Relations between Moscow and Chisinau have worsened since the 2022 Ukraine war.

Russia has expelled a Moldovan diplomat in retaliation for Chisinau’s expulsion of a Russian embassy employee over the crash of a drone in Moldova.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that it had summoned Moldova’s ambassador, Lilian Darii, and informed him that a member of the Moldovan embassy’s staff had been declared unacceptable “on the basis of the principle of reciprocity”.

“A strong protest was lodged with the ambassador after the Moldovan authorities on October 23 declared an employee of the Russian embassy in Chisinau persona non grata,” the ministry said in a statement.

It said Moldova’s decision was made “under the formal pretext of the alleged discovery on the territory of the republic of debris of an unmanned aerial vehicle carrying explosives”, calling it “another unfriendly step”.

The ministry said the “true goal” of the move was “to further undermine the centuries-long history of Russian-Moldovan relations”.

‘Crashed near homes’

Last month, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said a “Russian attack drone” had violated the country’s airspace and “crashed near homes and an energy facility”.

Moldova then declared a staff member of the Russian embassy “persona non grata”.

Drones have penetrated Moldovan territory on multiple occasions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since then, Russia’s relations with former Soviet states, such as Moldova, have hit an all-time low, compounded by the push by some of those states to join the European Union.

On Sunday, Moldova officially launched a new power line connecting the country to neighbouring Romania and the European grid to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

The 400-kilovolt extra-high-voltage line, which runs from the city of Vulcanesti to Chisinau, allows Moldova to cut reliance on the Cuciurgan thermal power plant in Transnistria.

Other European-aligned states in the Black Sea region say they are experiencing renewed attacks allegedly carried out by Moscow, such as a drone strike that sank a cargo ship off Romania’s Black Sea coast in October.

Zemmour wants to kick out ‘foreign unemployed people’ after last month’s violent protests.

French far-right Eric Zemmour, known for his anti-Islam and anti-immigrant stance, says he’ll be standing in next year’s presidential election.

“I can confirm to you that I will indeed be ⁠a candidate in the presidential election”, Zemmour told TF1 TV, adding that he was running to “keep a France that is French”.

Zemmour, a 68-year-old Jewish author and veteran television commentator, finished fourth in the 2022 presidential election.

This time, he says he wants to expel foreign offenders who are in prison, as well as “foreign unemployed people who have been out of work for more than six months”, even if they are legal residents.

He says he wants “two million fewer immigrants” in France, who are seen by many among the far right as key instigators of violence during last month’s student-led cost of living protests.

Last month’s violence has led to the soaring popularity of frontrunner Marine Le Pen, with whom Zemmour will be competing against in April 2027.

Le Pen, who is the leader of the far-right National Rally party, is widely projected to win the election to replace Emmanuel Macron, who will end his term as president of France.

Meanwhile, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon of the France Unbowed party, who has been accused of encouraging the unrest, unveiled his programme on Saturday to some 17,000 supporters.

The streaming giant has kept the comedy special on the service despite the comedian’s conviction for rape and sexual assault.

Russell Brand’s stand-up show Rebirth is still available on Netflix tonight, despite the comedian’s conviction for rape and sexual assault.

The streaming giant has kept the comedy special – in which he talks about sex – on the service but stopped it from being actively recommended or promoted to its customers.

The 2018 show, filmed at Hackney Empire, is about his life after the birth of his first child and opens with politicians including David Cameron and Ed Miliband commenting on Brand.

It it he refers to his penis after getting married, clutching his crotch and saying: “He’s gone from chairman of the board to tea lady overnight.”

He later jokes: “I’ve hardly been conservative with sperm. Giving the stuff away like sticky confetti. The real miracle is that one of them’s been allowed to germinate instead of being squandered in a stranger’s eyelashes.”

The Telegraph reports that the title will “no longer be automatically recommended or actively promoted to subscribers” but will still remain available for streaming.

A Netflix source told the newspaper: “We prioritise choice and control for our members: the freedom to watch what, how and when you want, with recommendations and ratings to inform those choices.”

The comedian, 51, was sentenced to a total of 10 years and six months in jail earlier this week for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.

Brand was told he will be on the sex offenders register for life and must serve at least seven years of his sentence behind bars before being considered for release on license, while his wife watched on in court.

Judge Mr Justice Joel Bennathan sentenced Brand for the rape of a fan and sex assaults on three women, including a woman in a Soho bar, as well as a radio worker and a Channel 4 staffer, who were both abused by him while at work.

The Mirror has contacted Netflix for comment.

Elsewhere, the BBC have edited out a joke about Russell Brand that appeared on Gavin & Stacey from a festive episode of the comedy series.

In the episode, Nessa returns to the Christmas dinner table after finally managing to get Neil the Baby off to sleep by reading him part of the disgraced comedian’s autobiography.

She says: “I had to read to him to get him off. No. Russell Brand: My Booky Wook. He’s loving every word.” That part of the dialogue is still available in the iPlayer edition of the programme, but then, originally, Nessa told Stacey that she didn’t get a mention in the comedian’s memoir.

Stacey replied: “Aw that’s a shame. I’m quite disappointed, are you?”and Nessa said: “Don’t be, Stace. We had a cracking night, Pam. All three of us.” Instead, the conversation moves quickly on to Nessa complimenting Pam’s (Alison Steadman) Christmas turkey.

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The Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to drastically increase the cost of appealing development and other land-use decisions, despite opposition from homeowner groups who said it will make it much harder for residents to challenge city actions.

The proposal raises the fee for appeals on city development decisions from a flat rate of $229 to $1,145 for residents living in the project’s vicinity.

For those who don’t live near the project, the fee nearly doubles to $2,289, an almost 900% increase from the previous rate. The system also tacks on a various surcharges that would take the non-neighbor rate for appeal applications to over $2,800, advocates said.

The City Council voted 13-0 without discussion to instruct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance for the fee hike, which will require council approval.

“To take away essentially the right of the community to have an opportunity to raise their voice about their concerns…is really an indication of how this is just a punitive measure on the part of the City Council to shut the people up,” Doug Haines, a representative for the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, said to The Times before the vote.

City Council members didn’t defend the planned fee hike at Tuesday’s meeting, but supporters have said previously that the higher fee would put Los Angeles on par with what other cities are charging and would discourage frivolous challenges that raise the cost of developing housing.

The Housing Action Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for building more housing in California, called the proposed increase is a small and meaningful step toward deterring unnecessary delays.

“We need to pull housing out of this doom loop,” said Victoria Gomez, the coalition’s political organizer for Southern California. “As long as appeals stay this cheap and heavily subsidized, they’ll keep being used to slow down homes Los Angeles can’t afford to wait for.”

The council did agree, on the motion of Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, to consider keeping the fee at $229 in the cases of tenants who would be displaced by a development. That proposal was referred to committee for study.

The L.A. City Planning Department manages the city’s land use and makes key decisions on development projects and zoning regulations. Residents who disagree with projects that are green lit by the department can go through an appeals process.

Residents can appeal a variety of city planning decisions, ranging from zoning exemptions granted by the department to fire safety violations and roadway or parking concerns regarding new project builds.

Residents were for years able to file appeals against these decisions for a minimal fee that represented 1% of what the city estimated it cost to process the appeal, while the rest is subsidized through the city’s general fund. That amounted to $229 since February, which has only increased slightly every year to adjust for inflation. The proposed change would bump the price to 5% of the expected cost for neighbors and 10% for anyone else choosing to file an appeal.

Appeal applications have steadily decreased from 217 in 2020 to 91 in 2025. The city department has received 90 applications this year so far, the department told The Times.

The Planning and Land Use Committee instructed the city Planning Department in October 2025 to explore alternative price points for appeals that would decrease the amount of money the city’s general fund would have to subsidize.

Neighboring residents would include people who live within the noticing radius of a development project, which can vary but is typically around a 500-feet radius. Only about 30% of appeals submitted in the past came from residents living within that radius, according to the city planning department.

The appeals process is only chance for city residents to challenge development decisions that impact their neighborhoods, and it’s a required step for an issue to reach the courtroom.

The proposed change was hidden in a procedural City Council item to deceive residents and lacked transparency, said Mark Kenyon, who lives in Mount Washington, in written opposition to fee hike.

“I see it as a way of blocking public participation,” Kenyon told The Times. “If they can’t come up with the money, the appeals aren’t going to happen.”

The proposed change could save the city about $254,086 in subsidies, according to the city planning department’s report, what Kenyon said amounts to pocket change for the city.

“People will simply not be able to appeal,” Kenyon said. “The process is already technically complicated.”

The city planning department estimated that processing an appeal application costs about $22,894.

“The Department brought on an independent consultant to evaluate the cost of all department processes,” a spokesperson for the department said. “It is important to note that determining the cost is separate from determining the fee. A number of planning functions have costs that are subsidized by the city, including appeals.”

Angelenos for Historic Preservation, an independent advocacy group, petitioned the California Department of Justice and the state’s deputy attorney general to defer Tuesday’s vote. The department didn’t immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The fee change will bring L.A. in line with other cities across California, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said during a Planning and Land Use Commission meeting in August.

Appeals to Los Angeles County cost over $1,000. Santa Monica charges around $750 and San Diego charges $1,000, while appeal fees in Berkeley can cost up to $3,000, according to the city planning department’s report.

“I don’t think there’s a magic number, but our appeal fees, I think, are clearly far below our peer cities,” Blumenfield said. “They need to go up because…there’s no free money. All the money that we have does come at the expense of other critical programs.”

The city’s convoluted building and development process is unique to the city of L.A. and can’t be compared to other cities in the state, said Haines of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. An affordable appeals process is necessary for residents to fight against dangerous builds in their neighborhoods, he said.

“It’s basically a corrupt process from beginning to end,” Haines said.

LAS VEGAS — The Dodgers have hired former Marlins hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, filling the one opening on their major-league coaching staff.

The team announced the move Tuesday, during the first day of MLB’s general managers meetings. Guerrero will work alongside Robert Van Scoyoc to round out the team’s hitting-coach duo.

Guerrero spent two seasons as the Marlins hitting coach before the team decided not to retain him for the 2027 season, opting for a “new voice,” as president of baseball operations Peter Bendix put it, while praising Guerrero as a person and a coach.

Guerrero has ties to the Dodgers organization, as a minor league player in 2006-2013. He also served as the bench coach for Rookie-Advanced Ogden in 2016-17.

Guerrero went on to work as an assistant hitting coach for the Phillies (2018-21) and Giants (2022-24) before joining the Marlins.

Guerrero replaces Aaron Bates, who parted ways with the Dodgers last week after contract negotiations reached a stalemate.

Announcement follows Trump administration crackdown on visa programs for skilled foreign workers.

United States technology giant IBM has said it will stop sponsoring US foreign worker visas and green cards for most roles in its largest division.

A company spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday that its consultancy unit had opted to end sponsorship for most roles.

The company said its participation in US high-skilled visa programmes had been declining for years, adding that the decision came “as skill availability and client needs have evolved”.

IBM Consulting employs more than 150,000 of IBM’s 264,300-strong global workforce.

IBM has become less reliant on so-called H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers in recent years. Only 1,611 H-1B petitions were approved for the company in fiscal year 2026, according to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration has increased pressure on major companies to cut down on their highly skilled foreign workforce in the US. US President Donald Trump has claimed the programme is often subject to fraud and takes work away from skilled Americans and gives it to immigrants.

Last year, the administration announced it would require a one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions.

The administration said in October it was suspending a number of tech companies from a programme that allows H-1B workers to apply for green cards, saying it was cracking down on fraud and ensuring American workers were not being laid off and replaced by foreigners.

The suspended companies included Adobe and top H-1B employers Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft.

The suspensions were announced within hours of Trump honouring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

India-born Nadella was one of six business leaders honoured by Trump. Five were foreign-born US citizens, including Tesla boss Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who immigrated from Russia with his family as a child.

UNIFIL said on Tuesday that ‘about a dozen rounds’ were fired at one of its patrols, without identifying the assailants.

A United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol has come under fire in southern Lebanon, the force said.

UNIFIL said on Tuesday that “about a dozen rounds” were fired at one of its patrols near Wadi Jilu, in Lebanon’s Tyre district, without specifying the entity behind the shooting.

The patrol returned fire, after which the shooting stopped. UNIFIL reported no casualties and called for an investigation.

“We reiterate the obligation under international law for all actors to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property at all times. Deliberate attacks on peacekeepers are violations of Security Council resolution 1701 and international humanitarian law,” UNIFIL said.

Security limbo

UNIFIL is a peacekeeping mission established by the UN Security Council in March 1978, days after Israel invaded Lebanon.

The force has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon ever since, but its presence has been unable to prevent several rounds of conflict, including the latest between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel continues to occupy swaths of southern Lebanon, despite a so-called ceasefire and a US-brokered framework agreement through which the Israeli military would withdraw from those areas and the Lebanese army would move in to disarm Hezbollah.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that the G7 foreign ministers agreed on “the need to avoid a security void” in Lebanon after the UNIFIL mandate expires at the end of 2026.

The foreign ministers backed “the need to move quickly toward a new security architecture”, Barrot said after the group met in Paris.

However, the French foreign minister acknowledged that there had been no breakthrough regarding replacing UNIFIL, which comprises some 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries.

The UN Security Council last year voted, under US pressure, to end UNIFIL’s mandate on December 31, 2026. Lebanese officials have called for the mandate to be extended.

Which Beyoncé song are you?

At USC’s Marshall School of Business, MBA students will have to pick one and explain why before they study her whiskey brand, hair-care line and entertainment company, not to mention her music. The assignment has a fitting name: the “BeyEssay.”

“The Business of Beyoncé,” a new course that puts a twist on the usual business school curriculum, “sold out” faster than a Renaissance World Tour presale after the class opened for registration this month ahead of its January kickoff. It follows Beyoncé’s career from childhood performances and Destiny’s Child to her solo stardom and business ventures, with the goal of preparing students for careers in entertainment, music management and branding.

Professor Shaun Harper, a Beyoncé superfan who designed the course, anticipates criticism that students should be learning practical skills rather than studying a pop star. But he sees it differently:

USC professor Shaun Harper will teach the “Business of Beyonce” MBA course.

(Grayson Adler / USC Marshall Communications
)

“My class is not going to be just a set of conversations about Beyoncé.”

Students will unpack how she transforms star power into a multimillion-dollar empire and how social media shapes her brand.

Besides, his class is a classic case-study deep dive. It’s also an answer to a long-running complaint that business schools’ case studies too often highlight white men and their ventures.

Celebrity-themed classes are hardly new. UC Berkeley offered one on Tupac Shakur’s poetry in 1997. The University of South Carolina announced a sociology course on Lady Gaga’s fame in 2010. Harvard has a class on Taylor Swift. Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, is slated to teach a course on music curation at USC’s Thornton School of Music next fall. At Marshall, former USC football coach Pete Carroll has taught “The Game Is Life” leadership course — its guests have included actors Rainn Wilson and Jason Sudeikis.

Now it’s Beyoncé’s turn and students are expected to work hard, or, as Beyoncé put it in “Schoolin’ Life”: “Just remember to stay relentless. … Don’t stop running until it’s finished.”

Inside the classroom

The 16-week spring semester class will meet Monday afternoons for nearly three hours.

Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child won’t have the syllabus to themselves.

Weekly topics will include child stars, girl groups and boy bands, Black artists, women in music, celebrity couples, privacy and scandal. Students will study the Pussycat Dolls, the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Supremes and BTS. Readings also look at how the Motown record label shaped pioneering Black artists.

One assignment traces a child performer’s path to adult stardom, with Janet Jackson among the suggested subjects. A week on crossing genres includes readings on “Cowboy Carter” — which won Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy in 2025 — and her acting in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls.”

Another puts students in the advisor’s seat, telling them to create a 700-to-1,000-word business guidance document for Beyoncé. The syllabus asks them to imagine it is “being delivered directly” to the star.

Fans and career plans

Kendall Ferguson, 30, a second-year MBA student and president of USC’s Graduate Marketing Assn., is among those who signed up. Raised in Ladera Heights, she worked in human resources in London before coming to USC. After graduating next year, she hopes to do brand management for a retail or beauty company.

She has gravitated toward courses in entertainment and marketing. “I’m definitely not the traditional stereotype of MBA,” Ferguson said.

She has been a Beyoncé fan since childhood. A friend’s mother performed with Destiny’s Child and taught Ferguson and her friends choreography to the group’s songs, Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who is Black, wanted to study a Black businesswoman with a Black professor who could identify with her experiences.

She has also been a customer beyond music, using a Cécred braid spray. She said she did not initially know it was Beyoncé’s brand.

Cécred offers an example of Beyoncé’s approach to financing. Her mother, Tina Knowles, told Fortune that Beyoncé funded the company herself after prospective investors pushed for less spending on research and development and more on marketing.

Beyoncé’s business ventures stretch back more than two decades. In 2005, she and her mother launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct clothing line. Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment, her management and production company, in 2010 and co-founded the Ivy Park athleisure line, which debuted in 2016. In 2024, she introduced the Cécred hair-care brand and SirDavis whiskey with Moet Hennessy. She later bought out Moet Hennessy’s stake.

She follows generations of artists-turned-entrepreneurs, including Sam Cooke, Dolly Parton and Madonna. Her husband, Jay-Z, expanded into entertainment beyond his own releases through Roc Nation, which executive-produces the Super Bowl halftime show. He will headline it at SoFi Stadium in February.

Maddie Gissler, a second-year MBA student from Naperville, Ill., also signed up. She aspires to work in entertainment marketing, branding or strategy when she graduates next year. She wants to learn how Beyoncé keeps audiences engaged as she moves into new businesses and reinvents her work.

Before business school, Gissler worked at EY, an accounting and consulting firm.

She has seen two Beyoncé concerts: the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in high school and Cowboy Carter in 2025. When Gissler took dance classes from age 4 to 18, her teachers often played Beyoncé. She remembers getting hooked on the album “B’Day.”

But she also likes other sides of the star. “One of the best things she did was when she kind of moved into acting,” Gissler said.

A professor and a fan

Harper was a fan long before Beyoncé became his teaching material.

As student body president at Albany State University, a historically Black college in Georgia, Harper helped book Destiny’s Child to perform at homecoming in 1997. He said he first saw Beyoncé perform solo at the 2003 Essence Awards.

Her best business decision? “Becoming a solo artist,” he said.

Harper expects students, many in their late 20s, to challenge his views. One likely debate: whether Beyoncé’s guarded public persona is smart brand management. He thinks it is.

“Beyoncé shows up when she needs to show up,” he said.

Her marketing decisions have received business-school scrutiny before. Her surprise 2013 album release, issued on iTunes without advance promotion, became a Harvard Business School case study the next year.

Harper’s admiration extends to her celebration of Black culture and traditions. In 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Her set evoked a football halftime show and homecoming celebration at historically Black colleges and universities, with a marching band, drum line, steppers and majorette-style dancers performing in front of bleachers.

On TikTok, Harper has been watching performances and old interviews and learning new facts. He said one clip taught him that Beyoncé reviews concert footage frame by frame afterward, like a football coach.

“That woman’s work ethic is unmatched,” he said.

Through third parties, Harper is trying to get the message to Beyoncé that she’s invited be a guest lecturer in the class. A spokesperson for Beyoncé did not respond to a request from The Times for comment on the course.

In July 2014, Harper’s husband surprised him with pit tickets to the On the Run tour in Philadelphia. Beyoncé danced over and briefly grabbed his hand.

“I have never met Beyoncé. We’ve held hands, but we’ve never met,” Harper said.

He hopes one day for a proper introduction.

A Los Angeles County judge who has been accused of sexual harassment, making racist remarks and mistreating fellow members of the bench was officially removed from office Tuesday, officials said.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance upheld 17 findings of misconduct against Judge Robert Draper, 84, according to a disciplinary document made public Tuesday.

“Judge Draper persistently violated the standards governing judicial behavior and engaged in extensive and severe misconduct,” the commission said in a statement. “Judge Draper’s misconduct reflected either a concerning lack of familiarity with ethical precepts, or an unwillingness to conform to those precepts.”

Earlier this year, Draper compared the commission to the “Russian Mafia” in an interview with The Times where he denied all wrongdoing and claimed the charges were political payback for his opposition to another judge’s bid to become L.A. County’s presiding justice.

In an e-mail to The Times, Draper said the commission’s ruling was “wrong” and that he plans to seek review from the California Supreme Court, which he said “will look at the actual facts and not simply the characterization of those facts by the Examiners.”

“Kind of like what every citizen is entitled to – a presumption of innocence, a fair opportunity to be heard by an unbiased panel, decision makers who are willing to actually look at the real facts in a complete way and apply the legally required standard of proof rather than simply reciting it, and then ignoring it,” he wrote. “It just amazes me that I have had to go this far in order to have these standards for the first time applied.”

The Commission has only ordered the removal of 14 judges across the state since 2002, according to its website.

The removal order was the final step in a years-long fall from grace for Draper. A well-respected veteran member of the bench, colleagues began expressing concern about his decline in 2022. In 2023, according to a letter sent to the state commission, he was barred from hearing cases and re-assigned to a Santa Monica Courthouse department that colleagues likened to a “closet.” When a Times reporter visited the building earlier this year, staff on site said Draper almost never came in.

In letters sent to the commission in 2022 and 2023, two of the L.A. County Superior Court’s top judges accused Draper of sending abusive e-mails to colleagues replete with racist and abusive language. In one letter, then-Presiding Justice Samantha Jessner said Draper was “unable to carry out the duties and responsibilities of a judge” due to deteriorating mental and physical health.

“He has demonstrated a flagging handle on reality,” L.A. County Superior Court Judge Eric Taylor wrote.

Draper was accused of sexual harassment, making racist remarks and callous behavior all over the course of one hearing in 2022.

According to court records and testimony given at Draper’s six-day removal hearing earlier this year, the judge allegedly stroked a female lawyer’s hair after going on a tangent to a Black attorney about “Black history, Black football players, the Civil Rights Act, and the Black Lives Matter movement,” even though the case had nothing to do with those issues.

The commission described Draper’s misconduct as “extensive” and argued his alleged racist behavior continued while testifying in his May removal hearing. While testifying he referred two specific Black people as “very black in terms of pigmentation” and “way Black,” according to the commission.

He was also accused of making crude remarks to a group of female attorneys while in chambers. Reflecting on his time as a civil attorney, he recalled how male lawyers would deride female secretaries, insisting they learn to “f— better than they could type,” according to testimony given by attorney Janice Brown at Draper’s hearing earlier this year.

Draper lost his bid for re-election in June to former L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Tal K. Valbuena by nearly 13 points, after the L.A. County Bar Assn. rated Draper as “unqualified” for service.

The race highlighted the lengths the insular judicial community would go to protect their own from election challenges. Despite well-known concerns about Draper’s fitness, a political action committee run by fellow judges gave $72,500 to his campaign, state election finance records show. The PAC did not respond to prior inquiries from The Times.

A fellow judge, speaking on condition of anonymity because judges are not allowed to speak to the press, described the end of Draper’s career as a “super sad situation.”

“Perhaps it should spur California to consider enacting what most states have — a mandatory retirement age,” the judge said.

The Chargers traded linebacker Daiyan Henley to the Denver Broncos on Tuesday for a 2027 fourth-round draft pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick, according to a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to speak publicly.

Henley, who is in the final year of his rookie contract, was dealt just before the NFL’s 1 p.m. PST trade deadline. He has been a defensive fixture for the Chargers, who at 0-8 are the NFL’s only winless team.

The Chargers had indicated that they were not planning any dramatic moves at the deadline, such as trading defensive lineman Khalil Mack, injured safety Derwin James Jr. or receiver Ladd McConkey.

Henley presumably will add depth behind Denver starting inside linebackers Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad. The Broncos do not have a history of trades at the deadline under coach Sean Payton.

Henley started all eight games this season and collected 51 tackles, including a season-high 10 on Sunday against Houston. He also intercepted a pass in that game.

He played his best game of last season despite battling the flu. In a Monday night game at Las Vegas, he had 10 tackles, a sack, an interception, two tackles for loss and two passes defensed.

He has played through heartache too. Last season, his older brother, Jabari Henley, 34, was shot and killed outside a smoke shop in South Los Angeles on Halloween night. Henley learned of his brother’s death on Sunday morning, hours before the Chargers played the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

Henley started that game, a 27-20 Chargers win, and contributed a sack. After the game, he called it “the worst year of my life.”

Henley joins a 7-2 Broncos team that’s atop the AFC West and has won five in a row, the NFL’s longest winning streak. Defense has been a strength of the franchise.

The Broncos play host to the Chargers in the teams’ regular-season finale.

Trump administration awarded more than $60m each to St Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi, in crime push.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has said that it will award the cities of St Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi, more than $60m each to expand law enforcement resources as part of a bid to combat violent crime.

The White House stated in a social media post on Tuesday that the so-called “Model Cities Initiative” would help the municipalities increase their capacity for prosecutions and policing activities.

“The Model Cities Initiative reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to reducing crime across the country and ensuring the safety of every American,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release describing the programme last month.

The initiative has said that it will distribute nearly $300m for such efforts among the cities of St Louis and Jackson, along with Jacksonville, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Trump administration has promoted a largely punitive approach to combatting crime in cities across the country, including controversial steps such as the deployment of the National Guard to large, Democrat-led cities that have drawn accusations of executive overreach, civil liberties violations and political intimidation.

While Trump and his supporters have credited their policies with a drop in violent crime, that trend predates his return to office and has taken place in cities with a wide variety of approaches towards criminal justice across the country.

Homicides in St Louis, for example, have been falling for several years after a brief surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, and hit their lowest levels in more than a decade during the first half of 2026.

While Democratic officials have denounced Trump’s crackdowns, some Republican-led states have embraced them.

The government deployed members of several federal agencies to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, governed by Democrats at the local level but located in a Republican-led state.

The Trump administration has touted that effort as an inspiration for the Model Cities Initiative along with other cases, such as Washington, DC.

The government has hailed the Memphis deployment as a success, but some residents and civil liberties groups have accused the task force of widespread civil rights violations and excessive force.

A video released earlier this month as part of an investigation into a shooting by a member of the Tennessee National Guard, deployed in Memphis as part of Trump’s task force, showed the soldiers aiming their guns at a man as he lay dying on the street after being shot in the back.

The midterms are over, and Democrats have scored a decisive victory, exceeding even their most optimistic expectations. But does this result signal a country turning blue – or a country simply fed up with the status quo? And how much of this was a rejection of a system, rather than an endorsement of the Democratic Party?

Josh Rushing is joined by Emma Vigeland, cohost of The Majority Report, and Olivia Troye, who served as a national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, to unpack the results and what they reveal about the state of American politics.

Contributors:
Emma Vigeland – Cohost, The Majority Report
Olivia Troye – Former national security adviser to Mike Pence

In the 20th century, an age of print, photography was the primary medium through which we understood the world beyond our personal field of vision. Pictures recorded and sometimes changed history.

Once upon a time, mastering the technology of a camera and the chemistry of a darkroom provided proof of seriousness. A person shooting even with a Polaroid or Instamatic had to reckon with the cost of the film, developing and printing, and so you chose your shots; you composed them carefully. It was a commitment, whereas now, anyone with a phone can take endless pictures, with little thought, it’s a reflex. By dint of sheer numbers — Instagram processes some 500 million uploads a day — the practice has been devalued.

That isn’t to say you can’t take a good picture with a phone, or that there aren’t plenty of serious artists working today, in old or new formats. But we have passed the age of the culture-shaping superstar photographer (and the culture-shaping magazines that gave them work). Richard Avedon, who is the subject of an exhilarating new documentary, “Avedon,” directed by Ron Howard and streaming Wednesday on Netflix, was among the greatest of them, with a career stretching from 1947 — when, in his early twenties, he was sent by Harper’s Bazaar to Paris — almost until the day he died in 2004 while working in San Antonio, on a photo essay for the New Yorker titled “Democracy.” (He was the magazine’s first staff photographer; “Dick was a great magazine man,” says Tina Brown, the editor who hired him.) James Martin, executive director of the Richard Avedon Foundation, reckons it amounted to “about 16,000 sittings.”

Even if you don’t know the name Avedon, it’s a good bet you’ve encountered his much reproduced 1955 “Dovima with Elephants” — “I think we sold one for $2 million,” says the gallerist Larry Gagosian — or his psychedelic Beatles portraits. Many of his celebrity portraits, from Samuel Beckett to Buster Keaton to Judy Garland to Nastassja Kinski (naked, wrapped in a snake) to Marian Anderson to Malcolm X, and the enormous murals of Andy Warhol’s Factory gang and the Chicago Seven defendants, will be the images we remember them by. None are pretty; most are striking; many are beautiful; some are disturbing.

“I’ve been called a cruel manipulator, existential hero and to top it off, agent of death,” says the photographer, whose suite of pictures of his dying father is explored here.

Avedon began in fashion photography, which he revolutionized, bringing motion and implied narrative into a previously static form; he moved to portraiture, which he remade by removing any vestige of flattery. As a commercial photographer — with Doon Arbus, daughter of Diane, he also created television commercials for Calvin Klein and Chanel — who would come to insist that he was an artist, he was not always well received, reviewed or understood. But he approached everything with the same democratic curiosity, and many museum shows later, it’s hard to argue against his claim.

Although in earlier years, he shot on location, either for magazine spreads or personal work — he photographed in the psychiatric ward at New York’s Bellevue hospital — he came to be known for placing his subjects against a white background, stripping out everything that would distract from the “geography” of the face, and settling finally on using an 8×10 camera, which would allow him to come out from behind the lens. He took the white paper from the studio out into the field — to Saigon in 1971 and for the controversial project that was displayed and published as “In the American West.”

His goal was to eliminate the distance between the sitter and himself, and he was not interested in merely recording surfaces, though many of the surfaces he recorded were interesting, but of finding a way past the skin to the person inside. (“I had to go within to who I really am and that’s when I saw him come alive,” says model Beverly Johnson.) He viewed a portrait session as an “exchange of energy,” a collaboration with the sitter in which he had the final say. “Photography is the marriage of the imagination and reality of a situation,” he said. “Every photograph is accurate and none of them is the truth.” He was interested in photographing what frightened him, in vulnerability, tension and (a favorite word) contradiction.

Confident and insecure, fun-loving and haunted, he was a contradiction himself: “I’ve lived in a state of anxiety my whole life. [I’m]as addicted to that as I am to coffee.” “His whole life was an existential crisis,” says curator Jane Livingston. “That’s a hard way to live.” Like many successful artists, he prioritized work (“the one thing that doesn’t turn on you”) over family; his studio, instead, was familial. The troubled family he grew up in edited their photo albums to suggest all was well, but his younger sister, Louise, Avedon’s first model and the model for later models, died in an institution. (“Beauty of that kind is isolating.”)

Howard’s interview subjects include Avedon’s son John, photographer Joel Meyerowitz; Isabella Rossellini; models Lauren Hutton, Penelope Tree and Twiggy Lawson; Twyla Tharp; and New Yorker writers Hilton Als, Adam Gopnik and John Lahr, whose father Bert was one of Avedon’s celebrated subjects, seen in a pose of pain (as Estragon from “Waiting for Godot”).

The film is sleek and energetic and looks fantastic, offering a bounty of images, including many of the most famous ones; it has something of the feel of a magazine layout without ever trying to look like a magazine. (Many of the same images, and some of the interview subjects, are present in the 1996 documentary, “Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light,” which makes a great companion piece to “Avedon” and can be found online.) Working with the cooperation of the Richard Avedon Foundation, Howard has had access to a many shots of Avedon at work — he’s a dancing, leaping sprite. Fun was important to him; on a fashion shoot, they might socialize for most of a session “and five minutes before the hour is over we go on to the paper and — bam!”

That Avedon was very good looking, with a great crest of hair he brushes back off his forehead almost as a signature, a cleft chin and bright, piercing eyes, is a visual plus, and possibly contributed to his celebrity, if not to his actual career, which was, after all, all about talent and vision. As the character Dick Avery — Dick was what friends called Avedon — Fred Astaire played an echo of him in the fashion-world musical film “Funny Face”; Avedon’s own screen credit reads “Special visual consultant and main title backgrounds.”

“It’s almost as if I’m writing my autobiography with the faces of people I photograph,” Avedon said, and indeed, his big 1993 monograph is titled “Autobiography.” There’s a copy of it on the shelf behind me.

Randall Winston has declared victory in his campaign for Seat 6 on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, in what was the closest of three races in last week’s election for the seven-member board.

Second-place finisher Gabriel Buelna has conceded.

According to the count released Monday, Winston had 38.7% of the vote and Buelna had 31.7%, followed by community college professor Roberto David LaCarra in third place and realtor Tonia Arey in fourth.

To win a seat on the seven-member board, candidates need only a plurality of votes, not a majority.

Winston declared victory in an email to supporters over the weekend.

“You voted and told your friends and family why this race mattered,” Winston told supporters on Saturday. “Because of you, the Los Angeles Community College District will have a trustee who believes our colleges are where this city builds opportunity.”

In a brief interview Monday, Buelna said he called Winston to concede and wished him the best in his new role.

Seat 6 turned out to be the most contentious of the races for the Board of Trustees, which oversees the largest community college district in the country with some 200,000 students, most of whom are low-income.

During the campaign, Buelna and Arey accused Winston of misleading the public by describing himself as an architect and an educator, when his full-time job is deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Winston responded by saying his first professional degree is in architecture, he is licensed in the field and he will be teaching a leadership class at West L.A. College this fall.

Helping boost him to victory was a key endorsement from the community college district’s faculty union, which put significant financial resources behind his candidacy.

Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 17, the union contributed $800,000 to a committee supporting Winston and the two other winning candidates, helping produce slate mailers that hit the doors of voters, according to campaign filings.

James McKeever, president of the faculty union, AFT Local 1521, declined to discuss many details of the union’s decision, but told The Times that the executive board wanted to go “in a different direction” and saw Winston as the best candidate.

In the race for Seat 2, incumbent Steve Veres held a 40.91% to 33.48% lead over educator Adriana Cabrera, who was in second.

Cabrera did not return emails seeking comment, and Veres said she had not called to concede. As of Monday afternoon, Veres had nearly 97,000 more votes than Cabrera with an estimated 44,000 more ballots to be counted county-wide, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

In Seat 4, Darryn Harris, a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health, has the biggest lead of all.

According to the latest numbers, Harris had 57.3% of the vote in a seven-person race. Healthcare workforce specialist Elaine Alaniz was in second place with 14.4%.

Kirk Cousins is returning to the Minnesota Vikings more than two years after the team allowed the veteran quarterback to leave as a free agent.

The Vikings acquired Cousins from the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday before the NFL’s 1 p.m. PST trade deadline in exchange for a third-round draft pick in 2027, according to multiple media outlets.

A 15-year player, Cousins played for the Vikings from 2019-2023, going 50-37-1 as their starting quarterback and making three Pro Bowls during that span. After two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, Cousins has played well for Las Vegas this season, completing 64% of his passes for 2,340 yards with 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

After dropping to 4-5, however, the Raiders appear ready to move on with 2026 No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza at quarterback.

The Vikings are 6-2 this season behind a stellar defense that is giving up 14.5 points (best in the NFL) and 280 yards (second to the Seattle Seahawks) a game. Minnesota’s defense is also tied with that of the Houston Texans for most sacks (29) with each team having played eight games.

Meanwhile, the Vikings offense is one of the league’s worst, averaging just 266.8 yards (31st) and 160.8 passing yards (31st) a game.

The trade comes a day after a disastrous “Monday Night Football” outing by backup quarterback Carson Wentz, who completed eight of 25 passes for 81 yards with three turnovers while starting for the injured Kyler Murray in a 23-6 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Minnesota selected quarterback J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft, but he suffered a season-ending knee injury during the preseason.

Sam Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 record that year, but he left as a free agent the following offseason and won Super Bowl LX with the Seattle Seahawks in February.

Last season, McCarthy started 10 games for Minnesota, with Wentz getting five starts and Max Brosmer two. This past offseason, the Vikings signed former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Murray as their starter and kept Wentz as his backup. McCarthy was traded to the New York Giants in late September.

A new poll shows that the majority of Americans want the Democrats in Congress this January to deliver an end to the war in Iran, reverse US President Donald Trump’s trade policies, and bring down the high cost of living.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found that 71 percent of Americans supported Congress passing legislation to end the war with Iran, including 93 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of Republicans. About 62 percent backed repealing Trump’s import tariffs, while nine in 10 respondents said Congress should focus on the cost of living during its first 100 days.

The war with Iran and Trump’s tariffs have both contributed to economic pressures, linking voters’ concerns about living costs to the administration’s foreign and trade policies.

Americans also expect some degree of cooperation between the White House and the incoming Congress. Large majorities of respondents from both parties said it was important for Trump to work with Democrats, and for Democratic leaders to try to work with the president.

Political retaliation against the Trump administration is a lower priority. Forty-two percent said it would be bad for the country if the new Congress tried to impeach Trump, compared with 33 percent who thought it would be good.

Democrats will have between 54 and 56 Senate seats next year, depending on results from uncalled races in Mississippi and Alaska. But delivering on voter priorities could still be difficult. Most bills need 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, and Trump can veto legislation that passes both chambers.

Repealing tariffs or reversing other administration policies would therefore require either sufficient Republican support or a willingness to confront the president politically.

Seth Masket, a political science professor at the University of Denver, said voters are motivated by opposition to the Trump administration on several fronts, including the economy, the war, corruption and immigration enforcement.

“They want to see Democrats working to fix these things. And also to some extent, to hold the Trump administration accountable,” Masket told Al Jazeera.

A fight over who leads the Democrats

The pressure to deliver on those priorities is unfolding alongside a growing dispute over who should lead the Democratic Party.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll did not measure public support for individual congressional leaders. It did, however, find that the Democratic Party itself remains unpopular, with 45 percent of respondents viewing it favourably and 51 percent unfavourably.

Hakeem Jeffries is widely expected to become speaker of the House, despite calls for an alternative. No challenger has publicly emerged, but a Change.org petition urging Democrats to reject his leadership has attracted more than one million signatures. House Democrats are due to hold leadership elections on November 18 and 19.

The Senate contest is less settled. Chuck Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017, faces calls to step aside. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen has said Schumer should not receive a “blank check” and is considering a possible challenge. Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed has backed Van Hollen.

The backlash reflects broader dissatisfaction with the party’s direction. Jeffries and Schumer have been criticised over their positions on Israel and Gaza, their relationships with corporate donors and pro-Israel lobbying groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and what voters see as a failure to confront the Trump administration forcefully.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which counts several elected officials among its members, has not backed Jeffries or Schumer for their respective leadership posts. In a statement to Al Jazeera, the DSA said Democrats must reject “half-measures” and deliver on popular policies.

“We the people must be a counterweight both to the internal politics of Congress and the corporate donors who want to keep business as usual,” DSA spokesperson Priscilla Yeverino wrote to Al Jazeera.

Political commentator Bea Neilson said some progressives see the two leaders as representing an older Democratic establishment that is out of step with the party’s base.

“They want an avatar of a fighter,” Neilson told Al Jazeera.

But Neilson argues that the role of the House speaker is not simply to dictate the party’s legislative agenda. Rather, they respond to the positions of lawmakers across the caucus, working with policy committees and other groups to identify legislation that can secure enough votes to pass.

Individual members or blocs of lawmakers can withhold their support, making the job an exercise in negotiating competing interests as much as setting political direction.

Masket agreed that the effectiveness of congressional leaders is often measured less by their public speaking than by their ability to manage their caucuses and get legislation through Congress.

“People wanting their speaker or a Senate majority leader to be a more inspiring leader, I think they’re just asking for the wrong person,” Masket said. “That’s the wrong title for that role.”

That role, he suggested, may fall more naturally to the next generation of presidential contenders, who are expected to begin emerging early next year.

The leadership elections will take place before the new Congress begins in January. The larger question for Democrats is whether their leaders can turn a sweeping electoral mandate into tangible change.

China has provided us with the clearest look yet at its GJ-11 stealth uncrewed combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), with new official footage revealing previously unseen details of the flying-wing drone, including its internal weapons bays, landing gear, nose-mounted sensor installation, and distinctive exhaust arrangement.

The release also comes alongside a claim from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) that the GJ-11 has completed its first live-fire strike mission, scoring a hit. This is somewhat puzzling, since the UCAV has racked up test sorties for years already, including at forward operating locations, and it seems almost inconceivable that a live weapons delivery would not have been conducted before now. Perhaps this is a case of something being lost in translation, such as the use of a new internal sensor or a new type of weapon delivery.

The footage, broadcast by Chinese state television’s CCTV yesterday, comes two days ahead of the 77th anniversary of the founding of the PLAAF. Accompanying reporting provides additional details about the aircraft’s intended mission set, including airstrikes and suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), as well as its integration into manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) operations with crewed fighters.

The new disclosures offer the most comprehensive public look yet at the GJ-11’s configuration and provide further insight into how China intends to employ the stealthy flying-wing aircraft, which is named Xuanlong — Chinese for Mystery Dragon.

A closer look at the GJ-11

One of the most revealing views shows the underside of the GJ-11, clearly exposing its two internal weapons bays. Located within the aircraft’s blended wing-body, the ventral bays have separate sets of doors with distinctive serrated edges — a common feature on low-observable aircraft. The internal arrangement and dimensions of the bays remain unclear, as does the precise range of weapons the aircraft can accommodate. However, it would appear likely that each bay can accommodate at least a 1,000-pound-class and likely a 2,000-pound-class weapon.

According to CCTV, the two bays can carry a variety of air-to-ground/surface munitions. The weapons bay configuration had previously been revealed in a model of the GJ-11 displayed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) at Airshow China in 2021, but the new footage provides a much better look at the actual aircraft.

Internal weapons carriage is central to the GJ-11’s low-observable design, allowing it to carry munitions without the radar signature (and aerodynamic) penalties associated with external pylons and stores.

Previous footage released in November 2025 showed the GJ-11 in flight with its landing gear remaining extended. However, one of the new sequences shows the aircraft taking off, with subsequent side and rear views capturing its landing gear retracting after liftoff. The landing gear itself is notably robust, including a heavy-duty twin-wheel nose unit. With that in mind, it may be the same landing gear as used in the GJ-21, a naval variant capable of operating from aircraft carriers and big-deck assault ships.

The new imagery also offers a closer look at a trapezoidal glazed fairing beneath the nose. This appears consistent with an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor installation. Its precise configuration and capabilities have not been disclosed, but it’s worth noting that similar-looking installations also appear on the crewed J-20 and J-35 fighters, with these systems apparently being analogous to the electro-optical targeting system, or EOTS, found on the F-35. If the sensor on the GJ-11 works like an EOTS, it would provide the drone with precision targeting and identification, lasing, as well as a secondary infrared search-and-track emulation function.

Perhaps the most distinctive external feature remains the GJ-11’s exhaust arrangement, for what is reported to be a WS-13 turbofan engine. A close-up of the rear of the aircraft shows the flattened exhaust outlet, shielded and integrated into the upper rear portion of the flying-wing airframe. Combined with the dorsal air intake and the absence of conventional exposed engine nozzles, this configuration is intended to reduce the aircraft’s radar and infrared signatures, especially from the most critical view aspects. The GJ-11’s tailless, blended-wing configuration is by now a defining feature of low-observable UCAV designs.

At least some of the GJ-11s shown have an air data boom on the nose. While normally associated with early flight testing, the GJ-11 is now far beyond that. The booms could still be fitted for some envelope expansion and other flight test work, although it may also simply involve earlier footage.

Airstrikes and suppression of enemy air defenses

Beyond the new imagery, one of the more interesting aspects of the CCTV coverage is its description of the GJ-11’s intended operational role.

The broadcaster identified airstrikes and SEAD among the aircraft’s mission sets. The latter is particularly significant, as penetrating or operating within heavily defended airspace to locate and suppress or destroy enemy air defense systems is the most dangerous mission for a crewed combat aircraft.

A stealthy uncrewed aircraft could contribute to these operations by carrying precision-guided weapons into more contested areas, providing additional sensing and targeting capacity, or forcing an adversary to expend valuable air defense resources.

The two internal weapons bays provide the means to carry air-to-surface munitions while retaining the aircraft’s low-observable configuration. However, we don’t know which specific weapons have been integrated, their quantities, or whether the GJ-11 can employ dedicated anti-radiation weapons for SEAD missions. Alternative SEAD/DEAD loads could include multiple Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) equivalents, including those that are networked, as we have seen in previous concept videos. Many other types of standoff weapons could also be carried, with the platform itself using onboard sensors for fixing the target or acquiring targeting information from other sources via a tactical data network.

First live-fire strike claim

According to CCTV, the GJ-11 has completed its first live-fire strike mission, with two members of the PLAAF’s initial batch of female drone operators participating in the operation.

One of the operators, Shi Xiaoran, described encountering cloud cover that initially obscured the target. After circling once more, she located it and released the weapon, scoring a hit.

One aspect that remains unclear is the extent to which the aircraft can independently identify and engage targets. A successful strike would demonstrate weapons employment, but not necessarily autonomous targeting or engagement.

Manned-unmanned teaming with J-16 and J-20 fighters

Perhaps the most strategically important aspect of the new coverage is its emphasis on manned-unmanned teaming.

The CCTV footage showed mission planning involving a GJ-11 operating alongside J-16 Flanker multirole fighters and, in a separate sequence, J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighters.

This provides a more explicit indication of the role China envisions for the GJ-11 within its broader combat aviation ecosystem.

The J-16 provides a powerful multirole platform for strike and electronic warfare-related missions, while the J-20 offers a stealthy crewed counterpart for operations in highly contested airspace. An uncrewed aircraft operating alongside either type could extend the formation’s sensor coverage, carry additional weapons, conduct reconnaissance, or undertake particularly hazardous missions.

As a loyal wingman, the GJ-11’s role would extend beyond simply carrying weapons, with the UCAV able to act as an additional airborne sensor and strike platform, allowing crewed aircraft to distribute tasks across a larger formation.

At the same time, the footage does not establish how the UCAVs communicate with their crewed counterparts, how targeting information is shared, or the level of autonomy available to the GJ-11. The new footage shows the drone being flown under man-in-the-loop (MITL) direct control, but it likely features, or will feature, semi-autonomous control modes, especially for teaming applications, which will require a high degree of onboard autonomy.

We do know that China expects the UCAV to be controlled by crewed aircraft, as part of its basic concept. The PLAAF has at least trialed crewed aircraft as drone controllers, and this is one mission set that has frequently been ascribed to the two-seat J-20S.

From prototype to operational platform

After years of development involving the experimental Sharp Sword design, the much more evolved GJ-11 platform was publicly unveiled during China’s National Day military parade in Beijing in October 2019. Its development is associated with Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, part of the broader AVIC aviation-industrial structure.

A model displayed by AVIC at Airshow China in 2021 provided an early indication of the aircraft’s internal weapons-carrying arrangement.

In November 2025, as we reported at the time, the PLAAF released footage of the GJ-11 flying alongside a J-20 and a J-16D electronic warfare aircraft, suggesting that it may have entered service or was at least being integrated into the service’s broader air combat architecture.

Development and testing of the GJ-11 have been underway for years, with notable activity at China’s secretive Malan test facility in Xinjiang. Satellite imagery reviewed by TWZ has documented repeated, and at times near-daily, GJ-11 activity there, including multiple aircraft operating together. The deployment of three GJ-11s to Shigatse in Tibet between August and September 2025 provided an additional indication that the program was moving beyond test work toward operational evaluation.

Another image circulating on Chinese social media shows three additional GJ-11s parked alongside another example of the same type.

According to Andreas Rupprecht, an expert on Chinese aviation and contributor to TWZ, numbers that can be seen on the drones themselves likely point to these aircraft being low-rate initial production (LRIP) examples.

The new releases come less than a month after China announced that the GJ-21 naval derivative, October 2026, had completed its first launch and recovery aboard the new Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan, which is equipped with an electromagnetic catapult and arresting gear. The milestone would pave the way for the PLA Navy to field a shipborne stealth UCAV for strike and reconnaissance missions. However, China has yet to release actual footage of the claimed operation, leaving it independently unverified.

The broader significance of the GJ-11 lies in the fact that it’s a genuine UCAV, not simply a loyal wingman designed to accompany a crewed fighter. Free of the endurance limitations imposed by a human crew, a platform of this class could likely offer at least twice the combat radius of a comparable crewed fighter. More importantly, it is intended to have the autonomy to conduct tactical missions independently, as well as operate alongside crewed aircraft. That opens up the possibility of extending China’s strike and reconnaissance reach considerably beyond what its existing low-observable crewed combat aircraft can achieve.

The GJ-11’s flying-wing configuration, internal weapons bays, and emphasis on signature reduction suggest a platform approaching the very-low-observable (VLO) category. At the same time, China is now openly fielding a capability that the United States has conspicuously failed to bring into public operational service.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the United States appeared to be leading the way in stealth UCAV development, with programs such as the Boeing Phantom Ray, X-45, and X-47B demonstrating the potential of autonomous, long-range penetrating aircraft. Yet those ambitions effectively disappeared from the publicly acknowledged force-development agenda. The Pentagon has instead concentrated on lower-end and less capable Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), generally designed to operate in conjunction with crewed fighters.

As we argued in our earlier examinations of the American UCAV gap, the absence of a publicly acknowledged, sizeable force of independent, long-range stealth combat drones remains a significant weakness in U.S. airpower planning. Classified programs may exist, and the U.S. military certainly operates highly sophisticated stealthy uncrewed reconnaissance platforms, but even a small clandestine combat capability would be unlikely to make a decisive difference in a major, sustained conflict. China, meanwhile, is moving towards making this class of aircraft a central part of its military inventory.

Important questions about the GJ-11 remain, particularly regarding its actual weapons load, various specifications, its degree of autonomy, and its ability to operate in coordination with crewed fighters. However, the latest official coverage provides the clearest indication yet of how China intends to employ its stealth UCAV in a future conflict, and sheds a little more light on the Mystery Dragon.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Press Forward, the nonprofit launched in 2023 to strengthen local news as outlets struggle with economic and technological changes, announced Tuesday that it has completed investing nearly $600 million in journalism organizations, about two years ahead of schedule.

However, Press Forward Executive Director Dale Anglin said the organization’s work is far from complete. Not only will the group continue raising and investing money, it will also expand its range of initiatives to support journalism.

“The industry is going through an incredible transformation,” Anglin told the Associated Press in an interview. “It took 20 years to get to this point — if not longer. It’s going to take us a while to get out of it.”

According to “ The State of Local News 2026 ” from Northwestern University, the number of news deserts – counties that have no locally based professional sources of news – grew by 12% this year to 238, as advertising and audiences continued to decline. Though there were dozens of newsrooms started this year, more than two newspapers closed for each outlet launched.

Anglin said she has had success convincing more funders to support Press Forward, which launched in 2023 through donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Democracy Fund and 19 other funders. The nonprofit now has 144 funders and has explained how longer-term support for journalism is necessary, similar to arts or education funding in a community.

Press Forward has established a $21-million impact investing fund to support outlets with small loans they would likely not get elsewhere. It already has 50 local Press Forward chapters that have invested $87 million to strengthen journalism in their communities, including $53 million in the past year.

“The challenges in local news were really kind of universal,” Anglin said. “But it turns out, as we have learned over the last three years, that a lot of the solutions are local.”

Press Forward Chicago sees promise in pooled funds

Tracy Baim, executive director of Press Forward Chicago, said her chapter believes it has developed part of the solution to journalism’s funding problems.

In addition to accepting traditional donations, Press Forward Chicago has established a pooled fund, which uses donations from multiple organizations to support specific initiatives.

“It is a way to tiptoe into journalism funding,” said Baim, adding that many foundations, especially smaller ones, saw supporting individual news outlets as too intimidating. She said the potential pitfalls of being associated with a controversial project or being accused of influencing coverage because of their donations kept some foundations from getting involved.

“A pooled fund mitigates those risks,” Baim said. Chicago’s fund further minimizes risk for donors by distributing the donations to multiple outlets.

Its first pooled fund was used last year to fund increased immigration reporting. Nearly $1 million was collected from 12 donors and distributed to 12 organizations, ranging from national outlets like ProPublica and major local outlets like Chicago Public Media and Block Club Chicago to smaller outlets serving Latino and Chinese communities. The donations allowed the outlets to add reporting, editing and presentation capacity right before the Department of Homeland Security launched the immigration operation “Midway Blitz” in Chicago.

A second pooled fund focused on education and allowed outlets to increase coverage of the Chicago Board of Education elections.

“We are making these outlets stronger,” Baim said. “We’re not just giving an organization a grant to cover stuff. We are amplifying their work so that they can get new subscribers and that’s a pipeline of potential donors.”

Knight Foundation looks to local funding

Supporting that sort of sustainable growth is the next phase of Press Forward’s work. And Knight Foundation President and Chief ExecutiveMaribel Perez Wadsworth said that is more significant than co-founding the organization.

“Announcing half a billion dollars in national funding toward journalism was important in terms of demonstrating the urgency and the importance of supporting local journalism,” Wadsworth said. “But the more important thing, ultimately, is to really catalyze and create deeper awareness at the local level about the essential nature of access to reliable news and information as a public good.”

There are signs that donors, both big and small, are making journalism a priority because it provides an information base that supports other initiatives. Last month, the Ford Foundation, one of the world’s largest grantmakers, said that supporting journalism would become one of its priorities as it overhauls its giving to focus on the building blocks of democracy. The much smaller nonprofit Public Media Co. has made providing trustworthy local information a cornerstone of its work to keep public radio stations operating following ongoing federal funding cuts.

Perez Wadsworth said that having local and regional funders work together to keep local news outlets open in their communities is a more sustainable solution to many journalism outlets’ budgetary problems.

“Philanthropy writ large is not a business model,” she said. “And it’s not sustainable to believe that philanthropy is just going to always support whatever the thing is, no matter how important.”

‘No silver bullet’ for economic woes

Press Forward’s Anglin said there is “no silver bullet” to solve journalism’s economic problems. But philanthropy can help strengthen news outlets until they figure out a new business model that will make them sustainable.

Press Forward plans to promote solutions through public policy changes, encouraging cooperation and resource-sharing between outlets and supplying infrastructure and capacity-building grants. Its chapters, which operate independently, have met a wide spectrum of needs — from helping defray some Minnesota outlets’ cost of covering the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis earlier this year to training local residents in Kentucky to become reporters.

“You can’t nonprofit your way out of this problem,” Anglin said. “We understand that some things will still close. But we are building for the long term.”

Gamboa writes for the Associated Press.