Sat 20 December 2025: The UK’s £100 (nearly $134) limit on contactless card payments is set to be scrapped next year, potentially allowing shoppers to spend unlimited amounts without entering their pin, after the financial regulator announced major changes to the rules. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday that from March 19, banks […]
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Sat 20 December 2025: It’s that time of year again, and retailers are pulling out all the stops to get us spending – from Black Friday to new year’s sales. The average Briton expects to shell out around £300 on Christmas gifts. But as budgets tighten, more people are turning to buy-now-pay-later schemes to spread the cost over […]
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Sat 20 December 2025: WikiLeaks founder said awarding Venezuela’s opposition leader is a ‘gross misappropriation’ of funds and risks facilitating war crimes. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint in Sweden against the Nobel Foundation, challenging the organisation’s decision to award its Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Assange said this year’s awarding […]
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Sat 20 December 2025: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 17 years each in prison on Saturday in the state gifts case, also known as the Toshakhana-II case. The verdict was pronounced inside the Adiala Jail in the northeastern garrison city of Rawalpindi, where both Imran Khan […]
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Fri 19 December 2025: Belgium’s East Flanders provincial government has approved a headscarf ban for students in provincial schools beginning with the 2026-2027 academic year, broadcaster VRT reported on Wednesday. Earlier attempts to implement a similar measure were blocked by Flemish Minister of Internal Affairs Hilde Crevits due to procedural flaws. Unlike the previous vote, in which […]
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Fri 19 December 2025: Violent protests have erupted in Bangladesh after the death of a prominent youth leader of last year’s student uprising that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was shot last week in the capital, Dhaka, and died of his injuries on Thursday in hospital in Singapore. Several buildings, including […]
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Fri 19 December 2025: According to media reports on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew informed employees in an internal memo that the company has signed an agreement to transfer its US operations to a new joint venture led by American entities, in a bid to ensure the app’s continued availability in the United States. The […]
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Fri 19 December 2025: Arabic is spoken by more than 400 million people. Can you recognise these Arabic words that have made their way into English? Arabic is one of the world’s most widely spoken languages with at least 400 million speakers, including 200 million native speakers and 200 million to 250 million non-native speakers. […]
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Thu 18 December 2025: Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin will be regulated in a similar way to other finance products under new UK laws coming into force in 2027. The Treasury announced legislation which will mean crypto firms have to meet a set of standards and rules overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It follows efforts to overhaul […]
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Thu 18 December 2025: Italy and Indonesia have agreed in principle to send forces to a proposed international stabilization force (ISF) in the Gaza Strip, on the condition that there is no direct contact with Hamas, the Israeli newspaper Israel Today reported Tuesday. The paper added that US officials are due to hold a conference in the Qatari […]
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