#Belarus pardons 31 Ukrainians after deal with Trump. They were released “as a gesture of goodwill”, in accordance with agreements reached between Lukashenko and U.S. President Donald Trump at Ukraine’s request, Belarusian state agency Belta said, citing Lukashenko’s spokesperson, Natalia Eismont. Those freed were handed over to Kyiv, according to the report.

Earlier this week, Lukashenko pardoned two jailed Catholic priests at the request of the Vatican.

Belarus, Russia’s close and dependent ally, has allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to send troops and tanks into Ukraine, and later to place nuclear weapons there. Moscow and Kyiv have also conducted prisoner swaps on Belarusian land.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron first for over 30 years, has recently tried to repair relations with the West. Weeks after a phone call with Trump in August, he pardoned 51 political prisoners under a U.S.-brokered deal that saw some sanctions lifted from the country’s national airline, Belavia.

Trump later announced that lawyer John Cole, who helped broker the deal, would be appointed U.S. Special Envoy to Belarus and work to release more prisoners.

There are 1,257 political prisoners behind bars in Belarus, according to prominent human rights centre Viasna. They include Ales Bialiatski, the centre’s founder, who has received the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism.

According to Belarusian authorities, Minsk and Washington are set to hold further talks in December.

“Belarus is open to dialogue,” Lukashenko’s press service said in a statement Saturday. “Negotiations with various countries, chiefly the U.S., are now actively ongoing.”

Valery Karbalevich, a Belarusian political scientist and commentator, said Minsk is attempting to return to its own policy of manoeuvring between Moscow and the West.

“Lukashenko is seeking to reduce his total dependence on the Kremlin. Therefore, he is willing to trade political prisoners like commodities, hoping for an easing of Western sanctions,” Karbalevich told The Associated Press.

“Trump is giving Lukashenko a chance to thaw relations with the U.S., which also paves the way for the easing of European sanctions,” he said, adding these had “hit Belarus much harder” than those imposed by the U.S.

The Associated Press

Federal prosecutors say Bondi’s comments shouldn’t affect Luigi Mangione’s death penalty case.

NEW YORK — Prosecutors said Friday that Luigi Mangione’s death penalty case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson should carry on unimpeded, urging a judge to reject a defence push to dismiss charges and rule out capital punishment over Attorney General Pam Bondi’s public statements suggesting Mangione deserves execution.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan also asked U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett to deny the defence’s bid to suppress certain evidence collected during the arrest last year, including a 9 mm handgun, a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to “wack” an insurance executive and statements he made to police.

“Pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect,” prosecutors wrote in a 121-page court filing, citing prior rulings from the Supreme Court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

As for the evidence, which Mangione’s lawyers contend was collected without a warrant and without him being read his rights, prosecutors said police officers were justified in searching the suspect’s backpack to make sure there were no dangerous items. His statements to officers, they said, were made voluntarily and before he was taken into police custody.

Rather than dismissing the case outright or barring the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors argued, the defence’s concerns can best be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensuring Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.

“What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments” rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. “None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorized punishment.”

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges.

In September a judge threw out state terrorism charges against him but kept the rest of that case — including an intentional murder charge — in place. He is due back in court in the state case Dec. 1 as his lawyers seek to bar prosecutors from using much of the same evidence seized upon his arrest.

Mangione’s next court date in the federal case is Jan. 9.

Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later while eating breakfast at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometres) west of Manhattan.

Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring even before Mangione was formally indicted that capital punishment is warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

The defence argued in a September court filing that Bondi’s announcement — which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance — showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” They also said her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later.

Bondi’s statements and other official actions — including a highly choreographed perp walk that saw Mangione led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers, and the Trump administration’s flouting of established death penalty procedures — “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.

Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented run of 13 executions at the end of his first term, has also offered opinions about Mangione despite court rules against any pretrial publicity that could interfere with the right to a fair trial.

“He shot someone in the back, as clear as you’re looking at me or I’m looking at you. He shot — he looked like a pure assassin,” Trump told Fox News in September.

#Immigration minister extends pause on new private refugee sponsorships to 2027.

#OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Lena Diab is extending until 2027 the pause on new applications through the Private Sponsorship for Refugees Program as the department works to clear its backlog.

New ministerial instructions were published in the Canada Gazette today along with a notice on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website.

This pause applies to refugee sponsorships submitted by community organizations or groups of five or more individuals.

Applications that were submitted before the pause took effect on Nov. 29, 2024 will still be processed, according to the notice.

When the pause was announced last year, immigration officials said there were approximately 90,000 private refugee sponsorships awaiting processing.

The government plans to resettle 16,000 privately sponsored refugees annually over the next three years, according to its immigration levels plan.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2025.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press

#UN human rights expert urges U.S. to lift sanctions on #Cuba. Alena Douhan, a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, said U.S. sanctions against Cuba “do not conform to a broad number of international legal norms.”

The so-called trade embargo, or blockade, she said, “have been substantially exacerbating the humanitarian situation in Cuba... and have been designed to prevent Cuba from receiving any economic revenue, especially in hard currency.”

Her comments in Havana on Friday echoed those of a majority of member nations of the United Nations, which last month overwhelmingly called for an end to a U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.

The United Nations vote carries global political weight, but only the U.S. Congress can lift the Cold War-era embargo.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the sanctions were not to blame for Cuba’s problems, and that the communist-run government had brought its economic woes upon itself.

“The embargo does not prohibit Cuba’s access to world markets or trade with third countries. U.S. law explicitly allows the export of food, medicine, and medical equipment to Cuba,” the spokesperson said.

Douhan, who has been visiting the island since last week, told reporters she had met with a cross-section of Cuba’s public and private sectors to assess the embargo’s impacts.

Her visit coincides with an acute economic crisis that has drained public coffers, devastated tourism and led to severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine that have sparked a record-breaking exodus from the island.

Scandal-plagued Miss Universe competition to crown winner. A new Miss Universe will be named in Friday’s finale in Bangkok, and for organizers, the culmination of the competition could come as a relief.

The 74th edition of this year’s pageant has been mired by scandal, including allegations of rigging and a mass walkout by contestants over a Thai pageant director’s berating of a beauty queen.

Miss Universe is widely known as the “Super Bowl” of beauty pageants and draws millions of viewers each year. Delegates for each country are selected via local pageants that license local rights from the Miss Universe Organization.

Thailand, this year’s host country, has a vibrant and lucrative pageant industry with one of the largest fanbases in Asia, alongside the Philippines.

This year’s event featured representatives from over 120 countries. Nadeen Ayoub became the first woman to represent Palestinian people at the pageant.

“I represent every Palestinian woman and child whose strength the world needs to see,” she wrote on Instagram.

The competition took place over three weeks, with delegates traveling around the country to rehearse and participate in events.

On Wednesday, the beauty queens competed in its national costume showcase, which saw contestants donning flamboyant outfits designed to highlight their homelands. Miss USA, Audrey Eckert, paid homage to her home with an elaborate bald eagle costume designed by Simon Villalba.

The contestant from Jamaica, Gabrielle Henry, took a scary tumble during the evening gown round during Wednesday’s preliminaries and was carried away in a stretcher, according to social media videos which circulated of her fall. Miss Universe President Raul Rocha said in an update to Instagram that Henry was “under good care” in hospital and that she had not broken any bones.

Pageant controversies

This year’s Miss Universe competition was beset by scandal, which sparked conversations over the merits of the international beauty pageant which claims to promote female empowerment.

At a live-streamed pre-pageant meeting earlier this month, Miss Universe Thailand director Nawat Itsaragrisil publicly scolded Miss Mexico Fatima Bosch for not posting enough promotional content, appearing to call her a “dumbhead,” though Nawat denied this, insisting that he had actually accused her of causing “damage.”

After Bosch pushed back against the insults, Nawat called security to escort her out of the room. Other contestants then stood up and walked out in solidarity.

The incident sparked widespread allegations of misogyny and drew global backlash, including from Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum, who described it as an “aggression” that Bosch handled with “dignity.”

The Miss Universe Organization condemned Nawat’s behavior and limited his role in the pageant. Nawat apologized in a livestreamed welcome ceremony and declined to comment further on the incident to CNN.

Then, in an Instagram live video discussing the incident, Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado, sparked backlash for racist comments.

Machado referred to Nawat as “that despicable Chinese,” and when a commentor pointed out he is Thai, Machado said “Chinese, Thai, Korean. To me all these people with slanted eyes like this are all Chinese,” while pulling up the corners of her eyes.

Machado’s representative did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.
Judge steps down, says pageant is rigged

Two judges abruptly stepped down from the competition days before the winner was crowned, with one accusing the pageant of being rigged.

Composer Omar Harfouch said on Instagram he had resigned from the eight-member judging panel, and claimed there was a secret, “impromptu” panel of judges who had pre-selected the top 30 contestants in advance of the final.

“I could not stand before the public and television cameras, pretending to legitimize a vote I never took part in,” Harfouch said in a statement.

The Miss Universe Organization said Harfouch’s claims “mischaracterize” the judging process.

“The Miss Universe Organization firmly clarifies that no impromptu jury has been created, that no external group has been authorized to evaluate delegates or select finalists, and that all competition evaluations continue to follow the established, transparent, and supervised MUO protocols,” the organization said in a statement.

The Miss Universe Organization did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

A second judge, former French soccer star Claude Makélélé, stepped down the same day, citing “unforeseen personal reasons.”

“I hold Miss Universe in the highest regard,” he said on Instagram.

The Miss Universe Organization saw a leadership shakeup after Thai media tycoon Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip stepped down in June. Mario Búcaro was appointed the new CEO at the end of October, just days before delegates arrived. Jakkaphong, who is also a transgender rights advocate, bought the organization for US$20 million in 2022, but her company filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

By Lex Harvey, CNN

#Indian combat aircraft crashes during a demonstration at the #Dubai Air Show.

The Indian #HAL Tejas, a combat aircraft used in the Indian Air Force, crashed around 2:10 p.m. local time after the pilot had flown across the site of the biennial air show in Dubai several times.

The plane appeared to lose control and dive directly toward the ground just prior to crashing inside the grounds of the airfield.

The Indian Air Force confirmed the crash in a statement and said “the pilot sustained fatal injuries in the accident.”

“IAF deeply regrets the loss of life and stands firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” it said, adding that “a court of inquiry is being constituted, to ascertain the cause of the accident.”

Black smoke rose over the Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central as a crowd of spectators watched, and sirens sounded after the crash.

Dubai police and airport officials offered no immediate comment.

The city-state’s second airport was hosting the biennial Dubai Air Show, which has seen major aircraft orders by both the long-haul carrier Emirates and its lower-cost sister airline FlyDubai.

Tejas is India’s indigenous fighter aircraft, built by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The lightweight, single-engine jet is expected to bolster India’s depleted fighter fleet as China expands its military presence in South Asia, including by strengthening defense ties with India’s rival Pakistan.

In September, India’s Defense Ministry signed a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, or HAL, to procure 97 Tejas jets for the air force. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2027.

The Indian government also signed a deal with HAL in 2021 for 83 Tejas aircraft. Deliveries, expected last year, have been delayed largely because of shortages of engines that must be imported from the United States.

The Associated Press

Advocates disappointed budget offered no funding for #IVF, despite campaign pledge.


OTTAWA — Fertility advocates say they’re disappointed the Liberal government did not make good on its campaign promise to fund in vitro fertilization treatments in the recent federal budget.

The Liberals pledged in April to create a program to provide up to $20,000 per cycle of IVF, something they estimated would cost $103 million annually starting this fiscal year.

There’s no mention of IVF in the federal budget.

The office of Health Minister Marjorie Michel would only say the government knows the cost of such treatments presents a challenge for many Canadians and it would have more to say “in due course” — the same response it has provided since the election.

Baden Colt said that funding would be “life-changing” for her family.

Colt has known since she was 13 that she wouldn’t be able to get pregnant. That’s when doctors told her it wouldn’t be safe to carry a child while taking the medication she needs to control her epilepsy.

After three rounds of IVF and the help of a surrogate, Colt and her husband Zane welcomed their girl, Scottie, in 2023.

She estimates it cost nearly $70,000.

“My life and my husband’s life have revolved around planning and scrimping and saving and prioritizing this, because of how important parenthood is to us. But it’s not easy, and I can’t even imagine being faced with this without a 15-year head start on saving,” she said.

A standard round of IVF can cost between $10,000 and $30,000, and more than one cycle is often required. Many prospective parents face additional costs for travel and time off work to undergo treatment.

The provinces and territories provide varying levels of funding, with most offering refundable tax credits or grants to cover a percentage of costs. B.C. provides funding up to $19,000, while Quebec covers the cost of one full cycle per patient. Alberta, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories provide no coverage at all.

Ontario’s government recently announced a tax credit for 25 per cent of the cost, up to $5,000. Colt, who lives in Ontario, was glad to see that announcement.

“But the fact that Canadians are only getting help based on what province they’re in, and whether their provincial government has decided to step up or not, that’s really disheartening,” she said.

Carolynn Dubé, the executive director of advocacy group Fertility Matters, said the issue has received broad cross-party support at the federal level in the past.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau directed his ministers of health and women and gender equality to explore ways to help more Canadians afford the treatment.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is looking to slash government spending and pour billions into national defence while focusing on major infrastructure projects and expanding the economy.

Dubé argued that Canada’s record-low fertility rate is an economic issue, one with real impacts on productivity.

“When you’re diagnosed with infertility, the data shows that it has the same negative impact on your mental health as being diagnosed with a more severe health concern like cancer or heart disease, and yet we’re not treating it the same,” she said.

Infertility affects about one in six people in Canada.

Dr. Prati A. Sharma is president of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, which represents about 900 reproductive health professionals.

She said her group met with the federal government after the budget was released and she believes it’s still committed to launching the funding.

“It is disappointing that it wasn’t in the current budget, but the fact that they’re willing to put in the work to make this happen, hopefully soon, I think that’s very reassuring,” she said.

Sharma said she wants the government to create an expert advisory board to help fine-tune the details.

Baden Colt has turned her advocacy into a career by launching a business called Not My Tummy, which helps intended parents use social media to find surrogates.

The Colts also have found their own match with a surrogate they hope will help them complete their family. They’re preparing for the expensive and emotional process of IVF again.

After two and a half years with her daughter, Baden Colt knows it’s worth it.

“There were so many years that I wondered whether this was ever going to happen for me,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press

#TOKYO — #Firefighters were battling an out-of-control fire Wednesday morning that has burned through a neighborhood in southwestern Japan and forced more than 170 people to evacuate.

At least 170 homes have been damaged and a man in his 70s was unaccounted for, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

The fire started during strong winds Tuesday evening near a fishing port in the city of Oita and spread to a forest. Oita is on the southern island of Kyushu.

One resident told Kyodo News Agency she quickly fled without many of her belongings because the fire “spread in the blink of an eye.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejects Trump’s offer of military intervention against cartels.


“It’s not going to happen,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

“He (Trump) has suggested it on various occasions or he has said, ‘we offer you a United States military intervention in Mexico, whatever you need to fight the criminal groups,’” she said. “But I have told him on every occasion that we can collaborate, that they can help us with information they have, but that we operate in our territory, that we do not accept any intervention by a foreign government.”

Sheinbaum said she had said this to Trump and to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on previous occasions and that they have understood.

“Would I want strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me, whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” Trump said Monday, adding that he’s “not happy with Mexico.”

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico shared a video on X later Monday that included previous comments from Rubio saying that the U.S. would not take unilateral action in Mexico.

Meanwhile, Mexican and U.S. diplomats were trying to sort out Tuesday what may have been an actual U.S. incursion.

On Monday, men arrived in a boat at a beach in northeast Mexico and installed some signs signaling land that the U.S. Department of Defense considered restricted.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said late Monday that the country’s navy had removed the signs, which appeared to be on Mexican territory. And on Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that the International Boundary and Water Commission, a binational agency that determines the border between the two countries, was getting involved.

The signs, driven into the sand near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico, caused a stir when witnesses said men in a boat arrived at the local beach known as Playa Bagdad and erected them.

The signs read in English and Spanish, “Warning: Restricted Area” and went on to explain that it was Department of Defense property and had been declared restricted by “the commander.” It said there could be no unauthorized access, photography or drawings of the area.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico shared a comment from the Pentagon Tuesday about the incident, confirming that contractors putting up signs to mark the “National Defense Area III” had placed signs at the mouth of the Rio Grande.

“Changes in water depth and topography altered the perception of the international boundary’s location,” the statement said. ”Government of Mexico personnel removed 6 signs based on their perception of the international boundary’s location.”

The Pentagon said the contractors would “coordinate with appropriate agencies to avoid confusion in the future.”

Mexico had contacted its consulate in Brownsville, Texas and then the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Eventually, it was determined that contractors working for some U.S. government entity had placed the signs, Sheinbaum said.

“But the river changes its course, it breaks loose and according to the treaty you have to clearly demarcate the national border,” Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing.

The area is close to SpaceX Starbase, which sits adjacent to Boca Chica Beach on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

The facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program is under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA, which hopes to send astronauts back to the moon and someday to Mars.

In June, Sheinbaum said the government was looking into contamination from the SpaceX facility after pieces of metal, plastic and rocket pieces were reportedly found on the Mexican side of the border following the explosion of a rocket during a test.

The area also carries the added sensitivity of Trump’s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, which Mexico has also rejected.

Fabiola Sánchez, The Associated Press

#Drone strikes Turkish tanker in Ukraine’s Odesa, where U.S. natural gas will go.


The MT Orinda was hit during the offloading of liquefied petroleum gas at Izmail port, Turkiye’s Directorate for Maritime Affairs said. All 16 crew on board evacuated and no one was hurt, it said.

Russia has used drones, missiles and artillery to repeatedly batter the Odesa region, especially its Black Sea ports, since its full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. There was no immediate Russia comment Monday.

Ukrainian officials didn’t comment specifically on the tanker, although regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said Russian drones attacked the Odesa region overnight and damaged energy and port infrastructure in several cities.

The attack sparked multiple fires and damaged an unspecified number of civilian vessels, Kiper said, adding that one person was injured.

Izmail lies on a Black Sea estuary and is one of a string of ports that are vital for Ukrainian imports and exports. With Russia also targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy is trying to ensure gas and other energy imports that can help see his country through the approaching winter.

Zelenskyy on Sunday was on an official visit to Greece. The U.S. liquefied natural gas will flow to Odesa via pipelines from the northern Greek port of Alexandroupolis starting in January.

Authorities in Romania, meanwhile, ordered the evacuation of people and animals from two villages close to Izmail on the Romanian side of the border, saying the nature of the tanker’s cargo required such precautions.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian missiles killed three people and injured 11 others in Balakliya in the northeastern Kharkiv region in an overnight attack. Four girls aged 12, 14, 15 and 17 were among those injured, authorities said.

Russian drones and artillery also killed two people and injured two others in a daylight attack on Nikopol in the central Dnipropetrovsk region on Monday. The attack hit high-rise apartment blocks, stores and a hair salon, said the regional head of the military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.

The United Nations says Russian strikes have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians during the war.

Russia fired two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 128 strike and decoy drones across the country during the night, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian air defenses shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, as Ukraine tries to hit back at Russia’s power grid.

A Ukrainian drone attack damaged an electricity substation in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region, Gov. Aleksey Russkikh wrote on social media, adding that no casualties were reported and that local power supplies were working normally.

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkiye, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed.

Illia Novikov, The Associated Press