November 17, 2025 – News Briefs

The small return to Morro Bay!

Sometimes nature creates moments that begin so quietly you almost miss them - and yet they stay with you for a long time. In Morro Bay on the central coast of California, a tiny sea otter experienced this kind of good fortune. The pup, affectionately called Caterpillar by the rescuers, had been separated from its mother, alone in the cold water, helpless and with a cry that sounded more like a human child than a marine animal. For two hours the staff members of the Marine Mammal Center searched for the mother. They kept hearing the high, urgent calls of the little one, recorded them and played them for the presumed mother - because for sea otters, vocalizations reveal who belongs together. Eventually she appeared, swam decisively toward the tiny body and pulled it close as if she had not hesitated for a single second. For the rescuers it was a moment that brought tears to their eyes.

Caterpillar and its mother then remained under observation for another hour, clinging tightly to each other like a pair that had finally been reunited. For the team this reunion means more than a single rescued pup. Southern sea otters are a threatened species - every surviving animal counts. And on this day Morro Bay returned a small piece of hope.

This is not how you solve problems!

Donald Trump stood visibly irritated in front of the reporters on Sunday evening. When asked about the new revelations in the Epstein files, he deflected, attacked and redirected - a familiar pattern. “I don’t want to talk about it because fake news like you just keeps bringing it up to deflect from the tremendous success of the Trump administration,” he said, as if he wanted to bury the past and stifle every follow-up question with a single sentence. As an aside, the success of the Trump administration is more than debatable.

But this evasion is exactly where the problem lies. Anyone who is sure of their own story answers questions. Anyone who fears transparency attacks those who demand it. Trump’s involuntary accusation toward the media therefore appears less like a defense than like an attempt to fill the room with noise before further details become public.

The Epstein file does not disappear just because a president closes his eyes to it. And questions that are not answered eventually arise on their own.

A cautious truce between Trump and Mamdani!

Donald Trump surprised on Sunday evening with an announcement that would have seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago: He said he wanted to meet with New York’s future mayor Zohran Mamdani and “work something out.” The two men who had spent months building each other up as political adversaries are suddenly talking about a willingness to engage. Trump had repeatedly disparaged Mamdani during the campaign, falsely labeling him a “communist,” predicting the downfall of New York, and even hinting that he could strip the Uganda-born, long since naturalized American of his citizenship. Mamdani, in turn, had become the face of the resistance against Trump’s second term – a senator from Queens who defeated Cuomo and campaigned forcefully against the president’s deportation policies and anti-immigrant agenda.

Yet after his election victory, Mamdani showed another side: he wanted to make New York “Trump-proof,” but said he was ready to talk to anyone if it helps the city. Trump is now seizing on precisely that statement. “The mayor of New York wants to meet. We will work something out,” he said in Florida before flying back to Washington. The White House later confirmed that he was referring to Mamdani. What this meeting might bring remains uncertain. But the signal is unmistakable: both sides know how important a functioning line of communication between Washington and New York is. And both recognize that political confrontation may draw attention – but it does not repair streets, lower rents or make a city safer. On the side, Trump noted that the United States might soon speak with Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. “I talk to anyone,” he said. A sentence that suddenly carries more weight in Mamdani’s case than it usually does.