Month: December 2025

Bristol (TIP)- The over 600 artefacts stolen from Bristol Museum in the UK included household belongings, souvenirs, photographs, and papers of British people who lived and worked in the colonies, including India. However, the most valuable of the stolen items included artifacts taken from India, such as an elephant carved in ivory and an ivory statue of the Buddha.
According to Bristol City Council, the items stolen include medals, badges and pins, necklaces, bangles and rings, decorative items such as carved ivory, silver items, and bronze figurines. Natural history pieces, including geological specimens, are also believed to have been taken in the burglary.
The Bristol City Council also released images of an elephant carved in ivory, an ivory statue of the Buddha, a ship lantern, and an Emancipation token.
The museum archived the links between Britain and countries in the British Empire from the late 19th century to recent times, including India. It had over 2,000 items in the film collections dating from 1920 to the 1970s, with footage from India and countries in Africa, and around 500,000 photographs dating from the 1860s to the 1970s. These include the African photographs of the writer Elspeth Huxley, the Crown Agents Railway archive, and Charles Trotter’s collection of negatives from 1950s Nairobi.
Investigation officer Det. Constable Dan Burgan claimed many of these collections were donations. “These items, many of which were donations, form part of a collection that provides insight into a multilayered part of British history, and we are hoping that members of the public can help us to bring those responsible to justice,” he told reporters.
Interestingly, Bristol, situated over 195 kilometers southwest of London, was a prominent spot of the slave trade, with ships based in the city transporting Africans into slavery. Most of the people in the city had benefited from and enjoyed the benefits of slavery until its ban in 1807. In 2020, anti-racism demonstrators toppled the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, which was later put on display in the museum.
The theft happened on September 25 after four men, wearing hoodies and caps, broke into a building between 1 am and 2 am local time.
The theft was discovered only the next day. According to Philip Walker, head of culture and creative industries at Bristol City Council, the museum had been ransacked.

Washington (TIP)- The White House has stated that US President Donald Trump is “extremely frustrated” with both Russia and Ukraine over the slow progress toward ending the ongoing war and is unwilling to engage in “meetings just for the sake of meeting”.
During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated the President was tired of meetings that achieve nothing and wanted results, not words, as the US acts as the primary mediator to end the four-year-long running war.
“The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war. He’s sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting. He doesn’t want any more talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end,” Leavitt. She further confirmed that the Trump administration remains actively involved in peace efforts, with President Trump holding talks with European leaders on Wednesday and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his team continuing direct discussions with both sides “literally as we speak”.
Regarding possible high-level US participation in upcoming talks this weekend, Leavitt said the decision remains “up in the air”.
“The United States and the Trump administration continue to be very much engaged in trying to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end. The President had a call with Europeans yesterday. His special envoy Witkoff and his team continue to talk with both sides literally as we speak. If there is a real chance of signing a peace agreement, if we feel like those meetings are worthy of someone in the United States’s time this weekend, then we will send a representative. It’s still up in the air whether we believe real peace can be accomplished and we can truly move the ball forward,” Leavitt stated.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the US is advocating for Ukraine to pull back its forces from the Donetsk region to create a “free economic zone” in Kyiv-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, which Moscow seeks to dominate, as reported by Al Jazeera. Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine had submitted a 20-point set of counter-proposals to the US as part of ongoing discussions on security guarantees with senior American officials, emphasising that any territorial concessions would need to be approved through a national referendum.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has been facing increasing pressure from Washington to reach a peace deal with Russia, with reports suggesting that Trump wants an agreement by Christmas, Al Jazeera reported.
The overall peace plan includes a 20-point framework, along with separate documents addressing security guarantees and the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The full details of the revised framework, which adjusts an earlier US draft seen as favouring Russia, have not been made public.
Zelenskyy indicated that the main points of disagreement remain the control of the Donetsk region in the Donbas and the future governance of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Surin (TIP)- Fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces continued early on Saturday, Dec 13, hours after US President Donald Trump said the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire.Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he told the US president a ceasefire would only be possible after Cambodia had withdrawn all its forces and removed landmines.
“Thailand will continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people. I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning already spoke,” he said on social media.
Shelling continued overnight, as Thai forces push to take a number of vantage points along the border. At least 21 people have died in the renewed fighting and 700,000 have been evacuated on both sides.
Trump had claimed earlier in the week that he could stop the fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces that broke out on Monday just by picking up the phone. After speaking to both prime ministers on Friday night he wrote on social media that the two countries had agreed to “cease shooting effective this evening” and go back to the agreement they signed in front of the US president in October. “Both countries are ready for peace,” he wrote.
However, Anutin said he told Trump that Thailand was not the aggressor, and that Cambodia must show that it had withdrawn its forces and removed landmines from the border before a ceasefire was possible. “They must show us first,” he said. There was no mention of the use of tariffs as leverage to force the two sides to disengage, as happened in July.
Thailand has warned the US not to link the conflict to trade.On Saturday Cambodia reported that it had been struck by more Thai air strikes.
“On December 13, 2025, the Thai military used two F-16 fighter jets to drop seven bombs” on a number of targets, the Cambodian defence ministry said in an X post.”Thai military aircraft have not stopped bombing yet,” it said.The Thai military also confirmed that fighting continued.The long-standing border dispute escalated on 24 July, as Cambodia launched a barrage of rockets into Thailand, which responded with air strikes.Both countries have accused each other of initiating the attacks. After days of intense fighting which left dozens dead, the neighbouring South East Asian countries agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” brokered by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This was formalised at a ceremony in Malaysia in October presided over by the US president.
However both sides continued to trade accusations of ceasefire violations, with Thailand publishing evidence of Cambodian troops laying landmines, which have caused seven Thai soldiers to lose limbs. Cambodia says the mines are left over from the civil war in the 1980s.

Seoul (TIP)- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to root out “evil” and scolded lazy officials while praising his troops fighting with Russia against Ukraine, state media said Friday, capping a major meeting of Pyongyang’s top brass.
The three-day meeting of the regime’s central committee discussed key policy issues as well as plans for a congress of its ruling party, expected in early 2026 — North Korea’s first in five years.
Wrapping up the meeting on Thursday, Kim condemned “the wrong ideological viewpoint and inactive and irresponsible work attitude” of some officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
He called on officials to have “greater confidence in and courage for the future of our cause and struggle”.State media did not offer specifics, though it did say the ruling party had revealed numerous recent “deviations” in discipline — a euphemism for corruption.
The North Korean leader reserved praise for Pyongyang’s soldiers fighting against Ukraine alongside Russia, of whom at least 600 have died and thousands more sustained wounds, according to South Korean estimates.Their work, Kim said, “demonstrated to the world the prestige of our army and state as the ever-victorious army and genuine protector of international justice”.
Analysts say Pyongyang is receiving financial aid, military technology, food and energy supplies from Russia in return for sending troops.Kim’s mention of the troops “signalled Pyongyang’s intention to maintain that deployment”, Ahn Chan-il, a researcher originally from North Korea, told AFP.
“North Korea is also highly likely to seek a role in post-war reconstruction in Russia once… the conflict ends,” he added.Kim also hailed efforts this year in “modernising” the country’s defences in the face of great “global geopolitical and technological changes”. Pyongyang’s central committee began meeting on Tuesday, the same day North Korea fired a salvo of artillery from a multiple rocket launcher system, which analysts say could strike the South.Last week, South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung said he felt an apology was due to the North over his predecessor’s alleged order to send drones and propaganda leaflets across the border.Pyongyang has not responded to the overture from Lee, who has sought to mend fractured ties with the North.And Friday’s readout made no mention of South Korea or the United States, whose leader Donald Trump had hoped to meet Kim during a visit to Asia in October.The pair — who Trump once famously declared were “in love” — last met in 2019 at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas after the US leader extended an invitation to Kim on Twitter.But analysts now say that the North Korean leader, increasingly emboldened by his growing ties with Russia, had few good reasons to join the photo-op.

Kim hails ‘ever-victorious’ army’s role in war against Ukraine
Kim Jong Un praised the deployment of his troops in support of Russia’s war against Ukraine and promised to root out “evil practices” among some officials, state media reports.
In remarks concluding a key meeting of his ruling party on Thursday, Kim condemned “the wrong ideological viewpoint and inactive and irresponsible work attitude” of some officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
He also spoke of “shortcomings and evil practices that must be corrected”, KCNA said. The North Korean news organisation did not offer any specifics regarding the targets of Kim’s comments, though it did say the ruling party had revealed numerous recent “deviations” in discipline – a euphemism often used to refer to corrupt practices.
Wrapping up the three-day meeting, Kim reserved praise for the North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine alongside Russia, of whom at least 600 have been killed and thousands more injured in the war, according to South Korean estimates.