• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

Nov. 22, 2025, 5:15 AM ESTBy Jeremy Mikula and Melinda YaoThere’s a brand-new entrant to the World Cup, a modernist painting fetches a handsome sum, and a network turns to AI for “time travel.” Test your knowledge of this week’s news, and take last week’s quiz here.Jeremy MikulaJeremy Mikula is the weekend director of platforms for NBC News.Melinda YaoI am an intern for NBC News’ Data / Graphics team.David Hickey contributed.

admin - Latest News - November 22, 2025
admin
12 views 14 secs 0 Comments




There’s a brand-new entrant to the World Cup, a modernist painting fetches a handsome sum, and a network turns to AI for “time travel.”



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
Khashoggi's wife calls Trump remarks 'disgusting'
NEXT
Nov. 22, 2025, 6:45 AM ESTBy Denise ChowAs representatives from nearly 200 nations were wrapping up talks at the United Nations’ COP30 climate summit this week, the United States was not only absent, the Trump administration also introduced a series of sweeping proposals to roll back environmental protections and encourage fossil fuel drilling.The United Nations Climate Change Conference ended Friday in the Brazilian city of Belém, where delegates gathered to hammer out a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, boost climate action and limit global warming.For the first time in the summit’s history, the U.S. — one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases — did not send a delegation. Instead, the Trump administration this week announced a plan to open up new oil drilling off the coasts of California and Florida for the first time in decades and proposed rule changes to weaken the Endangered Species Act and limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to protect wetlands and streams.“These rules double down on the administration’s refusal to confront the climate crisis in a serious way and, in fact, move us in the opposite direction,” said Jessie Ritter, associate vice president of waters and coasts for the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation group.Indigenous people take part in a demonstration during the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference on Nov. 17.Pablo Porciuncula / AFP / Getty ImagesThe White House told NBC News Friday that this week’s “historic” announcements aim to “further President Trump’s American energy dominance agenda.”“President Trump is reversing government overreach, restoring energy security, and protecting American jobs by rolling back excessive, burdensome regulations and creating new opportunities to ‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL,’” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement. “President Trump serves the American people, not radical climate activists who have fallen victim to the biggest scam of the century.”Ritter said the new proposals signal to the world just how much the U.S. has stepped back from any meaningful climate action.“I doubt that this surprises folks who have been watching in the international arena,” she said. “But it’s unfortunate, given the example the U.S. sets and what our leadership, or lack thereof, emboldens other countries to do.”The Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday that it intends to open up roughly 1.27 billion acres of coastal U.S. waters for oil drilling drew bipartisan pushback.Although the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the oil and gas industry, hailed the program as a “historic step toward unleashing our nation’s vast offshore resources,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) pushed to uphold the current moratorium on drilling, which Trump extended during his first term.“I have been speaking to @SecretaryBurgum and made my expectations clear that this moratorium must remain in place, and that in any plan, Florida’s coasts must remain off the table for oil drilling to protect Florida’s tourism, environment, and military training opportunities,” Scott wrote Thursday on X, referring to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Across the country, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X that “Donald Trump’s idiotic proposal to sell off California’s coasts to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water.” “We will not stand by as our coastal economy and communities are put in danger,” he said.The drilling directive came just three days after the Trump administration proposed major limits to the Clean Water Act of 1972 that would undo protections from pollution and runoff for most of the country’s small streams and wetlands. The rule would narrow the definition of which bodies qualify as “waters of the United States” under the act.If finalized, the changes would mean that the fewest freshwater resources would be under federal protection since the law was enacted, according to Jon Devine, who heads the water policy team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.“By EPA’s own estimate, only about 19% of the country’s wetlands would be protected against unregulated destruction and development if this were finalized,” Devin said.EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Aug. 26.Aaron Schwartz / Bloomberg / Getty ImagesWetlands act as buffers against flooding by absorbing and storing water during extreme rainfall and other high runoff events. As the world warms, coastal and inland flooding is expected to become more frequent and severe.“Many of the places that we already have in the U.S. that are increasingly flood-prone due to climate change are going to be even more in harm’s way,” Devine said.Wetlands and streams also feed into other bodies of water that serve as critical drinking water supplies across the country, so critics fear the policy could make drinking water unsafe in some communities.The third major environmental rollback announced this week was a set of four rules that would erode protections under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The proposed changes aim to make it easier to remove species classified as threatened or endangered and harder to add new protected species and their habitats to the list. The rules, if passed, would also allow the government to consider “economic impacts” in decisions to list or de-list species.Red wolves shown at the North Carolina Museum of Life + Science in 2017. Salwan Georges / The Washington Post / Getty Images fileTaken together, Ritter said, these three proposals are consistent with the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.“These decisions prioritize short-term gain, often for a few industries and special interests, at the expense of things that have been widely bipartisan and important issues for people for decades,” Ritter said.The impacts of the changes might not all be apparent right away, she added, but the scale of the long-term consequences could be immense.“It’s truly not an exaggeration that this is going to touch all Americans in some way,” she said. “Everything is connected, and it’s hubris to think that we can have these massive negative effects on our streams and wetlands, our animals, our coastal waters, without impacts to humans.”Denise ChowDenise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.
Related Post
October 29, 2025
Homes in North Carolina collapse into ocean
November 18, 2025
Nov. 18, 2025, 4:20 PM ESTBy Erik OrtizA whistleblower who came forward to House Democrats alleging convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell received preferential treatment at a federal prison camp in Texas says she was not motivated by politics.Instead, “this was about common human decency and doing what’s right for all inmates,” Noella Turnage, a nurse who worked at Federal Prison Camp Bryan since 2019 until she was fired last week, told NBC News on Monday.She added that when even one inmate is wrongly retaliated against, “and influence gets another one protected, somebody had to say something.”The entrance to Federal Prison Camp Bryan on Aug. 1, in Bryan, Texas.Brandon Bell / Getty ImagesMaxwell’s time at FPC Bryan, an all-women’s minimum-security facility, has come under scrutiny since her transfer there in early August from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Her relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has become a focal point as Democrats and some Republicans renew their push to compel the Justice Department to make all investigative files surrounding Epstein’s case public.Turnage said she was not driven by public outrage surrounding Epstein, Maxwell or any other public figures, but acted because she felt “failed by the institution” when colleagues and others have spoken out about alleged leadership misconduct and retaliation.Noella Turnage.Courtesy Noella TurnageShe said the federal Bureau of Prisons fired her on Nov. 10. The decision came a day after the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote a letter to President Donald Trump saying they had received information from a “whistleblower” indicating Maxwell was working on filing a “commutation application” and receiving special treatment not typically afforded to inmates at Bryan. The information obtained by the House Judiciary Committee included email correspondence that Maxwell sent during her first few months at the prison camp.Leah Saffian, an attorney for Maxwell, said Friday that employees at FPC Bryan lost their jobs in light of Maxwell’s emails being shared.There have been employees “terminated for improper, unauthorized access to the email system used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to allow inmates to communicate with the outside world,” Saffian said in a statement.NBC News previously reviewed Maxwell’s emails which indicated she was “happier” with her move to a facility that was cleaner and where staff were friendly.Maxwell’s emails also suggested she had direct access to Bryan’s warden, Tanisha Hall, for help, including arranging visits and communicating with her lawyers — actions that are highly unusual, other attorneys with clients at the prison say.The BOP and Hall did not respond to requests for comment about employees terminated in connection with Maxwell.Turnage said she was in contact with the House Judiciary Committee after Raskin wrote a letter to Hall on Oct. 30 asking about Maxwell’s perceived “VIP treatment.”In that letter, Raskin said he was alarmed by news reports that the prison was giving special accommodations to Maxwell’s visitors and other alleged perks, such as meals sent to her dormitory room, late-night workouts and the ability to shower after other inmates were already in bed for the night.His inquiry also raised other accusations made by inmates that they have been threatened with retaliation if they speak about Maxwell to the media. At least two inmates have been transferred out of Bryan after doing so, according to media reports that reviewed BOP records. NBC News has not confirmed the reason for the transfers.Turnage and another former Bryan employee, Ashley Anderson, said they spoke with House Democratic committee staff about allegations that BOP policy has been repeatedly violated and retaliation exists against those who report wrongdoing.Ashley Anderson.Ashley AndersonAnderson, who had been a senior specialist officer at Bryan for a decade before she was terminated in August, said that she has tried to speak out in support of inmates who’ve reported alleged abuse but that there remain “flaws in a system that often lacks transparency, accountability, and fairness.”Saffian has called the release of Maxwell’s emails “improper” and denied that a pardon application had been made to the Trump administration. She also said she would be filing a habeas petition with the Southern District of New York to challenge Maxwell’s 20-year prison sentence for recruiting minors to be sexually abused by Epstein.Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.Maxwell’s transfer to FPC Bryan in early August came days after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July. At that meeting, Maxwell told Blanche she never witnessed any inappropriate conduct by Trump or any other prominent figures associated with Epstein’s orbit, according to a transcript. Trump, whose name appeared in the unsealed records as a friend of Epstein’s before they had a falling out, has not been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing.Trump initially supported the release of documents related to Epstein before sparring with Democrats and some members of his own party, saying not all files should be made public.Last week, thousands of emails from the Epstein estate were released by the House Oversight Committee, including many that referenced Trump. On Sunday, Trump unexpectedly changed his stance on the issue, writing on his Truth Social account that House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files “because we have nothing to hide.”Turnage and Anderson said in a further statement that speaking to members of Congress about their time at Bryan was not about swaying the political narratives in the larger Epstein saga.“This was about truth, and nothing else,” they said. “It was about telling the truth about how both staff and inmates were treated.”Erik OrtizErik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
September 27, 2025
Sept. 27, 2025, 5:30 AM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.For people who rely on certain prescription drugs, including weight loss, asthma and cancer medications, President Donald Trump’s post announcing 100% tariffs on foreign brand-name drugs offers little clarity on when — or if — medications might see price hikes. “Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” Trump said on Truth Social late Thursday. “‘IS BUILDING’ will be defined as, ‘breaking ground’ and/or ‘under construction.’ There will, therefore, be no Tariff on these Pharmaceutical Products if construction has started.”Experts say Trump’s post raises a lot of questions. Here are five major ones. What drugs will be impacted?Trump’s post doesn’t specify whether brand-name drugmakers with an existing U.S. plant would be exempt, whether that exemption would include all their products, or whether it would only be for the drugs manufactured at the U.S. site. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, makers of the weight loss drugs Wegovy and Zepound, respectively, have announced plans to invest in U.S. manufacturing. But it’s unclear if their intent to invest will warrant an exemption. On Tuesday, Lilly announced plans for a $6.5 billion manufacturing facility in Houston that will produce Zepbound and its other GLP-1 drug, Mounjaro, following a recent commitment to build a $5 billion plant near Richmond, Virginia. Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, said in June it would spend $4.1 billion to construct a second GLP-1 fill-finish plant in Clayton, North Carolina.AstraZeneca, which makes the asthma drug Symbicort, also announced in July that it will invest $50 billion over the next five years to expand its research and development and manufacturing footprint in the U.S. Many other popular brand-name drugs, however, are primarily manufactured overseas, particularly in Europe, said Rena Conti, an associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.Botox, made by Allergen, and the cancer drug Keytruda from drugmaker Merck are made in Ireland. (Keytruda’s manufacturing has increasingly moved to the United States in recent years, but it’s not clear if that would earn an exemption from Trump’s tariffs.)Others, including some for blood and lung cancers, as well as vaccines, are made in places like India and China, Conti said. “I think what’s most at risk here are branded products that come from China and India,” she said. The E.U. and Japan already have trade agreements in place that cover pharmaceuticals, she added, and it’s unclear whether the new tariff will supersede that. Will patients see prices increase?Only 1 in 10 of the prescriptions filled in the U.S. are for brand-name drugs; the vast majority are for generics, which are much cheaper and will not be affected by these tariffs. Whether patients see price increases will depend on how many drugmakers receive exemptions — and on whether companies choose to pass those costs on to patients at the pharmacy counter, said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. ​​“Ultimately, tariffs are taxes on patients,” Kesselheim said, “and to the extent that drug companies see increases in cost due to tariffs, they will pass those costs on to patients.”Some companies may decide not to pass the costs along. So far, the 15% tariffs on imports from the E.U. haven’t translated into big price hikes for U.S. patients, Conti noted. To be sure, a 100% tariff would be far more costly for a company. Price hikes may not start right away, as drugmakers find out whether they qualify for an exemption. There also might be a lag since U.S. law prevents drugmakers from increasing the price of drugs faster than inflation.“What if you’re doing updates to the plant you currently have? What if you’re planning a facility? Do those count?” Kesselheim said. “It’s all very ambiguous.”Some patients may not notice additional price hikes at all, given how costly brand-name drugs already are in the U.S., said Arthur Caplan, the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. “I can certainly predict that some patients will immediately feel price increases that will shock them on some of these drugs,” Caplan said.Could insurers absorb the costs?Insurers and middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, could try to negotiate drugmakers or absorb some of the tariff-related costs, Caplan said.It’s more likely, however, that they’d pass it on to patients in the short term, potentially in the form of a larger copay, he said.It’s not only patients with private insurance that should be worried about price hikes, Kesselheim said. Those who get their drugs covered through government health programs could also see price increases.“The government is the largest purchaser of prescription drugs in the market, through Medicare, Medicaid and the VA, so it’s really the government or government payers that are going to see the largest impact on price increases,” he said. Will tariffs spur more U.S. drug manufacturing?It’s unlikely, Kesselheim said. The decision to build a plant “is a complicated and expensive one” that requires several regulatory hurdles and years of planning.Conti noted that by the time new manufacturing plants are completed, Trump would likely be out of office.“It is somewhere between two years and five years to get new production facilities built,” she said, “and it can be in the millions of dollars depending on whether the product that you’re making is a small molecule drug or a biologic.”Even putting money back into an existing plant isn’t quick.“If you want to switch a line or retool a factory to make a product, then we’re talking about somewhere between 18 to 36 months to do that,” Conti said, “because you have to show the U.S. regulator that you can make it at this factory at scale, and the product is what it says it is, or is high quality and meets the quality standards of the U.S.”In a statement, Alex Schriver, a spokesperson for the trade group the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said “most innovative medicines prescribed in America are already made in America” and companies continue to invest in the U.S.“Tariffs risk those plans because every dollar spent on tariffs is a dollar that cannot be invested in American manufacturing or the development of future treatments and cures,” Schriver said. “Medicines have historically been exempt from tariffs because they raise costs and could lead to shortages.”What about shortages?If Trump keeps his focus solely on brand-name drugs, U.S. patients are unlikely to face shortages, Kesselheim said.“Their profits are just so, so far beyond this tariff cost that they could probably be OK or raise the prices of the drugs,” he said. “They would probably not stop production as a result.”But that excludes, he added, some smaller companies who may make niche brand-name products and may not have the resources to take on the extra costs. If tariffs extend to generics, the risk is far greater, Caplan added. Unlike brand-name drugs, generic drugs are typically sold at close to the cost they’re made, he said, which makes it difficult for companies to justify the cost of building a new facility. They’d likely be forced to walk away from production or close their plants altogether.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.
October 22, 2025
Oct. 22, 2025, 2:26 PM EDTBy Erik Ortiz and Jon SchuppeAn Illinois man was shot dead while incarcerated in a federal prison in Florida this month, his family and officials told NBC News, a rare incident behind bars as guards largely are not allowed to carry firearms.Loved ones of inmate Dwayne Tottleben say they haven’t received answers from the federal Bureau of Prisons about how or why he was shot, more than a week after his death Oct. 10 at U.S. Penitentiary Coleman I, a high-security men’s prison northwest of Orlando.The BOP typically shares information on inmate deaths in custody, but there was no immediate release about Tottleben. Agency officials did not respond to requests for comment amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. The local medical examiner’s office in Florida confirmed Tottleben’s fatal shooting to NBC News. Donna Ford, a longtime friend who said she’s listed as next of kin for Tottleben, said the prison called her around 9 p.m. Oct. 10 to tell her he had died. She said the official offered no other details. It came as a shock, she said, because she had spoken to Tottleben, who went by DJ, just that morning for about 15 minutes. Tottleben, 33, had been serving 15 years for possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute related to an August 2020 traffic stop in St. Louis.“He was in a good mood. He told me he loved me. He told me to ‘send pictures of the kids, give the kids hugs for me,’” Ford said of her children. “He said, ‘I miss you. I love you.’ There was no agitation.”The entrance to Coleman federal prison in Florida in 2008.Ryan K. Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileTottleben’s father, also named Dwayne, learned of his death from Ford the following morning and spoke with the medical examiner’s office for Sumter County. He said he was in tears as he begged for information about his son’s death. “I was distraught. I didn’t know if somebody stabbed him. I didn’t know anything,” the senior Tottleben said.He said the office told him that his son was shot, but that still left him with questions.“I’m trying to wrap my mind around how something like this could happen,” he said.A prison spokesperson did not directly respond when asked about a deadly shooting at USP Coleman I or an investigation into Tottleben’s death. The prison’s website says visitation “has been suspended until further notice.”In response to NBC News’ questions, the prison sent an emailed statement saying that the facility was placed on “enhanced modified operations” Oct. 10, and that “wardens may establish controls or implement temporary security measures to ensure the good order and security of their institution, as well as ensure the safety of the employees and the individuals in our custody.”“In securing a facility, it is always the hope this security measure will be short-lived, and the facility returned to normal operations as quickly as possible,” the statement added.While there is a lack of reliable data regarding deaths in prisons and jails, fatal shootings are uncommon because guns are not routinely used to secure the facilities, said Steve J. Martin, a corrections expert who has worked for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and on use-of-force cases involving prisons.Prison employees can only carry firearms while doing certain tasks, including transporting inmates, preventing escapes and guarding security posts, BOP policy states. Wardens must approve any employees who carry guns. “If you have weaponry inside, there’s always the possibility that it can get in the hands of an inmate, which is the last thing you want,” Martin said. “Besides, there is so much other nonlethal weaponry that can be used.”BOP policy says that force against inmates should be a “last alternative,” and that deadly force may be used when there’s a “reasonable belief that the inmate poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury” to others.If the use of a firearm is “deemed necessary,” the employee “must shoot the subject with every intention of hitting ‘center mass’ to ensure the subject is stopped,” the policy states. “Employees will not attempt to shoot a limb which creates a lesser chance of stopping the subject and may pose a danger to employees, other inmates, or persons in the community.” Joe Rojas, a retired BOP officer and past union president at Coleman, said less lethal options may include stun grenades and pepper spray, as well as the firing of warning shots ahead of deadly force.Gunfire is rare at Coleman. Rojas said a fight among inmates more than 15 years ago led to staff members firing shots in the recreation yard. One inmate suffered a gunshot wound and several others were injured when prison officials said they ignored commands, according to reports at the time.The circumstances surrounding Tottleben’s death have baffled his loved ones. Even if his son was violent before his death, the escalation to gunfire is troubling, Dwayne Tottleben said.“When people get into fights in prison, they lose ‘good time’ credit,” he said. “They don’t lose their life.”Tottleben had a tumultuous upbringing, according to friends who wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency last year in his federal sentence.Ford wrote that Tottleben’s father had done time in prison during his childhood.“I feel like he did not really have a chance to learn to be on the right side of the law,” Ford wrote.A grade-school friend of Tottleben’s who previously suffered from drug addiction told the judge, “I have watched him struggle right along with me for most of our lives.”Tottleben was also deeply affected by a police shooting in October 2020, his family said.An Illinois State Police officer struck Tottleben in the back after he was hiding in a car and attempted to surrender, according to a civil rights lawsuit in which he sought $2 million for pain and suffering.The officers said they believed he was armed, but Tottleben’s lawyer, Jason Marx, said only a flashlight was recovered from the car. By late 2023, the suit was settled; the terms were not disclosed.As that litigation unfolded, a federal grand jury indicted Tottleben on the methamphetamine charge in February 2021, but for reasons that are not clear in court records, he was not arrested until May 2023. Separately, he had been serving time in an Illinois prison for burglary. Tottleben said he had “substance abuse and mental health issues” and described those, along with a brain tumor, as causes of his criminal behavior, a federal judge noted in a November 2023 court filing. He said that he’d had that tumor removed and stopped using drugs.In June 2023, a month after his arrest, Tottleben’s mother died from a drug overdose, Ford said.“He’s had hard times, but when I talked to him that morning, he was completely fine,” Ford said of their last conversation Oct. 10. “He did not say that he felt like he was in danger.”Tottleben’s family members have started a GoFundMe to pay for legal support as they “navigate understanding the situation that caused his death.”Robert J. Slama, an attorney representing Tottleben’s family, said he will seek an independent medical examination of his body as they call for “full disclosure and accountability” from the prison.Erik OrtizErik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.Jon SchuppeJon Schuppe is an enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York. Michael Kosnar contributed.
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved