Emily Brown is a US based political journalist covering breaking news, public policy, and Capitol Hill developments.
Politics
Donald Trump has publicly called on China’s president to free imprisoned Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, reviving international attention on a case that has come to symbolise the erosion of press freedom under Beijing’s tightening grip on the city. Donald Trump has urged Chinese President Xi Jinping
Business
With Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink valuations surging in tandem, Elon Musk has become the first person in history to be worth $600 billion, a milestone that says as much about this economic moment as it does about the man himself. At $600 billion, numbers begin to lose their familiar shape.
Crime
Sources point to a tense confrontation at a high-profile Hollywood gathering hours before Rob Reiner and his wife were found dead, as investigators piece together a complex and deeply sensitive timeline. The investigation into the deaths of veteran filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, has taken on a sharper
Politics
For immigrants from countries affected by the Trump-era travel and migration restrictions, the long-awaited step toward US citizenship turned into an abrupt cancellation. They were on the brink of becoming US citizens, standing in line with family members and friends, having met all the requirements after years of paperwork, waiting,
Crime
A day of celebration turned to tragedy on December 13, 2025, when gunfire erupted on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, leaving grieving families, shocked classmates, and city officials grappling with the sudden loss of young lives and the urgent questions left in its wake. A chill in the early afternoon
Business
Inflation is no longer running hot, wages are up on paper, and yet for millions of Americans, the cost of living still feels stubbornly out of reach. The inflation charts look calmer now. That part is true. Prices are no longer jumping the way they did during the pandemic years,
Crime
A construction mishap that ruptured an underground gas line in Hayward triggered a monumental explosion and fire on the morning of December 11, 2025, leaving the neighbourhood shaken In the quiet hours of Thursday morning, the residential community of Ashland, near Hayward in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, was
Crime
In a highly charged hearing in Provo, Utah, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson made his first in-person appearance nearly three months after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, made his first in-person appearance in Fourth District Court in
Tech
Google rolls out its deepest AI research agent yet, while OpenAI simultaneously updates GPT-5.2, showing intensifying competition among leading labs to push AI capabilities forward. On December 11, 2025, the AI landscape witnessed a rare moment of dual breakthroughs, as Google unveiled what it describes as its deepest AI
Business
In a landmark three-year deal, the entertainment giant will let fans generate short AI-powered videos with over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI have announced a major strategic partnership that stands to change the entertainment industry’s engagement with artificial intelligence,
Tech
Under mounting backlash, OpenAI disables its in-chat app-recommendation prompts, once criticized as disguised advertising, acknowledging the move fell short of user expectations even as it insists no paid ads had been launched. In recent days, a growing number of users of ChatGPT began noticing something unexpected, as amid otherwise normal
Entertainment
Although many believed the actor was blacklisted from the Oscars after a politically charged 1993 speech, insiders say the real story is that one producer quietly disinvited him. At the 1993 Oscars, as he presented the award for Best Art Direction, Richard Gere took a sharp detour from the scripted