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The Sudanese army is renewing a military effort to retake Kordofan, Darfur

Al Jazeera

The Sudanese armed forces (SAF) are renewing efforts for an operation to retake the Kordofan and Darfur regions from the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the civil war rages deep into its third year. The army has been assessing the RSF's capabilities and resources in readiness for launching the military operation with a large number of military formations fully prepared to launch an attack, it said. Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera's Hiba Moran said the Sudanese army had reorganised and redeployed troops in various part of Kordofan. "We have also seen the Sudanese army retake control of territories in the Kordofan region as well as launch air strikes and drone strikes on several RSF positions in Darfur and Kordofan," she said. "And it looks like these are the preparations or the first steps of that offensive that the army has been speaking about in efforts to regain control of territories in Kordofan and Darfur," she added.


US action in Venezuela morally right, Badenoch says

BBC News

The US military action in Venezuela was the right thing to do morally, Kemi Badenoch has said. The Conservative leader told the BBC that while she did not understand the legal basis for Donald Trump's operation to remove President Nicolás Maduro from the country, he was overseeing a brutal regime and she was glad he's gone. However, she added that the move did raise serious questions about the rules-based order. The UK government has so far avoided criticising the US move or saying whether it breached international law, instead arguing that Maduro was an illegitimate president. However, some Labour MPs and opposition parties including the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and SNP have called on the government to condemn Trump's actions and brand them illegal.


Putin says Russia believes it will win in Ukraine in New Year's Eve address

Al Jazeera

Could Ukraine hold a presidential election right now? Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? 'Ukraine is running out of men, money and time' Putin says Russia believes it will win in Ukraine in New Year's Eve address Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country believes it will win the war in Ukraine, nearly four years after he launched an invasion of the neighbouring nation, in comments made during his televised annual New Year's Eve address. The Russian leader called on the country on Wednesday to "support our heroes" fighting in Ukraine, where troops have been waging a brutal offensive since February 2022.


Thailand, Cambodia agree to build on ceasefire in talks in China's Yunnan

Al Jazeera

Thailand, Cambodia agree to build on ceasefire in talks in China's Yunnan Thailand and Cambodia plan to rebuild mutual trust and consolidate a ceasefire, Beijing says at the end of two days of talks in southwestern China, despite new accusations from the Thai military that its Cambodian counterparts are violating the truce with drone flights. The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia met with the Chinese foreign minister in Yunnan province on Monday for the scheduled two days of talks aimed at ending weeks of fierce fighting along their border that has killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million civilians in both countries. As part of the deal, Thailand has agreed to return 18 captured Cambodian soldiers on Tuesday if the ceasefire, which took effect at noon (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, is fully observed. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said he believed the parties were "moving in a positive direction". "We haven't resolved everything, but I think we are making progress in the right direction, and we have to keep up the momentum," he said.


Ukraine drones kill 3 in Russia's Rostov as EU debates war funding for Kyiv

Al Jazeera

What is in the 28-point US plan for Ukraine? 'Ukraine is running out of men, money and time' Can the US get all sides to end the war? Why is Europe opposing Trump's peace plan? Ukraine drones kill 3 in Russia's Rostov as EU debates war funding for Kyiv Ukraine has hit Russia's southern region of Rostov with an overnight drone attack that killed three people, as European countries strive to unlock Russian assets to help Kyiv and United States-led efforts to end the war have yet to yield any tangible results. Yury Slyusar, the acting regional governor of the Rostov region, said on Telegram on Thursday that the attack caused a fire on a cargo ship that had been extinguished, with two crew members killed and three left injured. Using Russia's money to aid Ukraine The attack on the region, the latest in a series of nightly Ukrainian raids deep inside Russian territory, came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday to approve plans that would release 210 billion euros ($247bn) of frozen Russian assets to assist his country.


Fourier-Enhanced Recurrent Neural Networks for Electrical Load Time Series Downscaling

Chen, Qi, Anitescu, Mihai

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Abstract--We present a Fourier-enhanced recurrent neural network (RNN) for downscaling electrical loads. The model combines (i) a recurrent backbone driven by low-resolution inputs, (ii) explicit Fourier seasonal embeddings fused in latent space, and (iii) a self-attention layer that captures dependencies among high-resolution components within each period. Energy policy and infrastructure investment decisions require an integrated system-wide perspective that captures the interdependencies of supply, conversion, and end-use sectors, as well as feedback from macroeconomic, technology-cost, and policy drivers. Many such energy modeling systems exist [1], of which the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), developed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) [2], is widely used by policymakers and stakeholders for this very reason. However, as noted in the study of energy plant pollution studies provided by NEMS [3], using temporally and spatially averaged data may significantly miss essential features and pricing signals.


The two standout science-fiction films of 2025

New Scientist

From Mickey 17 and M3gan 2.0 to a musical about the end of the world, this was an eclectic year for science-fiction films. Some ideas are so compelling, so intuitive, one would sooner recycle them than take them apart to explore. So, in 1950, Isaac Asimov fixed up some puzzle stories into a fiendish, Agatha Christie-in-space sci-fi novel, I, Robot, while in 1968, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey set a high bar for films about (or at least containing) artificial intelligence. There, ideas-wise, the story of robots in cinema pretty much starts to repeat on an endless loop. This year, The Electric State spun a yarn about a robot rebellion, M3gan 2.0 showed you can't keep a good killerbot down and Companion took the femmebot's point of view to give us a decent adult-themed Asimov pastiche. All three toyed with the usual notions around free will and indulged in handwringing about when to treat a machine like a person.


Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,377

Al Jazeera

What is in the 28-point US plan for Ukraine? 'Ukraine is running out of men, money and time' Can the US get all sides to end the war? Why is Europe opposing Trump's peace plan? Zelenskyy says US peace plan'looks better' with new revisions Here's where things stand on Tuesday, December 2: Russian forces launched a ballistic missile on Ukraine's Dnipro, killing four people and wounding 40 others, according to Ukrainian authorities. Russia claimed the capture of the strategic eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, the logistics hub that has been under attack for months by Moscow's forces.


Ukraine allies give cautious welcome to 'modified' peace framework

Al Jazeera

What is in the 28-point US plan for Ukraine? Why is Europe opposing Trump's peace plan? Is the fall of Pokrovsk inevitable? 'A corruption scandal may well end the Ukraine war' Ukraine allies give cautious welcome to'modified' peace framework What we know about Ukraine's'revised peace plan' European allies of Ukraine have given a cautious welcome to efforts to refine a United States peace proposal initially criticised for appearing to be weighted in favour of Russia's maximalist demands. The leaders Germany, Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom were among those agreeing on Monday that progress had been made in the previous day's talks between Washington and Kyiv in Geneva that yielded what the US and Ukraine called a "refined peace framework".