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Centrists gain momentum as far-right falters in Dutch elections | Newsfeed
Support for Geert Wilders’ far-right, anti-Islam Freedom Party has declined as the centrist D66 party made major gains in the Dutch elections. The two parties are now neck-and-neck in the race to become the largest in parliament.
Published On 30 Oct 2025
Shaquille O’Neal’s Custom Range Rover Valued at $180K Stolen en Route to LSU Game
A 2025 Range Rover worth $180,000 that was customized for NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal was stolen in Georgia earlier this month, and law enforcement is still searching for the vehicle.
Shaquille O’Neal Needed Range Rover For LSU Game
The Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office in northeast Georgia said investigators believe the luxury SUV was taken from a local fabrication business and brought to the metro Atlanta area last week.
The car was supposed to be transported to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the Hall of Famer to use while he was in town for an LSU game, but the vehicle never arrived, according to CBS News Atlanta.
California-based Effortless Motors customized the car and has worked with O’Neal since 2023.
Effortless Motors has previously worked on several of O’Neal’s high-end vehicles, including his 2025 Chevy 2500 ZR2, Corvette Z06, Escalade IQ, and his TRX 1500 Apocalypse.
Ahmad Abdelrahman, a spokesperson for Effortless Motors, told CBS News Atlanta that Texas-based FirstLine Trucking LLC, which was responsible for transporting the car, said the company’s system was hacked.
“We do all his cars. This time, we set up transport, and transport claimed they were hacked and don’t know who picked up the vehicle,” Abdelrahman said.
“It’s been missing since Monday. “They claimed they were hacked and have no idea who picked up the car or where it’s at. … They’re still investigating.”
Effortless Motors Offering $10,000 Reward For Information
Abdelrahman noted that this case is a rare occurrence.
“We take the security and trust of our clients very seriously,” Abdelrahman added. “This was a highly coordinated criminal act targeting the transport company’s network. Police are saying this may be a part of a big operation ring that’s been happening … We’re waiting for some updates.”
Investigators have reportedly identified multiple potential suspects and obtained several search warrants, sources familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The car was being customized for O’Neal’s 7-foot-1, 330-pound frame.
Effortless Motors is offering a $10,000 reward for any information about suspicious vehicle transport activity in the Dahlonega or Atlanta areas between Oct. 20 and Oct. 22
Sources indicate that Exclusive-CK Hutchison and Iliad are contemplating a merger of their Italian operations.
Exclusive-CK Hutchison, Iliad consider tie-up up of their Italian operations, sources say
Minimalistic ring replaces mouse, provides full desktop control
Over the past decade there have been a few attempts to replace the traditional computer mouse with a lighter and faster gadget, but none of them seemed to fully meet users’ needs. The Prolo Ring is the most recent innovation, launched on Kickstarter a week ago. It looks like future customers have high expectations for this one, as it got funded in just nine minutes.
Previous ring-mouse devices we’ve seen were a bit bulky, had visible buttons, or positioned your hand in the same way as a traditional mouse, potentially causing wrist strain. In contrast, the minimalistic Prolo Ring looks more like a jewelry piece. It comes in three colors, has no buttons, and weighs around 5 grams – light enough to make you forget you’re even wearing it (so make sure you take it off before washing the dishes).
The Prolo Ring fits on the index finger and has three main components: a trackpad (operated by the thumb), a 6-axis motion sensor, and a “modstrip” (basically a trackpad operated by the index finger of the other hand). Full cursor control is enabled mostly with your thumb: point, click, scroll, zoom, or swipe.
Prolo
The ring can recognize over 40 air gestures of the index finger (on the ring-wearing hand), which can be programmed for your individual needs: from playing YouTube videos to switching between windows or launching macros. All this functionality allows your hands to stay on the keyboard, as every control tool is literally at your fingertips.
Switching from a traditional mouse to the ring does seem like a big change, so we reached out to the founders to learn what feedback they received from early testers.
“It’s surprisingly intuitive. For basic cursor control, most people feel comfortable after just five minutes – it behaves like a miniature trackpad,” Prolo CEO Dr. Joey Cheng told us. “Within about 15 minutes, users can perform most everyday actions without thinking about them. Customization takes a little longer, but that’s part of the fun – once users start creating their own gestures and macros, it becomes a creative process rather than a technical one. In the end, it’s just swipes and clicks – the logic feels natural.”
While the Prolo Ring can fully replace a mouse for gaming, presenting, and most basic computer tasks, there are still some limitations.
“For high-precision work – like 3D modeling, CAD, or photo retouching – the Prolo Ring is designed to complement, not completely replace, the mouse. Pointer precision is still limited by the small form factor,” said Cheng.
Prolo
The Prolo Ring is compatible with a wide range of devices and all major systems. Connecting it to a computer doesn’t require any software or subscription – just Bluetooth. There is also a desktop app, but it’s not necessary to install unless you want to experiment with multiple advanced configurations.
The device takes about an hour to charge, though the downside is that its battery may run out before you finish your eight-hour workday. It comes with a battery-equipped charging case (which looks a lot like a proposal ring box) that can recharge the ring for up to 30 days, and that takes two hours to fully charge from an outlet.
There are several editions available to backers: from the Basic, which includes the ring and a charging cable for a pledge of US$99 (planned retail $199), to the Founder’s Edition which includes two rings (with personalized engraving on one of them), special packaging, and some “Surprise Founder Perks” for $299. Assuming everything works out, the devices should ship in December.
Prolo Ring: Full Desktop Control Without a Mouse
Sources: Kickstarter, Prolo
Caribbean devastated by Hurricane Melissa’s destructive path
Nick Davis,Mandeville, Jamaica and
Rachel Hagan
Getty ImagesThe scale of devastation left by Hurricane Melissa is becoming clear after the record-setting storm tore through Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, leaving at least 34 people dead.
Although downgraded from a category five to a category two storm, Melissa gathered speed as it swept through the Bahamas on Thursday and is expected to make landfall in Bermuda later.
The strongest storm to strike the Caribbean island in modern history, the hurricane sustained winds of 298km/h (185 mph) at its peak – stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, killing 1,392 people.
The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) reported sustained winds of 165km/h at 12:00 GMT on Thursday.
AFP via Getty ImagesIt warned of possible coastal flooding as the storm accelerated north-eastward.
Authorities in the Bahamas have since lifted hurricane warnings for the central and southern islands, as well as for the Turks and Caicos.
The country’s Minister of State for Disaster Risk Management, Leon Lundy, urged residents to remain vigilant, saying: “Even a weakened hurricane retains the capacity to bring serious devastation.”
Nearly 1,500 people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in what officials described as one of the largest operations in Bahamian history.
While flooding has disrupted parts of the archipelago, the ministry of tourism said the majority of the country – including Nassau, Freeport, Eleuthera and the Abacos – remained largely unaffected and open to visitors.
Across the wider Caribbean, Melissa’s powerful winds have torn apart homes and buildings, uprooted trees and left tens of thousands without power.
In Cuba, residents of the country’s second-largest city Santiago de Cuba worked with machetes to clear streets buried in debris. President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the hurricane had caused “considerable damage” but did not provide a casualty figure.
In Jamaica, the impact was most severe in the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, where knee-deep mud and washed-out bridges left towns such as Black River cut off. On the road west out of the capital Kingston we saw minimal damage – some structures torn down, trees strewn across roads and gardens.
ReutersBut once we arrived in central Jamaica we started to see how severely the island had been hit. The town of Mandeville has been, for want of a better word, flattened. A petrol station lost its roof and most of its pumps.
Dana Malcolm of the Jamaica Observer described “very, very slow progress” along roads still blocked by landslides when reaching St Elizabeth. She told the BBC: “I was standing in what used to be main street yesterday and I was knee-deep in mud where the road should have been.”
Kabien, who runs a beauty business in the Santa Cruz area of St Elizabeth, said she is staying in her house with the roof blown off and flooding because the public shelter is too dangerous.
She told the BBC on Thursday morning it was “extremely traumatic especially for the kids.”
She continued: “We are still at home now. Even though it is flooded and has no roof. We don’t have any options. I’m trying to clean up. The shelters aren’t safe for my kids. The beddings are too close to random men. There aren’t separate areas for kids, men, women and adults.”
ReutersCommunication across Jamaica has been all but severed, with power lines and mobile networks down in much of the southwest. Many families have spent days unable to contact relatives in the hardest-hit parishes.
In Black River, the New York Times reported, the relative of one victim walked 15 miles (24km) to the police station to report their loved one dead.
Desmond McKenzie, the minister of local government, shared the news that “amidst all this, a baby was safely delivered under emergency conditions. So there is… a baby Melissa”.
Haiti, already mired in gang violence and humanitarian crisis, suffered at least 25 deaths – 10 of them children – largely due to flooding after days of relentless rain, despite the country avoiding a direct hit.
The storm is also responsible for at least eight deaths in Jamaica and one in the Dominican Republic, officials have said.
The NHC said floodwaters across the Bahamas were expected to subside by Thursday, though conditions in Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola would remain hazardous for several days.
Additional reporting by Gabriela Pomeroy.
Sir Martin Sorrell believes that AI has already passed its “Oppenheimer moment”
Regulating AI may be a prevalent topic at the highest levels of government and tech, but the moment to get it right may have already passed.
“Regulation is going to have to be self-regulation,” said Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and executive chairman of S4 Capital, this week at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh. “The cat is out of the bag. We’ve missed the Oppenheimer moment. Many people compare it to the control of nuclear weapons.”
Sorrell—famed as the founder of advertising giant WPP—went on to explain that tech companies and individual figures like Elon Musk are simply too large, rich, and influential for governments to meaningfully bring down a regulatory hammer.
“Apple’s at $4 trillion, and Musk’s compensation in his latest plan is geared to a $10 trillion valuation,” Sorrell told the audience. “I have no doubt that Musk or Tesla will get to that valuation. At some point, we’ll have a $10 trillion company. To put that into perspective, other than the United States and China, a $10 trillion company would effectively be the third-biggest [economy in the world]. They’re nation-states. The ability of governments to control them, I think, has become limited.”
In some sense, we’re already halfway to Sorrell’s prediction: This week, Nvidia became the first $5 trillion company in history. The chipmaking behemoth’s shares shot up in the aftermath of comments from President Donald Trump about meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Looking ahead, Sorrell also foresees that, especially in advertising, we’re soon set to see audiences lean into and accept “the use of synthetic people … imaginary people in advertising.”
“Our view is that over the next two to three years that will become commonplace,” he said. “The reason is economics. We’re talking about a huge disruption. You’re talking about reductions of as much as 80% to 90% of production costs, out the window, and taking create costs down—whilst media costs and creating more money for media investment will become more and more important.”
Lebanese President Aoun vows army will confront Israeli forces following deadly incursion | Israel’s attack on Lebanon sparks tensions
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has instructed the armed forces to confront any further Israeli incursion in the country’s south after Israeli forces crossed their shared border and killed a municipal worker during an overnight raid.
The pivotal announcement was made on Thursday after days of Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory in near-daily Israeli violations of a ceasefire that went into effect in November.
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The Lebanese forces, unlike the armed group Hezbollah, have generally stayed on the sidelines of the conflict with Israel. But Aoun, a former commander of the Lebanese army, appears to have finally lost his patience with the Israeli-forced status quo.
Aoun ordered the army to “confront any Israeli incursion into liberated southern territory, in defence of Lebanese territory and the safety of citizens”, during a meeting with Brigadier General Rodolphe Haykal, according to a statement from the presidency.
The order came just hours after Israeli soldiers entered the border town of Blida and stormed the town hall, killing municipal worker Ibrahim Salameh, who had been sleeping there, the state-owned National News Agency (NNA) reported.
مراسلة «الأخبار»: استشهاد موظف بلدية بليدا، إبراهيم سلامة، برصاص قوة إسرائيلية توغلت فجر اليوم لأكثر من ألف متر داخل الأراضي اللبنانية واقتحمت مركز البلدية، حيث كان يبيت في إحدى غرفه. بقيت القوة داخل المبنى نحو ساعتين وأطلقت عدة رشقات نارية أصابت سلامة، وألحقت أضراراً في جدران… pic.twitter.com/63BsFGxisx
— جريدة الأخبار – Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) October 30, 2025
Translation: Al-Akhbar report: Martyrdom of Blida Municipality employee Ibrahim Salameh by gunfire from an Israeli force that infiltrated more than a thousand metres [0.6 miles] into Lebanese territory at dawn today and stormed the municipality centre, where he was staying overnight in one of its rooms. The force remained inside the building for about two hours and fired several bursts of gunfire that struck Salameh, causing damage to the centre’s walls and contents.
Village residents quoted by NNA said the raid lasted several hours and Israeli forces withdrew at dawn.
The Israeli military confirmed its forces had operated in Blida overnight, saying they opened fire after identifying “an immediate threat” during an operation to destroy infrastructure held by Hezbollah but did not provide evidence. The incident was under review, it added.
It was not immediately clear whether Salameh had been deliberately targeted and, if so, why he would be.
Aoun condemned the attack as part of a pattern of Israeli aggression and said it was launched shortly after a meeting of the committee monitoring the cessation of hostilities.
He urged the committee to go beyond recording violations and to press Israel to abide by the November 27 ceasefire and halt its breaches of Lebanese sovereignty.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the incursion as “a blatant attack on the institutions and sovereignty of the Lebanese state”.
Lebanon’s army has deployed to the area but did not provide details of the operation. The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said it was seeking more information on the incident.
Hezbollah back Lebanese army
Aoun’s orders for the army to confront Israeli incursions have been welcomed by Hezbollah, which said it urged full support for the army.
Hezbollah, created during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and occupation of the south, has been the main regional resistance to Israel in the last few decades, harrying Israel out of Lebanon in 2000, fighting a 2006 war to a deadlock but then suffering huge losses in the hostilities that began in 2023 and the subsequent war that saw its top leaders killed.
The NNA also reported that Israeli forces carried out air strikes on the areas of Mahmoudiyeh and Jarmak in southern Lebanon. No information was immediately available regarding the casualties or damage inflicted. The Israeli military issued a statement saying it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
Meanwhile, in the capital, Beirut, residents heard the loud buzz of an Israeli Hermes 450 drone, used for surveillance but also capable of carrying multiple deadly payloads.
Israel’s violations of the airspace above Beirut are common and over the past week have become an almost daily occurrence.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded Lebanon, violating the November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities that escalated into months of full-blown war with Hezbollah. In October alone, Israeli strikes have killed more than 20 people in Lebanon, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health.
As part of last year’s ceasefire, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle any military infrastructure in the south.
According to the agreement, only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers are to be deployed in southern Lebanon, but Israel still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon.
Under pressure from the United States and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, which has said it will not lay down its weapons.
Lebanese officials believe Israel’s near-daily strikes aim to prevent any reconstruction in the war-ravaged south.
Israel’s attacks around the Middle East haven’t ceased with the recent ceasefire in Gaza, which itself continues to be bombarded by the Israeli military.
Lebanon, Syria and the occupied West Bank have all witnessed Israeli strikes in the past week, giving credence to the idea that Israel is trying to keep its neighbours destabilised and weak, analysts say.
Elements Music of Finland Acquires ‘Significant’ Stake from Sony Music Publishing
Sony Music Publishing has acquired “a significant stake” in Elements Music, a Finland-based independent music publisher with a catalog of about 10,000 compositions.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction includes a long-term creative partnership that will connect Elements’ roster with Sony Music Publishing‘s global operations while maintaining the Finnish company’s business operations and local support through SMP Scandinavia.
Elements Music, founded in 2005, represents songwriters including Axel Axel Ehnstrom, Johannes Brotherus (KUUMAA), OLGA Jonas Olsson, Timo Kiiskinen, Kyosti Salokorpi, Samuli Sirvio and BESS. Its catalog also contains works from Finnish acts Eppu Normaali, Yö and Popeda.
Tommi Tuomainen and Eero Tolppanen, who own Elements Music, said: “We are proud and excited about this collaboration, which is a significant milestone for the entire Finnish music industry. It is also essential that SMP shares our view of creator-driven publishing.”
“Artificial intelligence and global platforms are changing the ways music is used and how compensation models work, and it is important that our partner has enough influence and resources to defend creative professionals.”
Tommi Tuomainen and Eero Tolppanen, Elements Music
“Artificial intelligence and global platforms are changing the ways music is used and how compensation models work, and it is important that our partner has enough influence and resources to defend creative professionals. Through this deal, the position of Finnish music creators and the future of their works are now better protected.”
Johnny Tennander, Managing Director of Sony Music Publishing Scandinavia, added: “We’ve always admired what Tommi, Eero and the Elements team have built up in Finland, it’s truly impressive what they have achieved. Having had a great dialogue for a long time, this feels like a natural next step for both of us and we are very proud and excited to welcome Elements to the SMP family.”
Guy Henderson, President, International, Sony Music Publishing, said: “It is such a pleasure to welcome Tommi, Eero and the Elements team to SMP. With Tommi and Eeros’ domestic credibility and their renowned creativity, together with SMP’s international reach, we look forward to nurturing and growing the careers of their incredible roster of songwriters in Finland and around the globe.”
“With Tommi and Eeros’ domestic credibility and their renowned creativity, together with SMP’s international reach, we look forward to nurturing and growing the careers of their incredible roster of songwriters in Finland and around the globe.”
Guy Henderson, Sony Music Publishing
The development marks SMP’s latest investment after its French unit, alongside Sony Music France, in July acquired Lusafrica and Africa Nostra, a long-established label and publishing house dedicated to promoting Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) and African artists worldwide.
In June, SMP acquired Hipgnosis Songs Group LLC, previously known as Big Deal Music, from Blackstone’s Recognition Music Group. Big Deal Music was acquired by Hipgnosis Songs Fund in September 2020. As well as bringing 4,400 copyrights into Hipgnosis, that deal included the company’s US publishing admin business, Words & Music.
As MBW noted, these assets have now been acquired by SMP, including the 4,400 copyrights. They include cuts in songs recorded by Shawn Mendes, Panic! At the Disco, and One Direction.
Music Business Worldwide
Discrepancies in US and China’s Trade Meeting Reports
US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping have met for talks in South Korea, their first meeting since 2019.
Topics of discussion included the drug fentanyl and rare earths, according to Trump, while China says the meeting saw the leaders reach a consensus to resolve “major trade issues”.
The BBC’s Laura Bicker explains what we know about the outcomes of the meeting.