World News

By Taylor Galgano, CNN Jenna Gerwatowski, left, says the case was always a big mystery in her town. She had no idea the grandmother she'd never met, Nancy Gerwatowski, right, could be behind it. Photo: CNN / Jenna Rose Gerwatowski/Mackinac County Sheriff's Office It was the middle of Jenna Gerwatowski's workday at the local flower shop in Newberry, Michigan, when she got a call from an unknown number. The now 23-year-old doesn't usually answer unknown calls, but says she decided to pick this one up in May 2022. To her surprise, it was a detective from the Michigan state police. "He was like, 'Have you heard of the Baby Garnet case?'" Jenna told CNN. Jenna had heard of it. In 1997, a deceased infant was found in a campground pit toilet at the Garnet Lake Campground - right where Jenna...

Anna Sawai as the character of Mariko in Shōgun. Photo: FX Networks New Zealand-born actress Anna Sawai and Kiwi actor Antony Starr have scored at the Critics Choice Awards 2025, while the What We Do in the Shadows spinoff is among the top contenders in the television category. Director Edward Berger's mystery thriller Conclave and Jon Chu's star-studded musical Wicked led the film nominations with 11 each, followed by Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez with 10 each. Critically acclaimed historical drama Shōgun led the television nominations with six, followed by Abbott Elementary, The Diplomat, Disclaimer, Hacks, The Penguin and What We Do in the Shadows, with each scoring four. In September, Sawai made history by becoming the first Japanese actress to win an Emmy in her category for Shōg...

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch are having a public debate about the merit of sandwiches. Photo: AFP A British political stoush has erupted over the "great British institution" of sandwiches. In an interview with Spectator magazine, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch suggested sandwiches were not real food. Speaking of taking a lunch break she said: "lunch is for wimps". "I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. "Sometimes I will get a steak... I'm not a sandwich person, I don't think sandwiches are a real food, it's what you have for breakfast." Badenoch was particularly against soggy bread. "I will not touch bread if it's moist," she said. In response, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starme...

By Laura Paddison, CNN A member of the Real Ice team takes measurements on the sea ice in Cambridge Bay in January 2024. Photo: CNN/Real Ice Deep in the Canadian Arctic, scientists and entrepreneurs brave sub-zero temperatures, whipping winds and snowstorms to drill holes through the sea ice to pump out the seawater below and freeze it on the surface. The group from the UK start-up Real Ice is in Cambridge Bay, a tiny coastal village in Nunavut, to try to prove they can grow and restore Arctic sea ice. Their ultimate plan is to thicken ice over more than 386,000 square miles of the Arctic - an area more than twice the size of California - with the aim of slowing down or even reversing summer ice loss and, in doing so, help to tackle the human-caused climate crisis. It's a bold plan, ...

Photo: CNN Newsource By Katelyn Polantz, CNN An FBI informant accused of lying about the Biden family has cut a plea deal with special counsel David Weiss, the prosecutor who led the criminal probe into Hunter Biden. Alexander Smirnov is set to plead guilty to four charges, including tax evasion and obstructing justice by providing false information to the FBI, according to a court filing in California on Thursday. Smirnov had falsely told the FBI in 2020 that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, was illicitly paying off Joe Biden while he was vice president, and his son Hunter, who was on the company's board. This will likely end Weiss' investigation. The special counsel led the prosecution against Hunter Biden, who was convicted of tax and firearms charges. President Biden issued a par...

By MJ Lee, CNN It is just weeks before the end of President Joe Biden's administration. Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he is commuting the sentences of some 1,500 individuals and pardoning 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes - marking a broad use of the presidential clemency power just weeks from the end of Biden's administration. White House officials are billing Thursday's move as the biggest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The president, who has come under growing pressure to grant more clemencies before he leaves office and who controversially granted a pardon to his son Hunter earlier this month, also promised that additional action will be announced in the weeks to come. "America was built on the promise of possibility an...

By Alessandro Parodi, Reuters Dommaraju Gukesh, left, looks reacts while playing against Ding Liren during the world chess championship. Photo: AFP Teenager Gukesh Dommaraju of India became the youngest chess world champion by beating defending champion Ding Liren of China on Friday morning (NZ time) in a dramatic turn of events in the last game of a 14-game match in Singapore. The 18th world champion is at age 18 four years younger than Garry Kasparov, who had been the youngest world champion since 1985 when he beat Anatoly Karpov. Gukesh won the game with the black pieces after Ding wilted under pressure and blundered in what commentators considered to be a comfortable position, snatching the title with a final score of 7.5-6.5. Ding, whose form has plummeted since he beat Russian ...

By Gawon Bae, Jerome Taylor, Helen Regan and Lex Harvey, CNN A television screen shows South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol announcing the lifting of martial law, in Seoul, South Korea on December 4, 2024, hours after Yoon imposed it. Photo: YONHAP / AFP South Korea's ruling party has thrown its support behind attempts to impeach embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated decision to declare martial law that sparked a political crisis and widespread public anger in the country. The announcement came moments before Yoon delivered a defiant speech Thursday (local time) in which he attempted to justify his hugely controversial martial law decision and rejected growing calls from across the political spectrum for him to stand down. The People Power Party (PPP) had initially re...

US President-elect Donald Trump, left, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: AFP Meta Platforms has donated US$1 million (NZ$1.7 million) to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural fund, a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said the donation was a departure from past practice by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta. Zuckerberg had declined to endorse either Donald Trump or Joe Biden for this year's election, in a media interview that took place before Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee and was replaced by Kamala Harris. The billionaire CEO, however, had complimented Trump's reaction to the 13 July assassination attempt as "one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life", among his recent attem...

By Tim Lister, Kareem Khadder and Nechirvan Mando, CNN A social media video has surfaced, allegedly showing a warehouse in Syria stacked with captagon, an illicit drug that had transformed the country into a narco-state under former President Bashar al-Assad's rule. The large warehouse was reportedly located at the headquarters of a military division near Damascus that was commanded by Assad's brother Maher. CNN is unable immediately to verify the location. A voice commenting over the video says that it is "one of the largest warehouse facilities of captagon manufacturing of pills". Piles of pills are seen on the floor along with drug-making equipment. If confirmed, the discovery would support claims by the United States and others that the Assad regime had been involved in actively expor...