Pork remains on school lunch menus despite false ban rumors

Pork remains on school lunch menus despite false ban rumors, Newport’s deputy leader Deb Davies confirmed, noting it was served as recently as last week and warning that idle gossip can fuel division. After Conservative group leader Matthew Evans sought reassurance—then waxed lyrical about Johnny’s right to a ham sandwich—Davies suggested a radical innovation: call the education authority instead of grandstanding. Takeaway from the council: treat social-media whispers with the scepticism they deserve—and pass the salt, not the panic.

Street cleanup of discarded chewing tobacco costs a North London council £30,000 a year

Street cleanup of discarded chewing tobacco costs a North London council £30,000 a year, as pavements, shopfronts, and even flower beds across parts of Brent are streaked with dark-red spit. So yes, taxpayers are footing the bill to mop up after public spitters who treat the borough like a communal spittoon. A little enforcement, a few well-placed bins, and the radical concept of basic manners might save the roses—and the budget—from looking perpetually stained.

Prince Harry’s legal team returns to the High Court ahead of a major 2026 case

Prince Harry’s legal team returned to the High Court ahead of a major 2026 case, with a 10am pre-trial hearing before Mr Justice Nicklin setting the stage for a January 2026 trial. The Duke of Sussex and six other high-profile figures—Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sadie Frost and Sir Simon Hughes—are suing Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over alleged unlawful information-gathering from 1993 to 2011. The claims include hiring private investigators to plant listening devices, intercepting and recording calls, blagging medical records, bribing police, and digging into bank data—accusations ANL dismisses as “simply preposterous.”

Lawyers traded barbs: ANL’s Antony White KC accused the claimants of “camouflage” via Byline posts; David Sherborne, for the claimants, called that “simply untrue.” The case, greenlit for trial in 2023 after the judge said ANL hadn’t landed a “knockout blow,” now carries a twist: PI Gavin Burrows says his signature was forged on a 2021 statement some claims relied on. Translation: British tabloids in court—scandal alleged, denials declared, and the meter gloriously running.

Proportion of City of London–managed homes deemed non-decent nearly doubled over the past year

Proportion of City of London–managed homes deemed non-decent nearly doubled over the past year, a growth statistic only a failing landlord could love. The City, which manages social housing on estates including Golden Lane, Middlesex Street and York Way, now looks like it can balance budgets but not fix basic living standards.

Beauty expert reviews Sabrina Carpenter’s perfume line, 20% off for Black Friday

Beauty expert reviews Sabrina Carpenter’s perfume line, 20% off for Black Friday: a fragrance pro sniff-tested all four of Carpenter’s scents, crowned her favorites, and noted they’re currently 20% off for the holiday rush—because nothing says festive cheer like bottling a pop star’s aura and slapping on a discount. Translation: you’ve got vetted picks and a timely price cut; act fast before “add to cart” turns into “join the waitlist.”

ICE Detains Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s Nephew

ICE detains the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew during enforcement actions in Massachusetts, pulling the White House press secretary’s extended family into the immigration spotlight and turning an enforcement sweep into a politically awkward family affair.

Radio caller reports finding a body 18 days earlier, leaving host stunned

Radio caller reports finding a body 18 days earlier, leaving host stunned as a man identifying himself as “Joseph” told DC101’s Elliott in the Morning he’d discovered human remains in a wooded area of Frederick, Maryland, near a tent-city campsite. Police have confirmed the body, said it was in an advanced state of decomposition, and report no apparent threat to the public or signs of foul play at this stage; identification is pending, and the caller has been interviewed by detectives. Frederick Police urged the public and media to rely on official updates as the investigation continues.

HSBC estimates a $207 billion shortfall in OpenAI’s expansion plans

HSBC estimates a $207 billion shortfall in OpenAI’s expansion plans, warning the company must rustle up that sum by 2030 to hit its targets—a funding hole the size of a midsize nation’s GDP. The gap threatens Oracle, Microsoft, and Amazon, whose AI-cloud courtship assumes OpenAI keeps rocketing upward. This comes despite breathless forecasts of 3 billion ChatGPT users by 2030, because apparently scale requires more than hype and a keynote. If the money doesn’t materialize, expect some very awkward earnings calls in Big Tech’s front row.

Xbox-themed Crocs priced at $80

Xbox-themed Crocs priced at $80: if consoles are straining Santa’s budget, Microsoft and Crocs offer the next-best thing—branded clogs. It’s a tidy test of fandom and fashion tolerance, swapping teraflops for foam and proving there’s always another way to monetize loyalty.

US-China tensions spur decoupling in tech research, study finds

US-China tensions are spurring a decoupling in tech research, a study finds, with joint work falling to a 20-year low. An Australian think tank warns this rupture could reshape the global innovation engine that underpins security and economic growth. Geopolitical chest-thumping meets lab-bench collateral damage—because nothing says “staying competitive” like locking the smartest rivals out of the room and calling it strategy.

Centenary Christmas celebrations begin at Bedgebury

Centenary Christmas celebrations begin at Bedgebury, now open with a fabulous, family-friendly after-dark experience—holiday cheer that works after sunset and without a checkout line.

Newegg Black Friday bundles include discounted or free RAM to attract PC builders amid high memory prices

Sticker shock at the RAM aisle? Newegg’s Black Friday bundles include discounted or even free RAM to attract PC builders amid high memory prices, rolling out a series of deals to make memory upgrades actually affordable—for once, if only until the weekend sobers up.

Week 13 Roundup of Eagles Power Rankings

Week 13 Roundup of Eagles Power Rankings: In the grand tradition of pointless yet irresistible internet rituals, this compendium gathers where national outlets slotted the Eagles after Week 12—an exercise everyone swears is dumb, right before clicking it anyway.

Buying RAM? A prebuilt desktop or a laptop might be the better value.

Buying RAM? A prebuilt desktop or a laptop might be the better value, because standalone memory prices are soaring while prebuilt gaming PCs and notebooks are still pretending it’s last quarter. Translation: you’ll get more RAM per dollar with it baked into a system—at least until the bean counters wake up and fix the “mistake.” If you’re eyeing an upgrade, consider snagging a prebuilt now and let the pricing bots catch up later.

Scouting for Girls to Headline Kent Summer Music Festival

Scouting for Girls will headline the Kent Summer Music Festival, topping a bill pitched for all ages. The family-friendly event runs over three days, giving the pop hitmakers plenty of time to lodge a chorus in your head.

Wales make 14 changes; new call-up starts against South Africa

Wales make 14 changes; new call-up starts against South Africa, with Steve Tandy forced into a near-total overhaul for the final autumn match against the Springboks—because nothing says continuity like swapping out almost the entire lineup right before the bruiser at the finish.

Zork I, II, and III open sourced, the treasure is actually here

Team Xbox and Activision, working with Internet Archive archivist Jason Scott, have released the classic Zork text adventures’ source code under the MIT License. They submitted upstream pull requests to the historical repositories and added clean documentation of the open-source grant. Each repo includes game source, build notes, historically relevant files, and clear attribution and licensing metadata. It is code only, no commercial packaging, no marketing gloss, and no rights to trademarks or other assets, which are intentionally excluded. For once, the lantern is lit and yes, you can take it.

Documents tie David TC Davies to delay of petrol phase out to 2035

Information Tribunal papers show the former Welsh Secretary backed Toyota’s push to keep hybrids until 2035 and agreed with Aston Martin on an exemption for small volume manufacturers. By September 2023, ministers shifted the UK phase out to 2035 with a carve out for smaller carmakers. The new Labour government later even name checked the Prius in policy. The documents, forced into daylight by Democracy for Sale, came with a sharp ruling from Judge Marks on the public interest in exposing potential greenwashing and holding ministers to their private promises. Greenpeace accused lobbyists of steering decisions for private gain. Davies, a onetime climate skeptic who now talks up net zero, defended the meetings as part of his job and said he prioritised Welsh manufacturing jobs over pandering to radical anti motorist campaigners. Translation for the back row: industry asked, policy moved, and hybrids got an extra five years.

Nicolas Sarkozy previews Prisoner’s Diary, promises austere vibes

The former French president teased his forthcoming book with the line, “In prison, there is nothing to see and nothing to do.” If that is the tone, expect minimalist plot and maximal publicity. Fans of dignified boredom may consider this catnip, everyone else just got the trailer and, frankly, most of the plot.

South Korea logs 15th straight monthly rise in births

Another uptick, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said Wednesday. It is not a baby boom, but for a country bracing for demographic decline, baby steps are still steps. In policy terms, think of it as a small win against the gravitational pull of the birth rate floor.

On this day in 2005, Vijaypat Singhania set a hot air balloon altitude record

India’s 67 year old textile tycoon floated to 69,852 feet over Mumbai, swapping boardroom oxygen for the thin stuff and proving that sometimes the biggest lift in business is not the stock price. File under midlife crisis, but make it stratospheric.

Nov. 26 celebrity birthdays

DJ Khaled turns 50, another one for the keys to longevity. Lil Fizz turns 40, proving boy band timelines age like everyone else.

20 states sue HUD over new funding rules for homelessness programs

20 states sue HUD over new funding rules for homelessness programs, as a coalition of Democratic-led states filed suit Tuesday against the Trump administration. The challenge targets HUD’s changes to how homelessness grants are allocated and the new conditions attached to them—translation: a fresh federal–state brawl over who gets the money and which hoops they’re forced to jump through.

Republican senators back Kelly as “illegal orders” video is investigated

Republican senators back Kelly as “illegal orders” video is investigated: In a rare bipartisan plot twist, GOP Sens. John Curtis of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska publicly supported Democrat Mark Kelly while the Pentagon probes “serious allegations of misconduct” tied to a video of Kelly and five other Democrats telling service members to disobey illegal orders from the Trump administration. Curtis signaled his support on X—because of course—and for a fleeting moment, Capitol Hill remembered how to cooperate without a donor gala.

Brazil’s Supreme Court orders Bolsonaro to begin 27-year prison sentence

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered Jair Bolsonaro to begin a 27-year prison sentence, a stunning reversal for the ex-president whom prosecutors charged with plotting to violently subvert Brazil’s democracy and target rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The tough-on-crime swagger just met the one institution he couldn’t bulldoze: the rule of law.

India meets supercomputing needs but falls short of its ambitions

India meets supercomputing needs but falls short of its ambitions: a decade into the National Supercomputing Mission, the country has rolled out 37 systems totaling 39 petaFLOPS, with a 35‑petaFLOPS hybrid slated for later this year. That’s a respectable haul—enough to crunch monsoon models and ministerial spreadsheets alike—but the “Make in India” muscle under the hood is still more aspiration than domination. Many machines feature locally developed components, yet the grand goal of becoming a supercomputing leader and serious semiconductor player remains, for now, stuck in the brochure. Ambition: turbocharged. Supply chain sovereignty: still idling.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro begins 27-year prison term for coup plot

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro begins a 27-year prison term for coup plot, entering custody Tuesday after being convicted of leading a coup attempt following his 2022 election loss—despite pressure and protest from US President Donald Trump. A stark reminder that in a democracy, losing an election isn’t a technicality, and overseas lobbying doesn’t commute a sentence.

Council allows caravans to remain despite small-town complaints of blocked access to homes and football pitches

Council allows caravans to remain despite small-town complaints of blocked access to homes and football pitches—yes, in Talywain, Pontypool, where 70 residents complained the vehicles were blocking bungalows and a football pitch, councillors have let them stay… for now. The reprieve comes with a bureaucrat’s love language: a three-month maximum stay per caravan, a management plan, and a registration log to be produced within 24 hours on demand. Planning officials cited “unneighbourly” conduct and obstruction claims; landowner Tony Janes denies blocking access to homes but does admit blocking the pitch, asserting his rights and saying he’s giving homeless travellers somewhere legal to stop amid a shortage of sites. The council is separately pursuing a fix for pitch access. The site itself will be scaled down from six caravans to two, confined to land Janes actually owns, and designated a short-stay transit facility under Welsh planning rules. Call it a temporary truce with a clipboard and a stopwatch.

Maduro displays sword, vows to resist any U.S. effort to oust his government

Maduro displays sword, vows to resist any U.S. effort to oust his government, telling crowds that “failure is not an option” as he pledges to defy Washington. Nothing says modern governance like brandishing a blade—message sent: he’s not budging.

Spyware targets U.S. officials via Signal and WhatsApp pairing tricks

A U.S. cyber defense alert says commercial spyware vendors and state-aligned operators are abusing linked-device features, including malicious QR pairing and some zero-click exploits, to monitor sensitive communications. Targets include U.S. government and military personnel and other high-profile users. Convenience met security, the QR code laughed, and your secondary device turned into a concierge for your stalker. Audit paired sessions, limit device linking, and remember that not every square on your screen is a good idea.

UK lawmakers push software liability and secure-by-design requirements

A parliamentary committee wants secure by design to become law, not a sticker on a press release, with fines for publishers who keep treating the public as unpaid QA. The plan would empower regulators to monitor compliance and levy penalties, putting a price on the ship-now, patch-later habit. If that makes a few executives rediscover testing and threat modeling, consider it a public health win.

HHS prepares to enforce information blocking rules at last

Nearly a decade after Congress told everyone to share patient data, regulators look ready to enforce it. Priorities are taking shape, and counsel like Nan Halstead of Reed Smith are flagging the compliance steps organizations should already be implementing. If you are still hoarding patient information like proprietary secret sauce, the bill for that menu item is on its way, and it will not be payable in buzzwords.

Amazon SageMaker adds EAGLE-based adaptive speculative decoding

SageMaker now supports EAGLE 2 and EAGLE 3 across six model families, including Llama, Qwen variants, and GPT OSS, letting a model draft its own next tokens from hidden layers instead of relying on a second helper model. Reported results include roughly 2.5x throughput and faster time to first token while preserving baseline quality, which is what you need if waiting for text like it is dial-up is not your business plan. You can start from JumpStart or bring S3-hosted artifacts, train on curated open datasets or your own ShareGPT or OpenAI-format logs, tune iteratively via Data Capture so behavior tracks real traffic, auto-export benchmarks, and deploy through the usual SageMaker inference interface. Pricing tracks standard SageMaker training for optimization and standard inference for deployment, net result, fewer wasted milliseconds and more actual work.

FBI arrests Florida man accused of plotting a neo-Nazi terror attack

Federal agents arrested 20-year-old Lucas Alexander Temple, who is charged with distributing information related to explosives and possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun. Investigators say he discussed plans to livestream an attack and shared violent extremist materials in encrypted chats. Agents linked online aliases to Temple using personal details and records, and a search recovered propaganda and a sawed-off shotgun. A magistrate judge ordered him detained pending trial, citing danger to the community. This is disturbing and serious, and the focus belongs on prevention, accountability, and the safety of targeted communities.

OpenAI lets enterprise customers keep data closer to home

OpenAI rolled out in-region data at rest options across ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, and the API platform. Eligible customers can pick where data is stored, which gives compliance teams a brief moment of serenity and regulators one fewer reason to fan themselves. Translation, your bits can finally sleep in their own time zone.

Senators urge probes of Meta over alleged profits from scam ads

After a Reuters review of internal documents, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley asked the FTC and SEC to investigate Meta. The materials reportedly suggested Meta anticipated up to 16 billion dollars this year from ads that include scams or banned goods, roughly 10 percent of revenue, and that users see about 15 billion higher risk ads a day. The senators want disgorgement, civil penalties, individual accountability, and a binding fix for scam ads. They cite Meta staff assessments that the company was tied to a third of successful U.S. scams and was unmatched by peers, plus examples like fake Elon Musk investments, a bogus 710 dollars for everyone Trump benefit, deepfake porn, and ads selling legal help to scam victims. A quick scan of Meta's Ad Library still turns up illicit gambling, payment scams, crypto cons, AI deepfake sex services, and fake federal benefits, they say. Meta calls the reporting distorted and says it fights fraud, while internal papers reportedly forecast up to 1 billion dollars in fines as U.S. and U.K. probes continue. The corporate vibe, the house swears it hates gambling while quietly expanding the casino floor.

Researchers find credentials leaking through free web tools

Security researchers say popular online JSON beautifiers were fed live authentication keys, database logins, and customer PII from banks and government agencies. The tools make code prettier, the internet gets a peek at your backend. It is the predictable result of convenience-first culture, not a clever new exploit. If it opens in a browser and costs nothing, treat it like a billboard, not a vault.

Albany hits the brakes on free NYC buses

New York State delayed Zohran Mamdani's fare-free bus proposal, and the next steps are murky. The plan would replace roughly 700 million to 800 million dollars in lost MTA fare revenue, and if New York City rides free, Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany will ask for the same, ballooning the bill into the billions. Mamdani also pitched universal child care, a rent freeze, a higher minimum wage, public groceries, and billions for housing, funded by raising corporate taxes to about 11.5 percent and hiking rates on millionaires. Nearly all require Albany's approval, and Gov. Kathy Hochul is disinclined to raise taxes. Looming in the background is the New York Financial Control Board, a reminder of 1975's near default, ready to yank the cord if City Hall tries to paper over operating costs with borrowing. Even supporters suspect the 9 billion dollar ask is an anchor to land less. With a lagging post-pandemic recovery and high earners still trickling out, state leaders seem to be saying, bring funding or a very convincing map. For now, the magic bus is idling behind caution tape.

Stretchable, Gelatin-Based Battery Aims to Cut E-Waste

Researchers at McGill’s Trottier Institute have built a flexible battery that swaps toxic materials for citric or lactic acid and gelatin, making it bendable and potentially implant friendly. It promises greener power for wearables and less electronic waste. Look at that, innovation behaving itself for once.

Ukraine Peace Plan Pushes Forward, Plus Washington's Seasonal Poultry Pageant

Kyiv has agreed to core components of a U.S.-backed framework, with security chief Rustem Umerev signaling President Volodymyr Zelensky plans a White House visit before month’s end for further talks. Meanwhile, in a ritual of bipartisan symbolism, President Trump will pardon turkeys Gobble and Waddle, because nothing says geostrategic resolve like ceremonial clemency for birds.

Foot Locker Closures Coming Under New Owner

Foot Locker will close some stores in 2026 under its new parent, Dick’s Sporting Goods, which says it plans to clean out the garbage in a post merger purge. Finally, a corporate strategy statement that skips the buzzwords and heads straight for the broom.

Mother and 4-Year-Old Son Diagnosed With Cancer the Same Day

A mother and her young son received separate cancer diagnoses on the same day and are now undergoing treatment on parallel paths. It is a profound hardship that demands immense strength, and their resolve deserves attention and support, not spectacle.

Orbán Courts Moscow as Ukraine Talks Advance

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is reportedly seeking a sit down with Vladimir Putin while urging the EU to back a U.S.-led plan and open direct talks with Russia. He is casting himself as Europe’s self appointed envoy, also known as the Kremlin’s most punctual plus one inside the bloc.

O’Hare Braces for Record Thanksgiving Rush

Chicago expects more than 1.63 million passengers over the seven day holiday window, a 9.5 percent jump from last year and the busiest Thanksgiving week in the hub’s 70 year history. The city says it is ready, and travelers should be too, with patience, portable chargers, and expectations set to standing room only.

ULTRARAM Faces the Factory Test

In a University of Adelaide analysis, Dr. Dominic Lane examines whether the much hyped III–V memory concept ULTRARAM, billed as DRAM fast and flash persistent, can leap from elegant physics to scalable, reliable, economically sane production. Translation, can it survive anywhere beyond a press release.

Suspected Islamist extremist seeks UK asylum after questioning over bombing

Suspected Islamist extremist seeks UK asylum after questioning over bombing: an anonymous Sri Lankan man questioned over the 2019 Easter attacks that killed 269 people, including six Britons, is renewing his asylum bid after his initial application was rejected. He says he fears persecution if returned, denies involvement, and left Sri Lanka in September 2022 after being released under reporting conditions; an arrest warrant was issued after his departure. The Home Office refusal was overturned at the Upper Tribunal, where Deputy Judge Claire Burns found legal errors in the original decision, including misreading documentary evidence and the timing of the arrest warrant; she rejected claims of judicial bias. The case will be reheard. The bombings, claimed by Islamic State and linked by Sri Lankan police to National Thowheeth Jama’ath, were the country’s deadliest attacks since the civil war.

Council unanimously votes to rename Prince Andrew Way following local backlash

Council unanimously votes to rename Prince Andrew Way following local backlash: In Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, Mid and East Antrim councillors voted unanimously to rebrand the street formerly honoring Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—because when even a road wants to socially distance, you take the hint. The move follows the removal of his titles over ties to Jeffrey Epstein; Andrew denies all allegations, but councillors from the Alliance Party and DUP said keeping his name on the map was “sad but necessary” to end.

Officials will now draft the formal process, including a public consultation—because unlike certain palaces, the council plans to ask the locals first. There’s no existing policy for renaming streets, but the council does have the power; a report will cover logistics, potential costs (there are about 10 addresses), and whether the council can foot the bill for residents who’ll be updating bank accounts and licenses.

Suggestions to keep a royal link are already rolling in: Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Catherine (the Baroness of Carrickfergus), or even Prince Edward Way. One thing’s certain: Carrickfergus would prefer its street signs not double as PR liabilities.

Labour Minister Backs Reeves's Misogyny Claims

Labour Minister Backs Reeves's Misogyny Claims as Health Minister Karin Smyth defends the Chancellor’s remarks to the PLP, where Rachel Reeves vowed not to let critics “beat” her and conceded she hadn’t fully recognised how much misogyny still lingers in public life—Westminster’s belated epiphany that sexism exists, and she’s not playing along.

GB News finance expert urges Britons to act fast to claim £400 payment

GB News finance expert urges Britons to act fast to claim £400 payment—because, in a rare plot twist, the banks are briefly paying you to leave them. Temie Laleye says millions could pocket easy cash by switching via the Current Account Switch Service, which moves salaries, direct debits and standing orders in seven days. Barclays is dangling up to £400, while Santander and NatWest are offering £175–£200 to new customers. She cautions: read the small print—eligibility and deposit rules vary—and with Black Friday and Christmas looming, these deals can vanish faster than your festive budget, so move quickly if you want the extra pre-holiday cash.

U.S. imposes visa restrictions in response to gang violence in Haiti

The U.S. imposes visa restrictions in response to gang violence in Haiti, targeting Haitian government officials the Trump administration accuses of backing gangs and other criminal organizations. Translation: bankroll chaos, lose your Miami weekends. It’s a pressure play to squeeze alleged enablers of Haiti’s insecurity by hitting them where it hurts—their passports.

Atlassian’s tabletop disaster recovery drill revealed extensive dependency problems

Atlassian’s tabletop disaster recovery drill revealed extensive dependency problems—nothing like a fake crisis to expose the real one—prompting the Australian collaborationware firm to spend four years turning a spaghetti tangle of services into a more robust, recoverable cloud layer cake. The company rebuilt its PaaS to strip out dangerous internal dependencies; issues remain, but Atlassian says they’re now manageable—fewer tripwires, more guardrails.

Medik8 discounts anti-ageing cream by £19, touted to reduce wrinkles and fine lines

Medik8 discounts anti-ageing cream by £19, touted to reduce wrinkles and fine lines, with one fan claiming, “Each application leaves my skin plump and well hydrated without any signs of dryness.” Fewer creases promised—on faces and receipts.

Scientists develop simple technique to break down PFAS on activated carbon

Scientists develop simple technique to break down PFAS on activated carbon—and for once, “forever” looks negotiable. Clarkson University researchers report that PFAS trapped on granular activated carbon can be completely destroyed by simply milling the carbon in stainless steel ball mills at room temperature, with no added chemicals, heat, or solvents. The steel-ball collisions generate triboelectrons that drive PFAS breakdown via reactions with the carbon, working across multiple PFAS types in both lab-made and real-world samples. After treatment, no PFAS leached under landfill-like tests, suggesting the spent carbon can finally be disposed of without turning the environment into a chemistry set. Published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, this could unclog one of the nastiest bottlenecks in PFAS cleanup.

Two Philadelphia holiday traditions return to the Wanamaker Building, the former Center City Macy’s

Two Philadelphia holiday traditions return to the Wanamaker Building, the former Center City Macy’s, as the Wanamaker Light Show and Dickens Village flicker back to life despite Macy’s exit—because in Philly, the lights don’t dim on our watch. A donor preview Monday night celebrated the community effort that saved the historic displays, with the Philadelphia Visitor Center’s Kathryn Ott Lovell thanking supporters. Families who feared a final curtain—like the Sugarmans, who arrive with an eagle-and-snowman tattoo, yearly pins, and a decade of dates-turned-babies—packed the atrium alongside siblings in matching sweaters and maximal nostalgia. Macy’s may have left the building; Philadelphia didn’t.

Ithan Elementary students disappointed after Eagles' loss to Cowboys

Ithan Elementary students were disappointed after the Eagles’ loss to the Cowboys, as Monday’s school spirit sagged under a classic NFC East letdown—a crash course in Philly fandom: big hopes on Friday, heartbreak by Sunday night.

Gallup: 10% of U.S. adults report having been diagnosed with cancer

Gallup: 10% of U.S. adults report having been diagnosed with cancer, the highest share since the pollster began tracking the disease 17 years ago—an alarming marker that underscores a growing health burden and the stakes for screening and access to care.

Mob Insider Reveals Decades of Organized Crime Secrets

Mob Insider Reveals Decades of Organized Crime Secrets as Gianni Russo, 81, the perennial plus-one to mobsters, movie stars, and politicians, unloads in his memoir, Mafia Secrets: Untold Tales from the Hollywood Godfather. He alleges Pope John Paul I was murdered in 1978 for trying to shut down a Vatican Bank laundering pipeline run by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus—claims that include Russo himself couriering Vegas skim to Rome until the pope said stop, and, days later, was dead; a former Swiss Guard allegedly told him the pontiff got an “untraceable” injection. Russo’s Hollywood reel features a years-long, oddly chaste connection with Marilyn Monroe that culminates at Cal-Neva, where he says she erupted over the Kennedys and an abortion, while mob bosses warned she wouldn’t live to file a complaint. He places Lee Harvey Oswald walking out of Carlos Marcello’s private bathroom days before JFK’s assassination, watches Tony “the Ant” Spilotro meet his end, and tours Pablo Escobar’s Medellín spread—cocaine, cash, and hippos, because subtlety isn’t a cartel virtue. Never officially “made,” Russo casts himself as the Zelig of bad neighborhoods and shrugs off retaliation: “Everybody’s dead.” He signs off with a flourish only a lifelong almost-mobster could love: “I am a made man—only by God.”

A Look Back at the History of the 6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade

A Look Back at the History of the 6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade: Philadelphia, the city that kicked off the nation’s first Thanksgiving Day parade, revisits the festivities that grew from a hometown tradition into a broadcast staple—now caffeinated by Dunkin’ and carried by 6abc—launching generations of gratitude with unmistakable Philly pride.

White House postpones unveiling of new health care cost plan

White House postpones unveiling of new health care cost plan: The administration delayed a Monday rollout of its proposal to curb rising healthcare costs—just as Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year. Because nothing says “urgent” like hitting snooze when the meter’s still running.