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For more than a half century, Tom Stoppard was one of the most acclaimed playwrights in the English-speaking theater. He has died at age 88. Stoppard won a Laurence Olivier Award and five Tony Awards for Best Play. His work, including Travesties, The Real Thing and The Invention of Love was known for its language, wit and intellectual curiosity.

Stoppard's death was reported by his agent.

Stoppard wrote erudite plays that touched on a broad range of topics – from his 1966 absurdist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead about two minor characters from Hamlet — to his 1993 drama Arcadia which included dialogue about Chaos Theory and Garden Landscaping. But when Arcadia opened in New York, Stoppard told me his plays were always about people, not abstract ideas.

For more than a half century, Tom Stoppard was one of the most acclaimed playwrights in the English-speaking theater. He has died at age 88. Stoppard won a Laurence Olivier Award and five Tony Awards for Best Play. His work, including Travesties, The Real Thing and The Invention of Love was known for its language, wit and intellectual curiosity.

Stoppard's death was reported by his agent.

Stoppard wrote erudite plays that touched on a broad range of topics – from his 1966 absurdist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead about two minor characters from Hamlet — to his 1993 drama Arcadia which included dialogue about Chaos Theory and Garden Landscaping. But when Arcadia opened in New York, Stoppard told me his plays were always about people, not abstract ideas.

"I'm not some kind of intellectual who's importing very special ideas into the unfamiliar terrain of the theater. I don't see it like that at all," he said. "There's something about the way the plays are written about which makes people think that they're somewhat exclusive. And an exclusive playwright is a contradiction in terms."

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Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) issued a statement Saturday vowing to conduct “vigorous oversight” on Caribbean strikes after a report surfaced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to “kill everybody” aboard an alleged drug vessel.

“The Committee is aware of recent news reports — and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” the senators wrote in a joint statement.

“The Committee has directed inquires to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances,” they added.

The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the order, reported Friday that Hegseth gave a spoken directive early in the operation to those overseeing the strikes: “Kill everybody.” The first mission in September reportedly required two strikes after the first failed to kill all on board.

Hegseth blasted the reporting as “fake news” and defended the Trump administration’s maneuvers against drug trafficking.

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A flavorful spice used in many dishes and even medicine has also shown promising results in other areas of health.

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University led a clinical trial with 22 adults who had five grams of black cumin seed powder each day for eight weeks, and they showed a decrease in bad cholesterol and an increase in good cholesterol, showing the same outcomes as cholesterol-lowering medications.

The 20 adults in the control group with no cumin showed no changes in cholesterol.

The study’s authors said some participants also experienced weight loss with taking black cumin seed powder. They also suggested that at least a spoonful of cumin powder a day could ultimately boost cardiovascular health, lowering the risk of future heart problems.

“This study strongly suggests that black cumin seeds are useful as a functional food for preventing obesity and lifestyle-related diseases,” said Akiko Kojima-Yuasa, a professor and study author. “It was so gratifying to see black cumin comprehensively demonstrate actual, demonstrable blood lipid-lowering effects in a human trial.”

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Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75m to the US government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

Donald Trump’s administration hahttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/29/northwestern-university-agreement-us-governmentd cut off $790m in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill. The administration argued the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/29/northwestern-university-agreement-us-government

Under the agreement announced on Friday night, Northwestern will make the payment to the US treasury over the next three years. Among other commitments, it also requires the university to revoke the so-called Deering Meadow agreement, which it signed in April 2024 in exchange for pro-Palestinian protesters ending their tent encampment on campus.

During negotiations, the interim university president, Henry Bienen, said Northwestern refused to cede control over hiring, admissions or its curriculum. “I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case,” he said.

The agreement also calls for Northwestern to continue compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws, develop training materials to “socialize international students” with the norms of a campus dedicated to open debate, and uphold a commitment to Title IX by “providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities”.

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A group of settlers who crossed the border from Israel into southern Syria in an attempt to establish new settlements have been apprehended and returned by the Israeli military.

On Thursday, some 13 settlers belonging to a group called the "Pioneers of the Bashan" cut through the border fence in two locations using angle grinders and drove into Syria with the aim of settling there.

Five of the group breached the border in the Mount Hermon area, and another eight near the Syrian village of Bir Ajam in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said in a statement that troops "rushed to the two locations, and shortly afterward the civilians were found" and that some "clashed" with the soldiers.

It confirmed that all of the suspects were "safely returned to Israeli territory under IDF escort", adding that the military "strongly condemns the incident and emphasises that it is a grave incident constituting a criminal offence" endangering both civilians and Israeli soldiers.

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At least 13 people, including children, have been killed and 25 were injured as Israel launched another incursion into Syrian territory in the Damascus countryside, according to state media, with several Israeli soldiers also reported wounded in clashes.

Syrian state media reported on Friday that two children were among those killed in the Israeli dawn raid and strikes, which forced dozens of families to flee from the town of Beit Jinn to nearby and safer areas.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned “the criminal attack carried out by an Israeli occupation army patrol in Beit Jinn. The occupation forces’ targeting of the town of Beit Jinn with brutal and deliberate shelling, following their failed incursion, constitutes a full-fledged war crime,” it said.

The remains of at least five Syrians, including two children, were taken to the Golan National Hospital in the city of al-Salam in Quneitra, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

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Palestinian sources reported that groups of settlers gathered at the entrance of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, while the IOF stormed both Deir Jarir and nearby Deir Dibwan. The incursions coincided with violent confrontations in Silwad as Palestinian youths resisted the simultaneous settler and military presence.

In Birzeit, near Ramallah, IOF arrested former prisoner Salama al-Qatawi after storming his home. In Nablus, troops raided the New Askar refugee camp and detained Shadi al-Rifai. Two children, Khaled and Sahlam Zein, were also arrested after their home was raided in Burin, south of the city.

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) entered Nablus through the Awarta checkpoint and expanded their operations to Kafr Qalil, east of the city, intensifying the military presence in the area.

In Tubas, military bulldozers were deployed in the town of Tammun, causing significant destruction to civilian property. Additional reinforcements were moved toward al-Faraa refugee camp from the al-Hamra checkpoint, escalating military presence in the area.

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On 10 October, following two years of Israeli genocide that have turned Gaza into the new benchmark of total destruction, after Israel has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and inflicted on all the people in Gaza “severe bodily or mental harm,” to quote from the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Trump administration imposed a ceasefire, giving rise to the idea that the Gaza war has ended.

The ceasefire, however, seems to be designed mostly to move forward with the business deals of the mega rich in the Middle East, and the fire has never ceased: the Israeli government has continued its assault, killing and injuring hundreds of Palestinians since 10 OcMore...tober, destroying thousands of homes and buildings, and blocking the entry of sufficient aid.

The genocidal rhetoric, furthermore, has not ended. Take, for instance, Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) for the Religious Zionist Party, who spoke on 28 October in an international summit in Hungary organized in support of Israel. “If we want to destroy the idea of genocide,” he said, “if we want to destroy [it] and we should destroy the idea of Muslim Brotherhood that takes over the entire west, the Middle East, but after that, the entire world, the entire western civilization, we have to define it as the enemy.” “The enemy in Gaza,” he continued, “are not the terror tunnels, the enemy in Gaza are not the missiles, the enemy in Gaza are not even the terrible people who took the hostages; the enemy in Gaza is the idea of a genocide, the same idea that echoes in mosques all around Europe, the same idea that echoes in mosques in the US, in campuses, in encampments, the same idea, this is the enemy.”

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