US & World News

From Pope Francis to Charlie Kirk, many deaths in 2025 had a wide impact

The world lost influential people in 2025, and some of their deaths had significant impacts. Pope Francis died in April, leading to the election of the first American pope. The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September sparked discussions about political violence. Virginia Giuffre's suicide in April brought renewed attention to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and other notable politicians also died. The entertainment industry mourned the loss of Gene Hackman, David Lynch, Roberta Flack, Hulk Hogan and other stars.

Calvin B. Taylor Bankshares, Inc. Reports Third Quarter Financial Results and Announces New Stock Repurchase Program

BERLIN, MD / ACCESS Newswire / December 26, 2025 / Calvin B. Taylor Bankshares, Inc. (the "Company") (OTCQX:TYCB), the holding company of Calvin B. Taylor Bank (the "Bank"), today reported net income for the third quarter 2025 ("3Q25") of $4.2…

Christmas in Venezuela, polleras and more top photos this week in Latin America and the Caribbean

Dec. 19–25, 2025 Venezuelan migrants, who abandoned hope of reaching the United States, celebrated Christmas at their home in Maracay, Venezuela. Mountain guide Ana Lia Gonzales climbed the Huayna Potosí glacier wearing a pollera, a traditional dress of Indigenous women…

America250 Announces Celebration of America Turning 250 on New Year’s Eve in Times Square

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 26, 2025--As the clock strikes midnight in Times Square, America will celebrate turning 250. America250, the nonpartisan organization charged by Congress with leading the celebration and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of…

Processa Pharmaceuticals and 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals Interviews to Air on the RedChip Small Stocks, Big Money(TM) Show on Bloomberg TV

ORLANDO, FL / ACCESS Newswire / December 26, 2025 / RedChip Companies will air interviews with Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:PCSA) and 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SXTP) on the RedChip Small Stocks, Big Money™ show, a sponsored program on Bloomberg TV…

Welfare Solutions for Jobless Growth in the AI Era: Seoul Stepping Stone Income

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 26, 2025--The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the overall outcomes of the three-year Seoul Stepping Stone Income Project (SSIP) at the Seoul International Forum on Stepping Stone Income 2025 (SIFSI 2025) on Tuesday, December 23. Alongside world-renowned…

Aptevo Therapeutics Announces 1-for-18 Reverse Stock Split

SEATTLE, WA / ACCESS Newswire / December 26, 2025 / Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:APVO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel immune-oncology therapeutics based on its proprietary ADAPTIR™ and ADAPTIR-FLEX™ platform technologies, today announced that it will conduct a…

How the Terms of SMX's $111 Million Capital Facility Shape the Valuation Discussion

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 26, 2025 / Public-market capital raises are often interpreted through a narrow lens, especially in the small-cap universe. They are frequently treated as retroactive signals, with the assumption that issuing capital below…

Japan's Cabinet OKs record defense budget that aims to deter China

Japan’s Cabinet has approved a record defense budget plan exceeding 9 trillion yen for the coming year. The approval on Friday aims to fortify strike-back capability and coastal defense with cruise missiles and unmanned arsenals as tensions rise in the region. The draft budget for fiscal 2026 beginning April is up 9.4% from the previous year. The increase marks the fourth year in Japan’s five-year program designed to double annual arms spending to 2% of gross domestic product. It comes as relations between Japan and China worsened over remarks about Taiwan.

ICYMI: Close out 2025 with these great reads from AP

As 2025 wraps up, The Associated Press has curated a list of memorable stories and enjoyable reads published this year. You may have missed them in the flurry of news and the busyness of living. There are storybook endings and heartbreak. Some are stranger than fiction, and others take you behind the scenes. Even if you read them the first time around, the stories on this “in case you missed it” list are worth revisiting.

A Christmas Message to the DEA's Diversion Anti Marijuana Cabal

This Christmas season, President Trump's executive action to advance rescheduling and medical research has finally exposed the truth: the DEA marijuana obstruction was never about public safety. It was about ideology. Control. And a refusal to accept science that challenged…

QAT Community Sets QuantumTrade 5.0 for Public Beta Testing in March 2026

QAT Community has confirmed that QuantumTrade 5.0 is scheduled to enter public beta testing in March 2026, with Ethan Caldwell noting the importance of real-world usability and structural evaluation during the upcoming testing phase.NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire…

NIA Joins Forces with TAT to Reignite ‘Amazing Thailand’ Through Innovation Power, Transforming Thai Tourism and Leveraging Creativity and Culture to Drive a New Tourism Economy

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Media OutReach Newswire - 26 December 2025 – Tourism remains one of the most important engines driving Thailand's economy. Beyond generating revenue, it plays a vital role in job creation, nation branding, and even influencing investment decisions.…

Z.ai、現場での開発向けに設計された新世代の大規模言語モデル、GLM-4.7をオープンソース公開

シンガポール - Media OutReach Newswire - 2025年12月26日 - Z.aiはクリスマスを前に、オープンソースの大規模言語モデルの最新版、GLM-4.7をリリースしました。当社はこのモデルを実際のソフトウェア開発や本番環境での利用に適したモデルとして位置づけていく取り組みを強化しています GLM-4.7はWebDevで6位、オープンモデルで1位最新モデルは、実際のエンジニアリング業務を想定して開発されており、長時間かかるタスクの実行、安定したツール呼び出し、他段階推論などを重視した設計となっています。このような機能は、開発者が大規模言語モデルを複雑なエージェント型システムに展開する中で、ますます重要になっています。 GLM-4.7は前モデルのGLM-4.6と比較して、コード生成、複雑な推論、エージェントの実行が大幅に強化されています。Z.aiによると、このモデルは長大なタスクでも、より制御しやすく一貫した性能を発揮し、無駄のない簡潔な文章を出力し、多くのオープンソースモデルにありがちな弱点を克服しています。 Z.aiは実際に近い環境で性能を評価するために、Claude Codeなどの本番に近い環境において、フロントエンドからバックエンド、コマンド実行まで、100の実際的なプログラミングタスクでGLM-4.7のテストを実施しました。Z.aiによると、GLM-4.7はGLM-4.6よりタスク完遂率が高く、安定性も向上しており、GLM Coding Planの標準モデルとして採用されています。ベンチマーク結果においても、GLM-4.7は現在提供されているオープンソースモデルの中でトップクラスの性能を示しています。BrowseCompで67.5、τ²-Benchで87.4のスコアを達成しており、特にτ²-Benchの結果はオープンソースシステムとして過去最高です。SWE-bench VerifiedやLiveCodeBench v6などコーディング能力を測るベンチマークでも、総合的な性能はClaude Sonnet 4.5に迫る水準となっています。また、Code Arenaの大規模なブラインド評価において、100万件以上の比較による投票の集計結果でも、GLM-4.7はオープンソースモデルの中で第1位となりました。 Z.aiによると、このモデルはBigModel.cn APIを通じて利用可能であり、Z.aiのフルスタック開発プラットフォームに統合されています。世界の技術エコシステムにおいてオープンソースモデルがより重要な役割を担うようになる中で、Z.aiの歩みは、このようなシステムが今後どのように進化していくか、そしてどのような可能性を実現するかを明確に示すものです。 Coding Planの標準モデル： https://z.ai/subscribe 試してみる： https://chat.z.ai/ 重み： https://huggingface.co/zai-org/GLM-4.7 技術ブログ： https://z.ai/blog/glm-4.7 Hashtag: #ZAI The issuer is solely responsible…

Z.ai Open-Sources GLM-4.7, a New Generation Large Language Model Built for Real Development Workflows

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 26 December 2025 - Z.ai has released GLM-4.7, the latest version of its open-source large language model, ahead of Christmas, as the company steps up efforts to position its models for real-world software development…