Blog

By Kanishka Singh for Reuters The negative and one-star reviews showed up after Luigi Mangione, 26, was captured at a McDonald's in Altoona. File pic Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via AFP Google on Monday removed derogatory reviews about McDonald's after the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson was arrested at its restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police say a customer alerted a local employee about him. The negative comments aimed at McDonald's were the latest in what is known as "review bombing," where an establishment is hit with a litany of bad reviews based on a political view or an occurrence unrelated to its actual business. In this case, the negative and one-star reviews showed up after Luigi Mangione, 26, was captured at a McDonald's in...

By Maayan Lubell and Emily Rose for Reuters Israeli military armoured vehicles cross the fence to Syria near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on December 8, 2024. Photo: AFP / JALAA MAREY Israel will step up airstrikes on Syrian stores of advanced weaponry, Israeli officials said on Monday, and keep a "limited" troop presence on the ground, hoping to head off any threat that could emerge in the fallout of president Bashar al-Assad's overthrow. Israel has watched the upheaval in Syria with a mixture of hope and concern as it weighs the consequences of one of the most significant strategic shifts in the Middle East in years. "We are taking all the actions necessary to try to ensure our security with regard to the new situation in Syria," Israeli Pri...

People gather at the Sednaya prison as Syrian rescuers search for potential hidden basements at the facility in Damascus on 9 December, 2024. Photo: AFP / Mohammed Al-Rifai Families hunt through labyrinthine prison complex Thousands wait outside hoping for news of loved ones Efforts to find prisoners in hidden cells fruitless As families desperately scoured the filthy cells of Syria's forbidding Sednaya prison on Monday for any sign of long-detained relatives after its gates were flung open by rebels, hope for finding missing loved ones began to fade. Thousands of prisoners spilled out of president Bashar al-Assad's pitiless detention system after he was toppled on Sunday, sometimes to tearful reunions with relatives who believed they had been executed years earlier. But countless ...

Photo: X / @PepMangione Police have named the "strong person of interest" in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City as 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione. Mangione was born and raised in the state of Maryland and had ties to San Francisco in California, according to New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, He was arrested in Pennslyvania - the state between Maryland and New York - but his last previous address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mangione was arrested after he was recognised by an employee at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona. He was "sitting there eating", Kenny added. He credited the tip to the wide circulation of a photo the New York City Police Department released of Mangione without a mask on. Luigi Mangione's profile picture on ...

From top left, clockwise, US President Donald Trump, Raygun (Rachael Gunn), British singer Liam Payne, and All Blacks' Beauden Barrett. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP, Odd Andersen/AFP, Emma McIntyre / Getty Images via AFP, Photosport The heated US election, Olympics and the viral memes from athletes, and One Direction star Liam Payne were among the top search terms from Kiwis on Google this year. The search trends cover the period from the start of the year until about 1 December. US election The New York Post is displayed in the window of a newsstand inside of Trump Tower in New York City, on 6 November, 2024. Photo: DAVID DEE DELGADO/AFP The US election was the number one most searched term in Aotearoa. It was always set to be a heated battleground as Joe Biden ...