2025-12-13 16:35

Dec 13 (Reuters) - U.S. soft drinks company Coca-Cola's (KO.N) , opens new tab proposed sale of Costa Coffee is at risk of collapsing, with the company holding last-ditch talks this weekend with private equity firm TDR Capital in an effort to salvage the deal, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. TDR was selected as Coca-Cola's preferred bidder earlier this week, but talks have stumbled over the price, the report said, adding that the deal includes the soft drinks giant retaining a minority stake in the British coffee chain. Sign up here. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. TDR declined to comment. Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In August, Coca-Cola was said to be working with investment bank Lazard (LAZ.N) , opens new tab to review options, including a potential sale, of Costa, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Lazard also did not respond to a request for comment. In 2018, Britain's Whitbread Plc sold Costa to Coca-Cola for an enterprise value of $5.1 billion. https://www.reuters.com/business/coca-cola-holds-last-ditch-talks-bid-salvage-costa-coffee-sale-ft-reports-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 12:39

Nobel winner Ales Bialiatski among those released Leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava also freed Trump envoy says US lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash VILNIUS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners on Saturday including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava in a deal brokered by an envoy for U.S. President Donald Trump. In return, the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Potash is a key component in fertilisers, and the former Soviet state is a leading global producer. Sign up here. The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Lukashenko since Trump's administration opened talks this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western governments had previously shunned him because of his crushing of dissent and backing for Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump's envoy John Coale told Reuters that around 1,000 remaining political prisoners in Belarus could be released, hopefully in one big group, in the coming months. "I think it’s more than possible that we can do that, I think it’s probable... We are on the right track, the momentum is there," he said. If no political prisoners remained, most of the sanctions could be removed. "I think it's a fair trade," Coale added. BIALIATSKI SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS STRUGGLE WILL GO ON Nine of the released prisoners left Belarus for Lithuania and 114 were taken to Ukraine, officials said. Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, is a human rights campaigner who fought for years on behalf of political prisoners before becoming one himself. He had been in jail since July 2021. Visibly aged since he was last seen in public, he smiled broadly as he embraced exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on arrival at the U.S. embassy in Lithuania. Bialiatski told Reuters he had spent the previous night on a prison bunk in a room with nearly 40 people, and was still getting to grips with the idea of being free. He said the goals of the human rights struggle for which he and his fellow-campaigners had won the Nobel prize had still not been realised. "Thousands of people have been and continue to be imprisoned ... So our struggle continues," he said in his first public comments in the three years since he won the award. The Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed "profound relief and heartfelt joy" at his release. Kalesnikava, a leader of mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020, was among the large group taken by bus to Ukraine. "Of course, it's a feeling of incredible happiness first of all: to see with your eyes the people who are dear to you, to hug them, and understand that now we are all free people. It's a great joy to see my first free sunset," she said in video published by the Ukrainian Telegram channel Khochu Zhit. It showed her embracing Viktar Babaryka, an opposition politician arrested in 2020 while preparing to run against Lukashenko in an election. Babaryka said his son Eduard was still in prison in Belarus. Tatsiana Khomich, Kalesnikava's sister, told Reuters she had been worried she might refuse to leave Belarus and had been prepared to try to persuade her. "I very much look forward to hugging Maria... the last five years was very hard for us, but now I talked to her (by phone) and I feel as if the five years did not happen," she said. US DIPLOMACY AIMS AT DECOUPLING LUKASHENKO FROM PUTIN U.S. officials have told Reuters that engaging with Lukashenko is part of an effort to peel him away from Putin's influence, at least to a degree - an effort that the Belarus opposition, until now, has viewed with extreme scepticism. The U.S. and the European Union imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Belarus after Minsk launched a violent crackdown on protesters following a disputed election in 2020, jailing nearly all opponents of Lukashenko who did not flee abroad. Sanctions were tightened after Lukashenko allowed Belarus to serve as a staging ground for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The exiled Belarusian opposition expressed gratitude to Trump and said the fact that Lukashenko had agreed to release prisoners in return for the concessions on potash was proof of the effectiveness of sanctions. The opposition has consistently said it sees Trump's outreach to Lukashenko as a humanitarian effort, but that EU sanctions should stay in place. "U.S. sanctions are about people. EU sanctions are about systemic change — stopping the war, enabling democratic transition, and ensuring accountability. These approaches do not contradict each other; they complement each other," exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said. Lukashenko has previously denied there are political prisoners in Belarus and described the people in question as "bandits". As recently as August, he asked why he should free people he sees as opponents of the state who might "again wage war against us". Trump has referred to Lukashenko as "the highly respected president of Belarus", a description that jars with the opposition who see him as a dictator. He has urged him to free up to 1,300 or 1,400 prisoners whom Trump has described as "hostages". "The United States stands ready for additional engagement with Belarus that advances U.S. interests and will continue to pursue diplomatic efforts to free remaining political prisoners in Belarus," the U.S. embassy in Lithuania said. Belarusian human rights group Viasna - which is designated by Minsk as an extremist organisation - put the number of political prisoners at 1,227 on the eve of Saturday's releases. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-lifts-sanctions-belarusian-potash-state-media-cite-trump-envoy-saying-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 11:32

KYIV, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa and the surrounding region suffered major blackouts on Saturday after a large overnight Russian attack on the power grid that left more than a million households without power. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. Sign up here. "The brunt of the attack was on our energy system, on the south and Odesa region," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, adding that thousands of families in seven regions across Ukraine were left without power. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was one of the war's largest attacks on Odesa, where supplies of electricity and water had been knocked out. She said supplies of non-drinking water were being brought in to areas of the city. Ukraine's interior minister Ihor Klymenko said more than a million households across Ukraine had been left without power and five people had been wounded as a result of the attack. Ukraine's power grid operator said a "significant number" of households were without power in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and that the Ukrainian-controlled part of the frontline Kherson region was totally without power. Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy system since its 2022 invasion, causing hours of daily blackouts countrywide. Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday it had conducted strikes on Ukrainian energy and military-industrial facilities. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraines-odesa-suffers-major-blackouts-after-russian-attack-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 11:05

Chicago student journalists use data tools to document immigration arrests College journalists verify immigration agent sightings with photos, eyewitness accounts On immigration, collaboration trumps scoops as priority for some journalists CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The windowless newsroom of The Phoenix, the Loyola University Chicago newspaper, hums like an old refrigerator. A coffee pot burbles in the corner as juniors Julia Pentasuglio and Ella Daugherty lean over a glowing laptop, updating a Google map. Each red pin marks a sighting of federal immigration agents near campus and the surrounding neighborhoods. Sign up here. Nearby, editor-in-chief Lilli Malone scrolls through reports from Rogers Park, a neighborhood along Chicago's lakefront where 80 languages mix. There were new pins from seven sightings that day alone - reports of vans barreling down side streets, masked immigration officers drawing guns, students watching from on-campus dorm windows as neighbors were taken away. The young student journalists normally cover dorm-room Thanksgiving recipes and local Christmas tree lightings, but find themselves with a new role under Donald Trump's presidency: documenting immigration raids. Their goal: counter online rumor with facts and give locals a map of frequently targeted areas as panic spread in recent months over who might be picked up by immigration agents next. Student and veteran journalists say that college newsrooms, independent media and legacy outlets across Chicago are now working together in ways that upend decades of cutthroat competition, building tools to track enforcement and collaborating on information. Since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has ordered aggressive immigration sweeps in cities with large foreign-born communities, including Chicago, to make good on a campaign promise to deport people living in the U.S. illegally. TRANSLATING RUMOR INTO FACT Weeks after Loyola students began classes this fall, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched its Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago in early September, deploying Border Patrol agents armed with high-powered weapons and tear gas. Local officials objected, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called the blitz "unlawful and unwarranted" , opens new tab and a new state law now allows Illinois residents to sue federal immigration agents if they believe their civil rights have been violated. DHS said it is targeting violent criminals putting Americans at risk, and that it has arrested more than 4,300 people as part of the operation. "Our efforts remain ongoing, we aren’t leaving Chicago," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. Fear had already been building on campus before the operation started. A man from the U.S. Census Bureau walked into a dorm months earlier, Malone and Pentasuglio said, prompting false rumors that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrived. Students flooded The Phoenix staff with questions about whether the rumors were true. Some had reason to be worried. Loyola has long welcomed immigrants without legal status in the U.S., including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students who came to the U.S. as children, particularly in its medical school — a point of pride at a Jesuit university built on a mission of social justice. “People were scared, and they needed someone to verify what was real,” Malone said. Loyola University officials did not respond to requests for comment. So in early October, Malone and Pentasuglio, The Phoenix's managing editor, opened a blank Google Map , opens new tab and began dropping pins — each confirmed through photos, timestamped videos or multiple witnesses, they said. The pins gave students and nearby residents a place to check rumor against fact — to see which sightings had been verified, and to understand where agents had clustered in recent days so they could better gauge which areas might carry risk. Notes are attached to each pin - October 12: Multiple armed agents were spotted at the 1200 block of West North Shore Avenue midday. October 21: An arrest was reported at the North Lincoln Avenue Home Depot at 9:58 a.m. A DHS spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that U.S. Border Patrol conducted enforcement operations and made arrests at these locations on those dates. At the University of Chicago, deputy editor-in-chief Elena Eisenstadt says the college newspaper, The Maroon, built its Datawrapper tracker after reports lit up on social media outlets like Sidechat, a student app where users can chat anonymously. “It felt like a wave,” she said. “When everyone is talking about something like that, you have to do something.” At DePaul University, the managing editor of the DePaulia campus newspaper, Jake Cox, and other staff leaned on the social media accounts of students and others for tips when ICE's presence near its Lincoln Park campus spiked. At the Block Club Chicago nonprofit news group where he interns, Cox built an ICE WhatsApp channel — a platform widely used by immigrant Chicagoans - where nearly 3,200 followers receive a steady stream of immigration stories, agent sightings and "Know Your Rights" links. SOME JOURNALISTS PRIORITIZE COLLABORATION The students are joining a broader wave of local mobilization against ICE across Chicago that has included cyclists trailing unmarked vans through alleys, parents forming checkpoints outside elementary schools and Pilates students shouting at agents pulling people into SUVs while neighbors film. For months, local reporters covering immigration enforcement in Chicago have also been sharing story leads, safety tips and source contacts with competitors through encrypted communication systems, said Maira Khwaja, public impact strategy director at the Invisible Institute, an independent, local journalism nonprofit. The story has become too big, she said, and there are simply too few journalists to cover it. “More of us is better.” At The Phoenix, when staff get a tip outside their coverage area, they said they help get the information to other papers. At the city's biggest newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, senior editor Erika Slife says she grew up in the old scoop culture but that the current journalistic landscape has sometimes led to collaboration across outlets. For example, after U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino left Chicago on November 13 and headed for Charlotte, North Carolina, reporters from The Charlotte Observer newspaper contacted Tribune staff the next day for insight and what to expect, said Tribune investigative reporter Gregory Royal Pratt. Pratt and several co-workers quickly got onto a video conference call with the North Carolina reporters, he said, and shared what worked for them - from lining up safety equipment, to following helicopter traffic and vetting government information for accuracy. “It still feels good to be first,” said Slife, who leads the paper's immigration coverage. Now she tells her reporters, "it’s more important to be right. We may not always be first, but we'll do it best." https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/pins-map-how-chicago-students-are-tracking-ice-raids-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 09:46

Farmers protest against government's culling policy Vaccination aims to protect farmers and cattle exports, minister says Protests block A64 motorway south of Toulouse since Friday PARIS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - France will vaccinate 1 million head of cattle in coming weeks against lumpy skin disease, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said on Saturday, as farmers blocked highways and dumped manure near public buildings to protest against culls of herds. Several outbreaks of the highly contagious disease prompted authorities to order large-scale culls, sparking demonstrations by farmers who consider the measure excessive. Sign up here. A new outbreak was detected in the Haute-Garonne department, bordering Spain, Genevard confirmed on Saturday. Lumpy skin disease is a virus spread by insects that affects cattle and buffalo, causing blisters and reducing milk production. While not harmful to humans, it often results in trade restrictions and severe economic losses. "We will vaccinate nearly one million animals in the coming weeks and protect farmers. I want to reiterate that the state will stand by affected farmers, their losses will be compensated as well as their operating losses," Genevard told local radio network ICI. France says that total culling of infected herds, alongside vaccination and movement restrictions, is necessary to contain the disease and allow cattle exports. If the disease continues to spread in livestock farms, it could kill "at the very least, 1.5 million cattle", Genevard told Le Parisien daily in a previous interview. Farmers stepped up protests on Saturday, blocking several toll entrances and exits on the A64 motorway in the southwestern departement Hautes-Pyrenees, local authorities said. Protesters have also dumped manure near government buildings in Tarbes, the department’s administrative capital, disrupting the work of officials implementing the vaccination campaign, they said. The government, backed by the main FNSEA farming union, maintains that total culling of infected herds is necessary to prevent the disease from spreading and triggering export bans that would devastate the sector. But the Coordination Rurale, a rival union, opposes the systematic culling approach, calling instead for targeted measures and quarantine protocols. "There is no question of culling animals in the Pyrenees that are not sick and are healthy, simply because they belong to a herd from which a supposedly sick animal came,” said Leon Thierry, co-president of CR in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques. Genevard said vaccination would be mandatory, and complete culling remains necessary in some cases because the disease can be asymptomatic and undetectable. France detected 110 outbreaks across nine departments and culled about 3,000 animals, according to the Agriculture Ministry. It has paid nearly six million euros to farmers since the first outbreak on June 29. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/france-vaccinate-cattle-lumpy-skin-disease-farmers-protest-against-cull-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 09:35

Dec 13 (Reuters) - Iran raised the price of its subsidized gasoline for most users on Saturday, a government spokesperson said, as the OPEC member seeks to control rising fuel demand without triggering public anger. The increase in Iran's gasoline price, which is among the lowest in the world, had long been postponed amid concerns it could spark a repeat of widespread protests seen in 2019 that were crushed by the state. Sign up here. Starting on Saturday, most vehicles except ambulances must purchase fuel at a higher rate of 50,000 rials per litre (4 U.S. cents under the free-market rate), government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on state TV. The higher rate will target consumers requiring more than 160 litres per month, state television reported on Friday. Other drivers can still buy up to 60 litres at 15,000 rials per litre and an additional 100 litres at 30,000 rials per litre. Mohajerani said the increase aims to control fuel consumption and combat smuggling. Taxi quotas remain unchanged, said Mohajerani. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iran-raises-fuel-prices-heavy-users-curb-consumption-smuggling-2025-12-13/