't get anything in return. Lucky for the cute kitty below, the boss's employees have been cleaning up after the bodega kitty, telling his "owner" when he's sick, and caring for him as he should be.
But they've had enough. They're sick of seeing this boss neglect the cat that makes his store feel homey, who is being used like a prop and not treated like a beloved pet, and they're considering helping the cat "escape". Cats escape all the time, right? It wouldn't be so meowtrageous to come in one day, and the cat is no longer there… wink wink.
Customer: "This is absolutely ridiculous! All I need is ONE gallon of milk, and you expect me to wait twenty minutes in line. YOU ALL JUST LOST A CUSTOMER!"
Reponding to reports of a small dog tied to a post and abandoned on the roadside in Matlock, England, an officer from Derbyshire Police was surprised to instead find a toy there. This led to the issuance of the only good kind of police press release, the ones full of puns such as "festive faux-paw" and other seasonal jokes. — Read the rest
Another holiday, another chance to inflict Male Chef on those around me (including you, dear reader!). Never mind all those AI Thanksgiving dinners; this kind of wretchedness could only be crafted by human hands.
The now-defunct "Male Chef" blog was a long-running satirical photography project that aimed to be "the antithesis of food porn" and, I must say, lived up to that and more. — Read the rest
Adolf Hitler Uunona, a local councilor in Namibia tired of reading annoying stories like this one, has filed to change his name to Adolf Uunona. The Namibian's Hileni Nembwaya reports that Uunona, a well-respected politician, no longer wants to be known by a name that does not reflect his character or ambitions. — Read the rest
It was funny, in hindsight, seeing how excited Republicans were beforethe meeting between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“Mamdani is acting like he is the kingpin of Gotham calling out Trump for a showdown,” one right-wing influencer wrote on X after Mamdani’s election night victory speech. “He is about to find out.”
As a result, conservatives expected one of Trump’s vintage public beatdowns, like the one he delivered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, exemplified by this Fox News treatment:
Instead, Trump rolled out the red carpet for Mamdani, greeting him with smiles, jokes, and an eagerness that stood in stark contrast to months of GOP saber-rattling.
Mamdani pressed him on the affordability crisis hammering New Yorkers—rent, groceries, and utilities—and pushed for commitments that Trump, remarkably, entertained without hesitation, including not withholding federal funding for the city.
Trump even praised Mamdani, saying that he wanted to “help” and even admitted they had “a lot more in common than I would’ve thought.”
The whole exchange played out less like a tense clash than a weirdly warm meeting, with Trump visibly intent on winning him over.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump are seen in the Oval Office on Nov. 21.
The moment underscored how good they both are at the spectacle of politics. Mamdani publicly won over his fiercest critic, while Trump upended the narrative, knocked the Epstein files out of the news, and showed a shockingly charming side. It was all anyone could talk about afterward.
When a reporter asked Mamdani about calling Trump a fascist, Mamdani started to dance around the question until Trump cut in with a genuinely funny, “You could just say yes.”
But that is old news. What isn’t is the quandary in which Trump has now put his own party. The GOP’s entire 2026 strategy was to “turn national Democratic candidates into Mamdani copycats,” according to Politico.
House Republicans’ campaign arm had already launched digital ads across 49 battleground districts, casting Democrats as followers of the “socialist mayor” who “built his movement on defunding the police and abolishing ICE.”
The spot tried to fuse Mamdani to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—who endorsed him late in the race—and warned ominously that “your city could be next.”
Senate Republicans eagerly jumped on the bandwagon too, declaring that they would fight the “socialism [that] now controls the Democrat Party.”
Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Mike Lawler of New York insisted, “I don’t think there’s any question he will be on the ballot next November. This is something that will certainly play in New York, but I think you’ll see it across the country.”
And then there’s the star-crossed GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who has been screwed over by Trump time and time again. Her entire uphill campaign for governor was built on claiming that current Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul was a puppet of “jihadist” Mamdani.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who tried—and miserably failed—to stop the election of Mamdani.
Now all of those Republicans are left with egg on their face. They spent weeks painting Mamdani as the socialist boogeyman who would drag Democrats down with him, only for their own party leader to praise him. Those photos of Trump beaming beside Mamdani did more damage to the GOP narrative than any Democratic rebuttal ever could.
Try to make Mamdani a campaign issue now—and they’ll still try, of course—and all Democrats have to do is point to Trump’s own words. The whole attack collapses under the weight of Trump’s grin.
Stefanik, for her part, put on a brave face.
“I stand by my statement,” she told News 12. “He is a jihadist. This is an area where President Trump and I disagree.”
She was already going to lose next year—with or without Mamdani—running in one of the bluest states. But now she’s lost the entire premise of her campaign: tying Hochul to the “jihadist” mayor-elect. Even her defiance feels performative, as if she knows the script has changed and she’s stuck delivering lines from the wrong play.
And for the rest of the GOP? It’s doubtful Republicans could have squeezed much mileage out of one mayor, no matter how big New York City is. Voters aren’t in the mood for culture-war theatrics when their rent keeps climbing and their grocery bills double.
Now Republicans are sinking millions into the December special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District—which Trump won 60% to 38% in 2024—because even in one of their strongest districts, they don’t feel safe after Mamdani’s win. That panic says far more about the GOP’s internal collapse than any fictional threat posed by New York City’s mayor.
A cartoon by Nick Anderson.
Their entire strategy collapses under the simplest test: If the monster doesn’t scare people in Tennessee’s reddest district today, he’s not going to scare anyone in 2026.
But all of that is moot because Trump is now friends with Mamdani, proving once again that Trump doesn’t give a damn about his party—or really anything other than himself. The GOP spent months painting Mamdani as the face of socialist doom, and Trump casually torched the entire strategy in a single photo-op..
The meeting knocked Epstein off the airwaves for the weekend, and to Trump, that alone made the whole thing worthwhile—no matter how much political shrapnel his party will take in the months and years to come.
And who knows, maybe Trump genuinely likes Mamdani. Maybe he enjoyed the meeting. Maybe he saw someone who wasn’t afraid of him and found that refreshing. And if that’s the case, then the GOP is in even deeper trouble.
Republicans can map out whatever 2026 strategy they want, but none of it matters if Trump wakes up one morning and decides he likes the guy they’ve spent months trying to turn into a national villain.
Netflix really wants to be a one-stop shop for all things entertainment. Three years after launching a mobile game division, the streamer has released a pack of word puzzles.
Ever since the New York Times bought the beloved word game Wordle and added it to its collection of puzzle games, media outlets from the Washington Post to the Atlantic have been vying to create the next big thing in puzzles. — Read the rest
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