Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te has ordered sweeping security reforms after a knife and smoke grenade attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei. The suspect, Chang Wen, 27, set fires and struck multiple sites before dying from a fall.
Published On 20 Dec 2025
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By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam
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Maeve Collins has announced her intention to swim for the University of California-Santa Barbara for the next four years. Collins made the announcement on Instagram, writing:
I am so excited and honored to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at University of California Santa Barbara!! I would like to thank my friends, family, Coach Matt, Coach Adam and Coach Walker. Thank you Coach Jax, Coach Justin and Coach Mark for this incredible opportunity. I can’t wait to be a part of this amazing team!! #GoGauchos
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Collins hails from Western Springs, Illinois, where she attends Lyons Township High School and swims year-round with RISE Aquatic Club. She’s primarily a butterfly specialist, strong in both the 100 and 200, who also competes in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles, meaning she could prove valuable for all five collegiate relays.
Over the past year, Collins dropped from 54.92 to 54.73 in the 100 fly, 2:06.41 to 2:02.57 in the 200 fly, 24.43 to 24.20 in the 50 free, 52.50 to 51.96 in the 100 free, and 1:54.95 to 1:52.52 in the 200 free.
At the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championships last month, she finished fourth in the 100 fly (55.22) after logging her second-fastest time of 54.74 in prelims. She also helped Lyons finish runner-up in the 200 medley relay (24.18 fly split) and contributed to seventh and eighth-place finishes in the 200 and 400 free relays with splits of 23.81 and 51.29, both well under her flat-start PBs. It was her third year qualifying for the meet; she finished fifth in the 100 fly as both a sophomore and junior.
Beyond high school competition, Collins is an NCSA qualifier, Winter Juniors qualifier, and Summer Junior Nationals qualifier. She also competed at the World Aquatics World Cup this past November, finishing 22nd in the 100 fly (1:01.23), her first time swimming the event in short course meters.
UCSB is a member of the Big West Conference, where its women’s team won last season, scoring 773.5 to UCSD’s 714.5.
Collins’ personal bests in the fly events would have placed eighth in both ‘A’ finals at last season’s conference meet. Her 100 and 200 free times would have squeaked her into the consolation finals, while her 50 free (24.20) is just under half a second off the 23.78 that was needed for a second swim.
On last season’s depth charts, she would have ranked fourth in both flys, fifth in the 200 free, seventh in the 100 free, and 14th in the 50 free. She could be an immediate factor on the squad’s 800 free relay if she can approach a sub-1:52 swim.
Samantha Banos, who won the 200 fly, 200 free, and 500 free at the 2025 conference meet, is graduating this May, making Collins’ arrival particularly timely. She will overlap one season with the team’s top all-around flyer, Sammie Hall (54.41/2:00.02), as well as Makena Leacox (52.80), the reigning 100 fly conference champion.
Collins joins a UCSB recruiting class that includes five other publicized recruits: Stela Sufuentes, Lillia Barlow, Lilli Perner, Melina Seider, and Viola Griebenow.
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Read the full story on SwimSwam: 54.7/2:02.5 Butterfly Specialist Maeve Collins Commits To UCSB’s Class Of 2030
Tattoos have gained widespread popularity, with nearly one in three Americans having at least one. But beneath the colorful designs lurks a hidden journey. According to a new study, tattoo ink doesn’t stay in the skin; it travels and accumulates in the lymph nodes, potentially causing lifelong changes to the immune system. The findings offer no conclusion as to whether these changes are positive or negative, but suggest that pigment retention in lymph nodes can persistently alter local immunity.
“Tattoos are not only a cosmetic treatment, but they are also associated with some important problems like the presence of some inflammation in the immune system, which we need further study [of] in the future,” the first author of the study, Santiago F. Gonzalez, told New Atlas.
A complex admixture of the ink that is insoluble in bodily fluids grants durability to tattoos. While previous studies have linked tattoo ink ingredients to various health issues, research on the interaction of ink components with the immune response is scarce. To evaluate how tattooing affects the immune response, Santiago and his colleagues set up a mouse model.
The researchers tattooed a small 25-square-millimeter patch on the footpads of mice with three commonly used commercial inks (black, red and green). Using advanced microscopy, the team tracked the real-time transport of ink immediately after tattooing. The results revealed that the ink does not stay only in the skin, but gets transported to the lymph nodes. In the lymph nodes, macrophages – immune cells that destroy germs and damaged cells – capture this ink and initiate an inflammatory response.
Within 24 hours, researchers observed a “significant decrease” in the total number of macrophages, indicating that tattoo ink induced macrophage death. The traces of the ink in the lymph node were present even after two months.
The paper hypothesizes that the ink persistence and the macrophage death could affect the capacity of these cells to control the spread of pathogenic viruses and bacteria.
“We are, at the moment, in follow-up studies evaluating these possibilities,” Santiago told New Atlas. “We also have to further investigate and see the connection between tattoos and cancer.”
Since macrophages are critical to the generation of a robust immune response following vaccination, the team was interested to test vaccines. They injected an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine or a UV-inactivated influenza shot directly into the tattooed footpad. For the COVID vaccine, antibody responses against the spike protein weakened. Meanwhile, for the influenza vaccine, the opposite happened: the ink likely amplified the immune response.
Santiago explains that for mRNA-based vaccines, macrophages are needed to capture the vaccine and express the antigens that make the mRNA vaccine work.
“In the tattooed individuals, these macrophages are full of ink; therefore, the ink basically does not allow them (vaccine) to work as they should,” Santiago tells us.
In the case of the influenza vaccine, the response is directed by dendritic cells, not by macrophages.
“These dendritic cells sense the inflammation generated by the dying of the macrophages as some sort of an adjuvant,” Santiago says, explaining why an immune response is possibly amplified by tattoo ink.
Ultimately, Santiago suggested people should generally avoid getting a vaccine shot directly into tattooed skin. And more generally, he suggests people be cautious with the practice of tattooing. There are still a lot of unknowns yet to be researched.
“We don’t want to scare the population, obviously, but we want it to have at least some caution with respect to doing more tattoos,” he told us.
The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to further jail terms following a fraud case involving state gifts.
They were convicted of breaking Pakistan’s rules on gifts after Bibi was given a luxury jewellery set by Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman during a 2021 state visit.
The pair are already serving time in prison for earlier convictions, and the new sentences – 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years for criminal misconduct, and a fine – will reportedly run concurrently to their earlier terms.
Khan has described the charges as politically motivated and his lawyer told BBC News his team plan to challenge the verdict.
Speaking to the BBC after the hearing, the former prime minister’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, said Khan’s legal team had only been informed about the sentencing late on Friday night, after normal court hours.
They planned to mount a challenge to the verdict in the high court, Mr Safdar said.
This case is the latest in a series of charges laid against the cricket star-turned-politician, who has been detained since August 2023. In January, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison over a separate corruption case.
He has faced charges in more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts. The BBC has been unable to confirm the exact number brought against him.
The jewellery case, referred to as Toshakhana 2 in Pakistan, concerns a Bulgari jewellery set given to Bushra Bibi by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a state visit in 2021, according to court documents.
Under Pakistan’s rules on state gifts, these items go to Pakistan’s Toshakana department (state treasury), but politicians are able to purchase the items back.
Khan is alleged to have asked a private firm to undervalue the jewellery set, before purchasing it back at a significantly reduced price.
In addition to their jail terms, the pair were handed a fine of over 16 million Pakistani rupees (£42,600).
Khan was also convicted in an earlier, different Toshakhana case – but he challenged that conviction, meaning his sentence is suspended until the outcome of his appeal.
He also has other cases outstanding against him.
These include terrorism charges relating to violent protests that took place on 9 May 2023, when he was previously arrested.
Khan was Pakistan’s prime minister until April 2022 when he was ousted in a vote of no confidence.
Although he has not been seen in public, his social media accounts have continued to operate with messages attributed to him on X often appearing after jail visits.
These have been highly critical of Pakistan’s current government and its politically powerful army Chief Field Marshall Asim Munir, including posts calling him a tyrannical dictator.
In November, he was denied any visitors for nearly a month.
After campaigning by his family and party, his sister was allowed to visit in early December; a few hours after she saw him, his account posted a comment credited to Khan calling the Field Marshall Asim Munir a “mentally unstable person”.
Khan has not been allowed any family visits since.
The judgement states the judge was lenient in sentencing because of Khan’s “old age”.
Update: This story was updated to clarify the latest legal status of Khan’s earlier, separate Toshakhana case.
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Published On 20 Dec 2025
When Scott Anthony (Dartmouth College, class of 1996) left a 20-year career in high-stakes consulting to join the faculty at his alma mater in July 2022, he thought he was leaving the “intense day-to-day combat” of the corporate world for a quieter life of teaching. Instead (as Anthony previously described in a commentary for Fortune), he arrived on campus just months before the release of ChatGPT, landing him squarely in the center of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that has left many of his students paralyzed by anxiety.
In a recent interview, the former consultant at McKinsey and Innosight, a boutique firm cofounded by Clayton Christensen and Mark Johnson in 2000 and acquired by Huron in 2017, revealed the prevailing mood among the next generation of business leaders isn’t just excitement—it is fear.
“One of the things that really surprises me consistently is how scared our students are of using it,” Anthony said. He clarified this anxiety isn’t merely about academic integrity or cheating. Plenty of his students are excited to use AI and push into the frontier of this new tech advance, he clarified, but a meaningful portion approach it with “hesitation and fear.” They are “scared full stop.”
“There’s something about AI where people, I think, worry that they’ll lose their humanity if they lean too much into it,” Anthony explained. This is different from many of his long-tenured academic colleagues, who he said are usually eager to dig into the new tools at their disposal. The freshly minted author of Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped our Modern World, Anthony talked to Fortune about teaching a course on disruption while education and work itself is in the middle of being disrupted itself. “History teaches me very clearly that in the middle of a change like this, it’s very messy.”
Anthony said what he believes about studying disruption, and managing through it as a consultant, is that you look back later on and the pattern becomes clear, but at this particular stage, “there’s just a lot of noise.” He said he understands his students’ concerns about AI and shares it to some extent—offloading too much cognitive work to AI will atrophy the critical thinking skills required to lead.
An eye-catching MIT study published in June would seem to make Anthony’s point. Titled “your brain on ChatGPT,” with a subtitle mentioning “accumulation of cognitive debt.” Widely covered in the media as supporting Anthony’s students’ fear, that AI tools can somehow harm humanity, the study suggested that “cognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use.” In other words, it suggests that using AI makes you stupider.
Vitomir Kovanovic and Rebecca Marrone, from the University of South Australia, argued in The Conversation at the time that “brain-only group” repeated the task in question three times, a phenomenon known as the familiarisation effect. The AI control group only got to “use their brains” to perform the task once, they noted, and so achieved only slightly better engagement than the brain-only group’s first try. They argued AI is functioning like a calculator, and tasks haven’t become advanced enough to put students through the ringer, even using AI tools. Anthony, who didn’t comment on that specific MIT study, told Fortune he’s rolled up his sleeves on AI assessments.
“I’ve been teaching a class about how you lead disruptive change,” Anthony said, adding he wants to find someone who needs to learn a particular topic and use AI to tackle that. This doesn’t mean he wants something like, say, an AI-driven song that required one prompt to make. “I want you to actually go and expose the guts of the work that you did so I can then go and see whether you learned anything or not.” Sometimes, he said, elegant outputs are the result from students who didn’t learn anything, but he also gets “rough outputs where when you see what they’re actually doing.”
When asked about the example of someone like Jure Leskovec, the Stanford computer science professor who went fully to blue-book exams several years ago, as Fortune reported in September, Anthony said he respected that, but it wasn’t for him. “I’ve never given a blue-book exam,” he said, noting he’s just a few years removed from his consulting career and he may try it, but he’s not there yet. Some of his colleagues are very strict still: Not only does one colleague still only do blue-book exams, “he does not allow people to go to the bathroom during the exam. You just, you can’t leave the room.”
He agreed with Leskovec some changes are already irreversible: “The writing is all good now. The bad writing has been taken out.” This can be “dangerous,” he added, saying he really pushes his students to resist temptation.
“The thing I’ve just really been pushing, whether it’s students or whether it’s the executives that I’ve been working with, it’s so seductive and easy to say, ‘Let me offload,’” he said. The reason why, he explained, has to do with what he learned about Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Child while researching his book.
To paraphrase Seinfeld, Anthony said he tells his students “the right way is the hard way.” He recalled an interview Seinfeld gave to the Harvard Business Review in 2017 when the famous comedian, with a reputation as a bit of a micromanager, was asked if he ever wanted McKinsey to help with his process. “Who’s McKinsey?” He asked. When told that it was a consulting firm, he countered, “Are they funny?”
Seinfeld was making the point, Alexander told Fortune, that the hard way to be funny is the right way, at least for him. He said he wants students to do the “hard work” to develop the wisdom necessary to manage AI effectively.
“We just have to separate people from technology when we’re assessing learning or else we’re going to get AI regurgitation,” he warned. That can be useful for some things, “but if you’re trying to figure out whether people learn something or not, it’s useless.”
Anthony also drew on a fitness analogy: “You go to the gym, you want to lift any amount of weight, bring a forklift with you. You can lift the weight, but that’s not the point.”
Anthony said his research, teaching at the Tuck School of Business, and his writing shows people are getting bogged down by AI when they should be focused on the hard work Seinfeld was referencing. Take the example of the famous cooking author Julia Child, which Anthony said was his favorite chapter of the book because it was the most surprising. The lesson he drew from it is that you may not be able to be the next Steve Jobs, but you could be the next Julia Child. “If life bounces the right way, I could imagine that happening to me, you know?”
The professor explained Child’s example shows disruption “isn’t about being a superhero,” but it’s more about ordinary people following certain behaviors and showing curiosity.
“It’s a reminder that there is no straight line to success,” he said. She started working on her masterpiece, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, roughly 10 years—and two publisher changes—before succeeding with it. She also failed her first exam at Paris’ Cordon Bleu, persevering to become the woman who brought French cuisine to mainstream America. “It’s classic hero journey sort of stuff,” he said.
Consider the first French meal that Child cooked for her husband, Anthony said: brain, simmered in red wine. “Everybody agreed it was a disaster.” But again, he said, the hard work was the point.
The US justice department has released an initial tranche of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents, which include photos, videos and investigative documents, were highly anticipated after Congress passed a law mandating the files be released in their entirety by Friday.
However, Democrats and some Republicans accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) of violating its legal obligations after it said it would not be able to release all the documents by the deadline. Many details in the thousands of files have also been heavily redacted.
A number of famous faces are included in the first batch of files, including former US President Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and musicians Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.
Being named or pictured in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing. Many of those identified in the files or in previous releases related to Epstein have denied any wrongdoing.
US Department of JusticeSeveral of the images released include former US President Bill Clinton.
One picture shows him swimming in a pool, and another shows him lying on his back with his hands behind his head in what appears to be a hot tub.
Clinton was photographed with Epstein several times over the 1990s and early 2000s, before the disgraced financier was first arrested. He has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein’s abuse, and has denied knowledge of his sex offending.
A spokesperson for Clinton commented on the new photos, saying they were decades old.
“They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be,” Angel Ureña wrote on social media.
“There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships with him after.
“We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.
“Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.”
US Department of Justice
US Department of JusticeThe US president is also mentioned in the tranche of files released by the justice department.
Court documents detail that Epstein allegedly introduced a 14-year-old girl to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
During the alleged encounter in the 1990s, Epstein elbowed Trump and “playfully asked him”, in reference to the girl, “this is a good one, right?”, the document says.
Trump smiled and nodded in agreement, according to the lawsuit filed against Epstein’s estate and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2020.
The document says that “they both chuckled” and the girl felt uncomfortable, but “at the time, was too young to understand why”.
The victim alleges she was groomed and abused by Epstein over many years.
In the court filing, she makes no accusations against Trump.
The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.
The alleged episode is one of very few mentions of the president in the thousands of files released on Friday. He can be seen in several photos but his inclusion is minimal at best.
The Trump War Room, the official X account for the president’s political operation, instead posted photographs of Clinton after the release.
Trump’s press secretary also re-posted images of Clinton, saying “Oh my!”
However, there are still pages to be released.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that “several hundred thousand” pages of documents are still being reviewed and have yet to be made public.
The US president has previously said he was a friend of Epstein’s for years, but said they fell out in about 2004, years before Epstein was first arrested.
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
US Department of JusticeA photo in the released files appears to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lying across five people, whose faces are redacted.
Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell is seen in the image standing behind them.
Andrew has faced years of scrutiny over his past friendship with Epstein, who does not appear in the photo.
He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and said he did not “see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction”.
US Department of JusticeThe newly released documents include the widest assortment of celebrities we’ve seen in an Epstein file release so far.
The former financier was known for having connections across entertainment, politics and business.
Some images released by the DOJ show him with stars that include Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and Diana Ross.
It is unclear where or when any of the photos were taken, or in what context. It’s also unclear if Epstein was associated with all of these figures or whether he attended these events. Previously released photos from Epstein’s estate have included photos that he did not take, from events where he was not in attendance.
In one of the newly released photos, Epstein is photographed with Michael Jackson. The pop idol is wearing a suit and Epstein is seen in a zip-up hoodie.
US Department of JusticeAnother image of Jackson shows him with former US President Bill Clinton and Diana Ross. They are posing together in a small area and multiple other faces are redacted from the image.
Another photo in the thousands of files shows Rolling Stones legend Jagger posing for a photo with Clinton and a woman whose face is redacted. They are all in cocktail attire.
Several photos include the actor Chris Tucker. One shows him posing and seated next to Clinton at a dining table. Another shows him on aeroplane tarmac with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of Epstein.
The BBC has contacted Jagger, Tucker and Ross for comment. Clinton has previously denied knowledge of Epstein’s sex offending and a spokesperson on Friday said they were decades-old photos.
“This isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be,” the spokesperson said.
US Department of Justice
US Department of JusticeAnother photo included in yesterday’s document release shows Ghislaine Maxwell posing in front of 10 Downing Street.
She is alone, and there is no context provided with the photo about why she is there or when the image was taken.
We do not know who was prime minister at the time the photo was taken, or in what capacity Maxwell was visiting Downing Street.
US Department of JusticeOne of the first people to report Epstein is included in the files.
Maria Farmer, an artist who worked for Epstein, told the FBI in a 1996 report that he had stolen personal photos she took of her 12-year-old and 16-year-old sisters.
She said in a complaint that she believed he sold the photos to potential buyers, and said he threatened to burn her house down if she told anyone about it.
Her name is redacted in the files but Farmer confirmed the account was hers.
She notes in the report that Epstein had allegedly asked her to take pictures for him of young girls at swimming pools.
“Epstein is now threatening [redacted] that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down,” the report states.
Farmer said she feels vindicated after nearly 30 years.
“I feel redeemed,” she said.
Among the documents released on Friday are many that are redacted, including police statements, investigative reports and photos.
More than 550 pages of the files released on Friday were fully redacted, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner. These include a document related to a grand jury investigation where 100 pages were entirely blacked out.
Officials, as outlined in the law, were allowed to redact materials to protect the identity of victims, or anything related to an active criminal investigation, but they were required by law to explain such redactions, which has not yet been done.
US Department of Justice
US Department of Justice
US Department of JusticeThe thousands of pages released on Friday are only a share of what is to come, according to the justice department.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department was releasing “several hundred thousand pages” on Friday and that he expected “several hundred thousand more” to be released over the coming weeks.
He told Fox & Friends that the department was heavily vetting each page of material to ensure “every victim – their name, their identity, their story, to the extent that it needs to be protected – is completely protected”. That is a process, he argued, that takes time.
The timing of when additional materials will be released is unclear, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration.
Democrats including Congressman Ro Khanna have threatened action against members of the justice department, including impeachment or possible prosecution over the delay.
Khanna led with Republican Congressman Thomas Massie to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, defying US President Donald Trump who at first urged his party to vote against the measure.
“The DOJ’s document dump of hundreds of thousands of pages failed to comply with the law,” he said on social media, adding in a video that all options were on the table and were being mulled over by him and Massie.
PPL, the UK’s collective management organization (CMO) for performers and recording rightsholders, has reported a 19.9% increase in payouts for the final quarter of 2025, boosted by international payments.
The CMO paid out £54.3 million on Wednesday (December 17), or USD $72.8 million at current exchange rates, for the final payout of the year. That’s up from £45.3 million in the same period a year earlier.
PPL attributed the performance to growing international collections.
“This year I believe PPL has delivered its largest international Q4 payment to recording rightsholders, helping to ensure that music continues to be a sustainable career choice for both performers and recording rightsholders,” said Shamus Damani, Consultant Director of Business Affairs at Defected Records.
“It is clear from these figures that PPL continues to bring tremendous value to the music industry, and our collaboration with them plays a major part in the continued success of our business.”
“PPL continues to bring tremendous value to the music industry, and our collaboration with them plays a major part in the continued success of our business.”
Shamus Damani, Defected Records
PPL has agreements with 63 international CMOs to distribute royalties generated in those markets. The company says performer collections from Denmark, Germany and the US increased due to ongoing data improvements, and from Sweden thanks to back payments under a private copying settlement.
“Recording rightsholders are receiving significant payments from Belgium this quarter following improved collaboration around repertoire data, as well as substantial payments from Germany, Hungary, Romania and Spain,” PPL said.
The latest payout went to 147,000 performers and recording rightsholders, either as direct members of PPL or indirectly through other CMOs, and included more than 8,500 first time payees. The year’s last royalty distribution includes revenue from VPL, which licenses music videos when they are played in public or broadcast on TV.
PPL said it made a “considerable” payout of £2.3 million ($3.1 million) under the Annual Supplementary Remuneration Fund, which was set up more than a decade ago when the UK extended the copyright on music to align with EU laws.
PPL says more than 20,000 non-featured performers are receiving annual supplementary royalties through the fund, which covers recordings released between 1963 and 1973. Among the recordings becoming eligible for ASR fund payments this year are Elton John‘s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day.
In total, PPL says it has paid out £277.7 million ($372.2 million) to performers and recording rightsholders in 2025.
PPL CEO Peter Leathem OBE said he’s “pleased to close the year with such a strong payment to performers and recording rightsholders in the UK and beyond.
“My thanks to all the PPL team who work to deliver this positive outcome, as well as all of the CMOs around the world with whom we collaborate on collections, data and technology developments. All of which is making the movement of payments around the world ever more effective and efficient for our members.”Music Business Worldwide
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