Venezuela is the latest in the U.S.'s long history of interventions in Latin America NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to Eduardo Gamarra, professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, about the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America. The Americas Venezuela is the latest in the U.S.'s long history of interventions in Latin America Venezuela is the latest in ...
Venezuela is the latest in the U.S.'s long history of interventions in Latin America NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to Eduardo Gamarra, professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, about the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America. The Americas Venezuela is the latest in the U.S.'s long history of interventions in Latin America Venezuela is the latest in the U.S.'s long history of interventions in Latin America Audio will be available later today. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to Eduardo Gamarra, professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, about the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America. Sponsor Message Sponsor Message
Schools to start reopening after Nigeria mass abduction 2 hours ago Share Save Tiffany Wertheimer Share Save AFP via Getty Images Schoolchildren were abducted from St Mary's Catholic school in central Nigeria in November Nigerian officials have announced that schools in Niger state will start reopening later this month, following a mass abduction in November that forced their closure as part of em...
Schools to start reopening after Nigeria mass abduction 2 hours ago Share Save Tiffany Wertheimer Share Save AFP via Getty Images Schoolchildren were abducted from St Mary's Catholic school in central Nigeria in November Nigerian officials have announced that schools in Niger state will start reopening later this month, following a mass abduction in November that forced their closure as part of emergency security measures. From 12 January, public and private schools "in safe and secure areas" will be allowed to reopen, Niger state's education ministry said in a statement. The decision follows security assessments and "extensive consultations" with security agencies, it added. November's kidnapping of more than 250 students and staff from St Mary's Catholic school in Papiri, western Nigeria, was one of the country's worst abductions to date. Officials confirmed that all of the missing students and teachers had been rescued just before Christmas. It was not formally made public how the government secured their release, or whether any ransom was paid to their abductors. For years, armed criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, have carried out killings and kidnappings across many parts of Nigeria - but reports in the north-central region have spiked recently. Schools and places of worship have increasingly been targeted there. The government has recently classified the criminal groups as terrorists, and while paying ransom money is illegal in Nigeria, there are claims this is often ignored. More than 1,500 children have been abducted from the country's schools since 2014, when 276 girls were taken during the infamous Chibok mass abduction.
Key Points Meta Platforms may well split its stock, but that's not the most exciting thing about it. Its future is promising, in part due to its investments in artificial intelligence, which is already generating lots of revenue. The stock could help long-term investors amass a lot of wealth. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › Investors tend to get excited about stock splits -- unneces...
Key Points Meta Platforms may well split its stock, but that's not the most exciting thing about it. Its future is promising, in part due to its investments in artificial intelligence, which is already generating lots of revenue. The stock could help long-term investors amass a lot of wealth. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › Investors tend to get excited about stock splits -- unnecessarily so, though, because a stock split is much less of a big deal than many people realize. Still, if you're wondering which next stock split could make you rich, I offer this possibility: Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), parent company of Facebook -- plus Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It has grown into a $1.7 trillion social media juggernaut, and its future remains promising, in part due to its hefty investments in artificial intelligence (AI). And better still, while lots of major tech companies are investing heavily in AI, Meta Platforms is already deriving a lot of revenue from it -- much more than OpenAI's ChatGPT, even. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks » Meta Platforms has averaged annual gains of 77% over the past three years (and 20% over the past decade), and despite that, its stock still seems appealingly valued. Its recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was only 20, which is rather low for a growth stock that's still growing briskly. In its third quarter, for instance, Meta posted year-over-year revenue growth of 26% and an 18% rise in income from operations. Meta Platforms is also a dividend-paying stock, with a recent dividend yield of 0.3%. That's not a lot, but its rapid growth and great profitability suggest that it could up its payout significantly in the years to come. The reasons above are why you should consider an investment in Meta Platforms. Don't give a possible stock split much thought. Remember ...
Key Points Meta Platforms may well split its stock, but that's not the most exciting thing about it. Its future is promising, in part due to its investments in artificial intelligence, which is already generating lots of revenue. The stock could help long-term investors amass a lot of wealth. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › Investors tend to get excited about stock splits -- unneces...
Key Points Meta Platforms may well split its stock, but that's not the most exciting thing about it. Its future is promising, in part due to its investments in artificial intelligence, which is already generating lots of revenue. The stock could help long-term investors amass a lot of wealth. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › Investors tend to get excited about stock splits -- unnecessarily so, though, because a stock split is much less of a big deal than many people realize. Still, if you're wondering which next stock split could make you rich, I offer this possibility: Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), parent company of Facebook -- plus Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It has grown into a $1.7 trillion social media juggernaut, and its future remains promising, in part due to its hefty investments in artificial intelligence (AI). And better still, while lots of major tech companies are investing heavily in AI, Meta Platforms is already deriving a lot of revenue from it -- much more than OpenAI's ChatGPT, even. Image source: Getty Images. Meta Platforms has averaged annual gains of 77% over the past three years (and 20% over the past decade), and despite that, its stock still seems appealingly valued. Its recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was only 20, which is rather low for a growth stock that's still growing briskly. In its third quarter, for instance, Meta posted year-over-year revenue growth of 26% and an 18% rise in income from operations. Meta Platforms is also a dividend-paying stock, with a recent dividend yield of 0.3%. That's not a lot, but its rapid growth and great profitability suggest that it could up its payout significantly in the years to come. The reasons above are why you should consider an investment in Meta Platforms. Don't give a possible stock split much thought. Remember that while a stock split will increase the number of shares you own, it will also reduce the value of each share proportionately. So if you ow...
Closer ties with the EU single market are preferable to a customs union, Keir Starmer has said, in his clearest sign yet that the government is seeking to further deepen links with Brussels. The prime minister said the UK should consider “even closer alignment” with the single market. “If it’s in our national interest … then we should consider that, we should go that far,” he told the BBC’s Laura ...
Closer ties with the EU single market are preferable to a customs union, Keir Starmer has said, in his clearest sign yet that the government is seeking to further deepen links with Brussels. The prime minister said the UK should consider “even closer alignment” with the single market. “If it’s in our national interest … then we should consider that, we should go that far,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. In a riposte to some cabinet colleagues who have suggested the UK should seek to form a customs union with the EU, Starmer said he did not think that was the answer. “We are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment,” he said. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the justice secretary, David Lammy, have both suggested the UK could get economic benefits from a new customs deal – as has the TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak. Starmer said that much had changed in the last few years, including new trade deals that had been signed under Labour. “I argued for a customs union for many years with the EU, but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge,” he said. “I do understand why people are saying ‘wouldn’t it be better to go to the customs union?’ I actually think that now we’ve done deals with the US which are in our national interest, now we’ve done deals with India which are in our national interest, we are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment.” He said there would be no return to EU freedom of movement rights as part of any future negotiations, but defended the deal for a youth mobility scheme. “We are looking at a youth mobility scheme which will be for young people to travel, to work, to enjoy themselves in different European countries, to have that experience.” Starmer has given hints in recent months he would like to revisit strengthening ties with the EU. In November, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, was promoted to fu...
如果要选择当下最敌视AI的群体，可能非创作者莫属，毕竟AI能写文章、绘画、唱歌、做视频，都有赖于创作者在过去产出的作品。自己的成果却成为了“干掉”自己的武器，这无疑是所有创作者都不想看到的一幕，因此也就有了过去数年里，作家、画师、摄影师等创作者此起彼伏的抗议。 现在AI厂商已经不满足于汲取创作者的智慧了，他们甚至开始“骑脸输出”。 01 日前，马斯克的X平台上线了基于xAI旗下Grok的在线图片AI编辑功能，用户可直接点击帖子配图的编辑按钮、输入提示词进行修改。这个功能在上线后立刻引发了争议，大量创作者宣布停止在X平台发布新的内容，并考虑转移至其他更有利于内容保护的社交平台。 对于X的在线图片AI编辑功能，创作者会出现这样应激反应的原因其实非常简单，因为该功能的适用范围是X平台的任何推文。即便不是推文的发布者、而是浏览者，同样也可以对推文的配图进行AI编辑。不仅如此，在线图片AI编辑功能是强制生效的，也就是说即便是推文的发布者也不能主动关闭。 “当一个作品被创作出来，它将不再属于作者”，这是法国思想家罗兰·巴特的“作者之死”（The Death of the Author）理论的核心观点。当作者在完成作品或内容的时刻，他对作品的解释就已经失去了意义，应当如何理解是不同读者自己所作出的判定和选择，这其实也是现代化媒介出现导致越来越多人加入舆论场的必然。 可问题是“作者之死”是基于思想层面的，毕竟创作者也管不了读者怎么想，但二次创作则是个不折不扣的法律问题。事实上，X平台的底气，来源于他们在去年10月就更新了AI相关的授权协议，也就是X方面将把用户在该平台发布的任何内容 (包括文字、图片、音频和视频等)用于AI训练，且对用户的内容拥有免版税许可。 对于用户来说，X的在线图片AI编辑无疑是一个趣味感十足的功能，可以帮助缺乏绘画知识的普通用户轻松挥洒创意。但当“创造力”不再稀缺，创作者又该如何是好呢。虽然当下的AI创作能力仍有缺陷，但它已经有了“戳破信息差泡沫”的能力，而这显然是以此谋生的创作者不希望看到的事情。 特别是在绘画领域，因为有相当多的用户以往不懂画画，所以就导致一些技术含量不高的画因为客户不了解，就能卖出远超实际工作量的价格。就像以前重装电脑系统要收几百元，可现在大家都知道重装系统并不高深。所以当AI击碎了部分高价低质内容的溢价空间后，利益相关者自然就会不满。 ...
Stocks finished trading on Friday — the second-to-last session of the "Santa Claus rally" period — with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) leading the major indexes higher to open the new year as investors began to evaluate the 2026 landscape. For the holiday-abbreviated week, the blue-chip Dow led the way up with a gain of 319 points, or 0.66%. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) picked up 0.2%, w...
Stocks finished trading on Friday — the second-to-last session of the "Santa Claus rally" period — with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) leading the major indexes higher to open the new year as investors began to evaluate the 2026 landscape. For the holiday-abbreviated week, the blue-chip Dow led the way up with a gain of 319 points, or 0.66%. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) picked up 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) finished just barely below the flatline in a session that saw several of the "Magnificent 7" stocks stumble while semiconductor names soared. In the week ahead, the first full week of trading in 2026 will see economic data get back on track after last year's multi-month disruption following the 43-day government shutdown that spanned all of October and about half of November. On Friday, the December jobs report is expected to show a slowdown in hiring in the final month of 2025, with economists expecting nonfarm payrolls to grow by 55,000, down from November's job gains of 64,000. The unemployment rate, which hit a four-year high of 4.6% in November, is expected to fall by 0.1%. Elsewhere on the calendar, ADP's monthly private payrolls report, monthly job cuts data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and the weekly report on initial jobless claims will round out a heavy focus on the labor market to start the month. All of this jobs data will be closely watched for any impacts on bets that the Federal Reserve cuts rates when it meets later this month, though data from the CME Group as of Friday showed traders pricing in an 85% chance that the Fed keeps rates in their current range of 3.5%-3.75%. On the Federal Reserve front, investors will also be alert to any announcements from President Trump on his nomination to succeed Fed Chair Jay Powell, whose term leading the central bank expires in May. The president said late last month that he expected to name Powell's replacement in early January. Readings on service sector activity and...
There's no realistic path to Virgin Galactic turning profitable in 2026 -- or 2027, either. Ever since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021, space tourism stock Virgin Galactic (SPCE +2.49%) has been assuring investors it can profit from the brand new business of flying wealthy tourists to the edge of space, to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness before landing back on Earth. So far, Virgin...
There's no realistic path to Virgin Galactic turning profitable in 2026 -- or 2027, either. Ever since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021, space tourism stock Virgin Galactic (SPCE +2.49%) has been assuring investors it can profit from the brand new business of flying wealthy tourists to the edge of space, to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness before landing back on Earth. So far, Virgin hasn't been able to make those profits happen -- indeed, in 2024, the company suspended space operations entirely and retired its only existing spaceplane, while working on a design for new "Delta-class" spaceplanes that it hopes to begin flying in 2026. And now here we are on the threshold of the new year. And investors want to know: Will 2026 be the year Virgin Galactic finally turns profitable? The short answer to that question is almost certainly "no" -- but let me give you the long answer to help you understand why. Step 1: Restructure the debt Developing a brand-new spaceplane, one that can turn around and re-fly with just days rather than weeks between flights, is not inexpensive. Adding to the expense, Virgin is simultaneously developing a new mothership, the plane that will carry future Delta-class spaceplanes to altitude for their rocket ride to space. Between them, these twin projects are costing Virgin Galactic approximately $460 million in negative free cash flow annually as the company burns cash to fuel development. Advertisement Here's why this is a problem: At last report, Virgin Galactic had only $394 million in cash (and $478 million in debt). With Delta-class flights not expected to begin before the end of 2026, there was a very real risk that Virgin Galactic would run out of cash entirely before reaching its goal. To avoid this unfavorable outcome, Virgin Galactic announced in December a plan to restructure its debt. The company will sell approximately 12.1 million shares of stock to raise $46 million, roll over a significant portion of its debt throug...