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Bangladesh PM front-runner returns after 17 years in exile
Tarique Rahman, the front-runner to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh, has returned to the country after 17 years in exile ahead of landmark general elections.
The 60-year-old is the figurehead of the influential Zia family and the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
The party he leads, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is eyeing a return to power when Bangladesh goes to the polls in the new year.
Rahman, who has lived in London since 2008, is expected to become the country’s new leader if the BNP emerges as the largest party.
Rahman’s return comes in the wake of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina being ousted last year.
He had been the subject of various criminal investigations launched while her Awami League party was in power but was cleared of all charges when her regime fell.
Hasina is living in exile in India and her party is unlikely to be permitted to take part in the elections, which many view as among the most consequential in Bangladesh’s history.
Last month, Hasina was sentenced to death for her role in suppressing anti-government protests.
According to UN investigators, up to 1,400 people died in the student-led unrest.
Hasina, who was put on trial in absentia, has denied committing crimes against humanity.
Security bars installed on Louvre museum balcony targeted in October heist
Louvre museum installs security bars on balcony used in October’s heist
Marchand and McIntosh Shine in Bowman Pro Group Fly Set | Early Morning Swim Practice and Pancakes
By Coleman Hodges on SwimSwam
It’s not every day you walk onto a pool deck and are surrounded by Olympians. Unless you’re Bob Bowman.
Coming off an altitude camp in November and competing at the US Open in early December, Bob Bowman’s pro group at Texas was ramping back up their yardage on this Tuesday afternoon when SwimSwam dropped in. Wanting to get in a bit of aerobic and anaerobic work, Bowman ran a set that he got from Aussie coach Bill Sweetenham that involved a lot of fast 50s fly.
The group of pros doing this set was as follows:
Leon Marchand, Summer McIntosh, Hubert Kos, Regan Smith, Carson Foster, Shaine Casas, Luke Hobson, Chris Guiliano, Lindsay Looney, and Jack Kelly.
See the main set below:
3 Rounds (Round 2 50’s on :45, Round 3 50’s on :50)
ALL 50’s are FAST & Fly
- 200 @ 2:40
- 150 @ 1:50
- 50 @ :40
- 150 @ 1:45
- 100 @ 1:05
- 2×50 @ :40
- 100 @ 1:00
- 3×50 @ :40
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Marchand, McIntosh Highlight Bowman Pro Group Fly Set | PRACTICE + PANCAKES
What Chinese Parents Find Appealing in A.I. Toys
new video loaded: What Parents in China See in A.I. Toys
transcript
transcript
What Parents in China See in A.I. Toys
A video of a child crying over her broken A.I. chatbot stirred up conversation in China, with some viewers questioning whether the gadgets are good for children. But the girl’s father says it’s more than a toy; it’s a family member.
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This video of a girl crying over her broken A.I. chatbot went viral in China. Xiaozhi A.I. is powered by artificial intelligence and it can have long conversations with six-year-old Shisan Hu. The gadget and similar chatbot toys are part of a multi-billion dollar A.I. toy industry in China that’s expected to rapidly grow. What is a black hole? Black hole is — Some of these talkative toys are making their way to the U.S., where parents have raised concerns about chatbots and young children engaging in inappropriate conversations. However, in China, many parents like Zelei Hu are embracing chatbot toys. The father said his daughter is an only child, and he decided to buy Xiaozhi A.I. so she would have a companion. So in the control panel, Hu went to the character profile section and wrote out the way he wanted the toy to interact with Shisan. So the father told the device to focus on teaching English and astronomy. Hu said he considers the chatbot toy a family member. For Shisan, Xiaozhi A.I. isn’t a toy. The father said one of the best things about the device is that it has taken away a major distraction. After a month of talking to the chatbot everyday, it broke. Hu said seeing his daughter become so emotional made him concerned that she was becoming too attached. Eventually, the father decided to repair the toy because he said his attitude towards A.I. technology is shifting.
A video of a child crying over her broken A.I. chatbot stirred up conversation in China, with some viewers questioning whether the gadgets are good for children. But the girl’s father says it’s more than a toy; it’s a family member.
By Jiawei Wang
December 25, 2025
Massive snowman in China attracts large gatherings
If you’re chionoandrophobic, we recommend looking away now. Standing about 62 ft (19 m) tall, measuring roughly 46 ft (14 m) long and 36 ft (11 m) wide, 2025’s largest snowman has been erected in northeast China. The smiling icy monster required some 124,000 cubic feet (3,500 cubic meters) of snow, and has already become a big tourist attraction in the city of Harbin.
It took a mammoth effort to build, with a team of 64 sculptors and more than 100 construction workers involved in its 11-day creation, as well as some help from snow-making machines in order to make sure there was enough powder to finish the job. And the entire build was livestreamed for audiences around the globe.
Now, the snowman stands six stories high, dwarfing nearby buildings. But, given the nature of his materials, the giant only has a temporary home in Heilongjiang province.
The iconic fella has become a star attraction each winter in Harbin, after making its debut in 2019. Last winter, nearly 100 million tourists visited the city during the holidays, generating about more than US$19 billion. Harbin is also now home to the world’s largest seasonal ice and snow theme park, Ice and Snow World, which opened on December 17.
Xinhua
And yes, chionoandrophobia is the fear of both snow and men, but as far as creepy snowmen go, we think Harbin’s big guy looks fairly friendly.
He isn’t the biggest snowman of all time, however – that record is still held by Olympia, the world’s largest “snowperson,” which stood 122 feet 1 inch (37.21 m) tall when it was built in Bethel, Maine in 2008.
Source: Xinhua
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Medicaid programs made more than $200 million in improper payments to health care providers between 2021 and 2022 for people who had already died, according to a new report from the independent watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services.
But the department’s Office of Inspector General said it expects a new provision in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill requiring states to audit their Medicaid beneficiary lists may help reduce these improper payments in the future.
These kinds of improper payments are “not unique to one state, and the issue continues to be persistent,” Aner Sanchez, assistant regional inspector general in the Office of Audit Services told The Associated Press. Sanchez has been researching this issue for a decade.
The watchdog report released Tuesday said more than $207.5 million in managed care payments were made on behalf of deceased enrollees between July 2021 to July 2022. The office recommends that the federal government share more information with state governments to recover the incorrect payments — including a Social Security database known as the Full Death Master File, which contains more than 142 million records going back to 1899.
Sharing the Full Death Master File data has been tightly restricted due to privacy laws which protect against identity theft and fraud.
The massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump this summer expands how the Full Death Master File can be used by mandating Medicaid agencies to quarterly audit their provider and beneficiary lists against the file, beginning in 2027. The intent is to stop payments to dead people and improve accuracy.
Tuesday’s report is the first nationwide look at improper Medicaid payments. Since 2016, HHS’ inspector general has conducted 18 audits on a selection of state programs and had identified that Medicaid agencies had improperly made managed care payments on behalf of deceased enrollees totaling approximately $289 million.
The government had some success using the Full Death Master File to prevent improper payments earlier this year. In January, the Treasury Department reported that it had clawed back more than $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people as part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave Treasury temporary access to the file for three years as part of the 2021 appropriations bill.
Meanwhile, the Social Security Administration has been making unusual updates to the file itself, adding and removing records, and complicating its use. For instance, the Trump administration in April moved to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead and cancel their Social Security numbers to crack down on immigrants who had been temporarily allowed to live in the U.S. under programs started during the Biden administration.
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Two people injured after ICE agents shoot at Maryland vehicle during crackdown | News
An attempted ICE arrest outside Baltimore turned violent after a man allegedly drove into law enforcement vehicles.
Published On 25 Dec 2025
Two people were injured in a suburb of Baltimore after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents fired shots at a moving vehicle whose driver was allegedly evading arrest, according to US authorities.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said ICE agents had attempted to arrest two men from Portugal and El Salvador – who were allegedly living in the US illegally – as they were driving through Glen Burnie, Maryland, on Wednesday.
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DHS said in a post on X that officers approached the vehicle and told the driver to turn off his engine, but the driver did not cooperate and instead drove into several ICE vehicles.
“Fearing for their lives and public safety, the ICE officers defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver,” DHS said in a statement on X. The driver “then wrecked his van between two buildings, injuring the passenger”.
The two men later received medical attention, and no ICE agents were hurt during the incident, DHS said.
“Our brave officers are risking their lives every day to keep American communities safe by arresting and removing illegal aliens from our streets,” the DHS post also said. “Continued efforts to encourage illegal aliens and violent agitators to actively resist ICE will only lead to more violent incidents, the extremist rhetoric must stop.”
Local police confirmed to ABC News that ICE agents had approached a “white van” during an arrest on Wednesday and reported that the driver “attempted to run the agents over”.
The ICE agents then fired at the vehicle, which accelerated before coming to a rest in a wooded area of residential Glen Burnie, Maryland, ABC said.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore wrote on X that he was “aware of the ICE-involved shooting”, and his office would continue to share more information as the investigation unfolded.
The shooting follows a similar incident in Minnesota on Sunday, when ICE agents fired shots at a Cuban man who also resisted arrest and attempted to ram ICE vehicles, according to ABC News.
The man, who had entered the US on a discontinued asylum programme, was approached by ICE agents in the city of St Paul while in an SUV.
The agents threatened to break his windows if he did not speak with them, prompting the man to drive away, ABC reported, citing Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. During the incident, the man hit an ICE agent with his vehicle.
The situation escalated when ICE agents pursued the man to his apartment building, where he later rammed an ICE vehicle with his SUV and hit a second agent, ABC said. ICE agents fired several shots before arresting the man, the report said.
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Five individuals die in explosion at crowded Nigerian mosque
At least five people have been killed in a bomb explosion in a packed mosque in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state, a police spokesman has said.
Nahum Daso told local media another 35 people were injured in the blast in the Gamboru market of Maiduguri, the state capital, during evening prayers.
Unverified footage on social media appears to show the aftermath of the explosion, with people stood in a market area with dust particles in the air.
No group has admitted carrying out the attack, but militants have previously targeted mosques and crowded places in the area with suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices (IED).
Maiduguri has been central to an insurgency by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province.
Military operations by Boko Haram to create an Islamic caliphate in Borno state began in 2009.
Security measures against the group have failed to prevent sporadic attacks against civilians in north-east Nigeria.