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Central Ohio marks Veterans Day with ceremonies, service events and business discounts
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Veterans Day is being observed across central Ohio with ceremonies, community service events and discounts aimed at honoring those who served.
More than 3,000 flags now cover the lawn at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum, part of a Veterans Day tribute honoring service members and loved ones.
Ohio is home to more than 700,000 veterans and service members. Organizers said each flag planted at the museum represents a loved one and a service member.
The flags were donated by a community member for $25 each as part of a special fundraiser. Organizers said the annual event began with 300 flags and has grown every year since.
A special service at the museum is looking back on America’s 250 years of military service. That is set to begin at 11 a.m.
Other events:
- People can give back at the annual Veterans Day blood drive at Ohio Stadium, running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Oak Grove Cemetery is hosting a ceremony that includes the unveiling of a new memorial.
Several businesses and organizations are offering Veterans Day deals.
- COTA is offering free fares all day to veterans and active service members.
- Piada is offering a free regular-sized entree with protein.
- Bob Evans is offering one free Veterans Day menu item.
- Great Clips is offering veterans and active-duty members free haircuts, or a card to use later.
Some local services are closed or operating on a holiday schedule, including most government offices, the post office and many banks. COTA is also running on a Sunday schedule. Residents are encouraged to check with their local community for additional changes.
Fed’s Goolsbee calls October inflation ‘borderline disturbing’
“It’s another distressing report, borderline disturbing,” Goolsbee said, according to Bloomberg. “We have been hoping to get progress.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in October. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast increases of 0.3% and 0.2%, according to CNBC.
Goolsbee said the effect of tariffs on goods prices should have run its course at this stage, yet it is still being felt. He called services inflation, including health care, “perhaps the most troubling part” and said it is probably not mostly driven by oil prices or tariffs.
“We have got a real inflation issue on our hands that has been developing, and we’re going to have to deal with that,” he said.
Goolsbee said demand tied to the AI data center build-out has added a demand-side push to prices. He said he fears the overheating is spreading into services and other categories, with prices rising far above the Fed’s 2% target. He said the job market has been steady and stable.
Pressed on the prospect of a bigger hike in December, Goolsbee said he would rather not box in policymakers before they sit down to meet.
“I will say it’s literally the biggest table I have ever seen in my life in that room. So everything is always on the table, and we must get inflation back down to target, and it’s going the wrong way at this point,” he said.
Goolsbee is not among the officials holding a vote on policy this year, according to Bloomberg.
The Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.75% to 4% at its October meeting. Its next meeting is Dec. 8-9.
A Remote Island Holds a Major Warning Sign for the Future of Humanity
The word “terraforming” is typically reserved for discussions of other worlds. Sci-fi writers dream up vast galactic empires where humans have bent entire planetary ecosystems to their will while, in the real world, the world’s richest man contemplates a similar future. But on the remote island of Ascension in the South Atlantic, an accidental 180-year-long experiment shows what happens when you terraform our own planet. Some see the story as a small slice of hope for areas around the world facing desertification in the face of climate change, while others see the history of Ascension Island as a warning about humanity’s impact on the natural world.
Around one million years ago, volcanic eruptions along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge pushed the island up out of the Atlantic. It went unseen by humans until 1501, when Portuguese admiral João da Nova came across it. Two years later, Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque found it again on the Christian holiday of Ascension Day, which is how the island got its name. However, neither of these expeditions set up shop on the island, and it wasn’t until 1815 when Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to St. Helena, an island located some 800 miles away, that the United Kingdom finally established a military outpost Ascension to keep tabs on him (a good idea since he’d escaped exile once before).
Some of the most colorful descriptions of Ascension come from naturalists arriving at the island in the decades following British settlement. Among these voices was a young Charles Darwin, who arrived on the island in the summer of 1836 and described it as possessing a “naked hideousness.”
“Those who have beheld a volcanic island, situated within an arid climate, will be able at once to picture to themselves the aspect of Ascension,” Darwin wrote. “To complete this desolate scene, the black rocks on the coast are lashed by a wild and turbulent sea.”
However, a little less than two centuries after this bleak description, the island is now a lush tropical cloud forest filled with eucalyptus, bamboo, banana plants, araucaria, and Cape bramble—all plants from three separate continents. So how did this happen? Well, the short answer is humans, but the slightly longer answer is the work of the British botanist Joseph Hooker. In 1847, Hooker persuaded the Royal Navy to bring plant specimens from the Kew Gardens in London to catch rain, reduce evaporation, and improve soil health, according to El Pais.
The introduction of these plants, along with more humans (who brought with them insects, rats, and cats, in a cyclical parade of invasive species), essentially terraformed the island, turning a once desolate landscape into something more suitable for human habitation.
Some scientists see this history as a possible blueprint for fighting desertification, which is spreading as climate change threatens vulnerable ecosystems. Among them is Victor Maull, who recently finished a Ph.D. at Pompeu Fabra University focused on the island.
“In the laboratory we are working to make minimal models that can explain changes to ecosystems,” Maull said in a press statement. “Normally, we model ecosystems that degrade, but with Ascension we have the opportunity to understand the reverse process and see if we can invert the collapse.”
However, other experts who spoke to El Pais have a different interpretation of Ascension island’s ecological history—one that stresses caution rather than celebration. Although Darwin had little positive to say about the island on his visit, endemic species did live on the roughly 34-square-mile island back then. Today, those native species are being crowded out by invasive plants that now cover almost the entire island. One of those natives, the Ascension Island parsley fern, was thought to be extinct until 2009, when researchers found four plants clinging to a cliff.
“What remains today is an unusual combination of species—bamboo, eucalyptus, ficus and others—that would never have grown or evolved together naturally in an ecosystem,” Tiffany Simpson, director of Conservation and Fisheries for the Ascension Island Government, told El Pais. Because of this mismatch, even some of the invasive plants are struggling to establish roots in the shallow, volcanic soil, causing many trees to topple over during fierce storms.
Whatever one makes of its history, Ascension offers two lessons. It shows that deliberate intervention may help hold back advancing deserts, and it warns of what can be lost when humans reshape a one-of-a-kind ecosystem to suit their own needs, whether on this planet or another.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
Japan Emperor, Empress Meet with Vietnam Leader, Wife
Tokyo, Nov. 11 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako met with Vietnamese leader To Lam and his wife, Ngo Phuong Ly, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Wednesday.
In their 20-minute talks, Emperor Naruhito welcomed the Vietnamese couple’s visit to Japan, saying that it was “extremely meaningful for promoting friendly relations between the two countries.”
The Vietnamese couple invited the Emperor and Empress to visit the Southeast Asian country as state guests.
The Japanese and Vietnamese couples also talked about cultural exchanges between the two countries and music. The Emperor shared a story from his student days about playing a piece by Pyotr Tchaikovsky on the viola alongside Tetsuji Honna, who has served as principal conductor of the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra for many years.
The four had lunch together after the meeting, with Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko joining them.
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako meet with Vietnamese leader To Lam and his wife, Ngo Phuong Ly, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Wednesday. (Pool photo)
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Netanyahu says Israel is not to blame for the flood crisis in Gaza, and other Mideast news
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected accusations that Israel has been delaying the entry of winter supplies into the Gaza Strip as the enclave faces worsening conditions this week, with severe rains flooding makeshift tents.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said a tanker caught fire after hitting a naval mine early on Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz. The British military also reported an incident with a tanker in the contested waterway, but it was not immediately clear if it was the same vessel. And Israel struck Gaza twice today, killing three Palestinians.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Read our full coverage here.
Netanyahu dismisses claims that Israel is blocking supplies to Gaza
Netanyahu said Israel was not to blame for the worsening conditions for Palestinians in Gaza’s tent camps that have been hit with severe winter floods.
His remarks came after the U.S.-created Board of Peace — established under President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas war and oversee Gaza’s recovery — said Monday that Israel’s delaying of the entry of winter supplies into Gaza had “exacerbated the consequences of a foreseeable humanitarian challenge.”
Torrential rain has battered the war-torn enclave in recent days, damaging tens of thousands of makeshift tents. Four people, including three children, were killed on Sunday when a large sandstone slab collapsed onto tents during the rains.
Netanyahu said the Palestinian militant group Hamas is to blame because it continues to refuse to disarm, although the ceasefire deal does not make entry of tents and other aid conditional on disarmament. Netanyahu also accused Hamas of seizing humanitarian aid to use for military purposes, though he did not provide evidence.
“Hamas alone is responsible for the suffering of the people of Gaza, and it is now cynically exploiting that suffering to shift blame onto Israel once again,” he said Tuesday.
The U.N. and other aid groups have more than 150,000 tents ready to enter Gaza, but Israel has not given permission, the U.N. humanitarian office said Sunday. Israel has also not allowed entry for pumps or other equipment to remove floodwaters, the office said.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the situation in Gaza was “intolerable” and demanded Israel end “arbitrary restrictions” on aid. And in Washington, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the top Democrat on the Senate’s foreign spending subcommittee, called for Israel to immediately allow winter gear into Gaza.
“There are a lot of challenges when it comes to Israel and Palestine that are complicated, and fraught, and contentious,” Schatz said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “But we should all be able to agree that repairing torn tents and helping people to dry out, and providing warmth to freezing children is a basic human obligation.”
Iran says a tanker caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said that a tanker caught fire early Wednesday after hitting a naval mine, Iran’s state media reported. It said the tanker was traveling through an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway.
The British military said a tanker was involved in an incident while transiting the strait. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, or UKMTO, did not identify the tanker, and further details of the incident were not immediately available.
The center also said the status of the crew remained unknown. UKMTO is part of the British military tasked with monitoring maritime safety.
Last month, it had said it was “struggling to accurately report” the true number of attacks as the majority of ships now refuse to report them.
It was not immediately clear if the Iranian and UKMTO reports referred to the same incident.
Israeli strikes kill 3 in Gaza City, local health officials say
An Israeli strike on Wednesday morning killed one person in Gaza City, and a second later in the day killed two more people, according to Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted military operatives. It did not provide additional details.
Large-scale fighting has slowed since Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal in October 2025.
However, Israel continues to launch near-daily strikes on the enclave. Israel has killed more than 1,600 Palestinians in Gaza since the deal was reached, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records and is seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants.
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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake sells in huge numbers, becoming the fastest-selling Switch 2 game
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has been a huge success for Nintendo, becoming the fastest-selling Switch 2 game ever, shifting more than 5.2 million copies in four days.
Nintendo announced the sales result this morning in a press release, specifying that the record relates only to Nintendo-published games. But since Nintendo’s games are the most popular Switch 2 games, the fastest-selling-ever title presumably holds.
It’s an incredible result for a game that’s been received with enormous enthusiasm. Christian Donlan awarded The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time five golden stars in Eurogamer’s review, saying: “Alongside great judgement and clever tweaks, this astonishing remake has a proper ace up its sleeve.” We’ve also already seen a jump in US Switch 2 sales because of the game’s release. So much for not launching in November near GTA 6, eh?
This level of success begs the question of whether Nintendo would consider remaking more beloved old Zelda games – or Nintendo games – to replicate this nostalgia-driven effect. Are there other Zelda games that have the pull of Ocarina of Time that haven’t been remade or remastered already in some capacity?
If you’re inspired to pick the game up because of this, or already have it, know that we’ve got a whole proverbial library shelf of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time guides to help you through the game.
The Comeback Of Human Opponents In An AI Gaming World
Artificial intelligence has moved into the opponent’s chair across almost every genre. Bots fill out multiplayer lobbies, adaptive AI adjusts difficulty on the fly, and many card and board games now offer a computer opponent the moment you open them. It is convenient and often very good. Yet the more capable AI opponents become, the more players seem to value something machines cannot fully replicate: knowing there is a real person on the other side.
AI opponents are everywhere, and they work
It would be wrong to dismiss AI opponents. They solve real problems. New players need someone to practise against without being crushed, matchmaking queues need filling at odd hours, and solo players want a challenge without the social pressure of strangers. Research suggests they can even help social play. A 2026 study in Information Systems Research, reported by Tech Xplore, found that after PUBG: Battlegrounds introduced slightly weaker, unlabelled AI opponents, player time rose by about 50 percent and team play with friends rose by 28 percent. Early wins against bots built confidence, and confident players were more willing to join their friends.
That finding points to something important. The bots worked best as a bridge to human play, not a replacement for it.
What humans bring that AI cannot
A human opponent is unpredictable in a way that feels meaningful. They bluff, tilt, get lucky, make mistakes under pressure and occasionally do something brilliant you will talk about for weeks. A win against a person carries social weight. A loss stings in a way a loss to a bot rarely does. And after the match there is someone to shake hands with, trash-talk or queue up with again.
That is why the multiplayer side of gaming remains so strong. Our multiplayer reviews cover everything from party racers to asymmetrical horror games, and the common thread in the best of them is not the mechanics but the people.
Poker shows the paradox
Poker is a useful test case. In 2019 an AI system called Pluribus, built by Carnegie Mellon University and Facebook AI, beat elite professionals at six-player no-limit Texas hold’em, a milestone many people had expected to take much longer. If playing strength were all that mattered, that would have been the end of human poker as a spectator interest. Instead, tournament fields and streamed games have kept their audiences, and solver tools have mostly become study aids that players use away from the table. People did not stop wanting to play each other. They just got better at it.
The rise of human-hosted play
The same pattern shows up outside competitive gaming. Live-streamed game shows, community tournaments and live dealer tables have all grown alongside AI-driven formats rather than being replaced by them. A real host or dealer adds personality, pace and a sense of shared occasion that an animation cannot match.
Casino-style platforms show this clearly. Slots in a lobby of ACE casino games or any similar platform are driven by a random number generator, but many social and sweepstakes lobbies now also include live dealer tables streamed from real studios, where players can see the cards being dealt and chat with the dealer. The outcome still depends on chance, and the dealer is not an opponent in the poker sense, but the human presence changes how the game feels. US availability depends on the state, so eligibility is worth checking.
Transparency matters more than ever
One reason people seek out human opponents is trust. When a lobby mixes bots and players without telling you, it can be hard to know what you are up against. Some players do not mind. Others feel cheated when they discover a hard-won victory came against a script. As AI opponents become more convincing, clear labelling is likely to matter more, not less.
The same goes for any game involving chance. Knowing whether a result comes from a random number generator, a live dealer or another player is basic information, and the best platforms make it obvious.
Both have a place
The future of gaming is not humans versus machines. AI opponents are excellent training partners, reliable fillers and patient teachers. Human opponents provide the stories, rivalries and friendships that keep people coming back for years. The players who get the most out of modern games use both: practise against the AI, then take what they have learned into a lobby full of real people.
Whatever the format, the usual advice applies. Play for the experience, take breaks, and keep any spending on games, especially games of chance, inside limits you set before you start.
Turkey banking regulator head resigns in fund crisis fallout
Turkey’s banking regulator chief, Sahap Kavcioglu, asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to accept his resignation, as a fund-scandal investigation increasingly targets top regulators and financial officials.
“In light of the recent allegations concerning the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency and myself, I asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to relieve me of my duties in order to prevent any further damage to the institution,” Kavcioglu wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether his resignation was accepted.
Kavcioglu has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The regulator, known by its Turkish initials BDDK, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The probe into alleged market manipulation involving investment funds has expanded in recent weeks to politicians and senior financial officials. Those arrested include a deputy chairwoman of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, the chief executive officer of the stock exchange, the former CEO of the securities custodian Takasbank and the BDDK’s deputy chairman.
Also Read | Paraguay bank crisis: How much money is at stake?
The BDDK “has absolutely nothing to do with the fund issue,” Kavcioglu told local media in an interview published before his resignation request on Wednesday. He added that regulator “is one of Turkey’s most respected institutions.”
The fund scandal erupted in mid-September when several high-profile asset managers failed to meet redemption requests, in what the justice minister has termed a “Ponzi-like scheme.” Regulators then ordered the liquidation of 131 funds affecting about half a million investors, while authorities arrested dozens of finance executives.
Kavcioglu, a former central bank governor, has been at the helm of the banking watchdog since 2023.
Diesel still costing close to a ’dismal’ £2 a litre despite oil price falls | Petrol prices
The price of diesel on UK forecourts remains stubbornly close to October’s record high of £2 despite a sharp fall in oil prices.
A litre costs an average of 197p, according to the AA, which described the situation as “dismal”. By contrast, petrol has fallen 6p to 168p from the peak of 174.7p in early October. That was the highest level since August 2022.
High fuel prices are putting huge financial strain on households and businesses and Christopher Waller, a US Federal Reserve governor, told a conference in London this week that energy prices could remain “elevated”.
He said a rise in tanker traffic through the strait of Hormuz came at a price: “The insurance now needed for ships making this passage, and the ship-to-ship transfer of oil necessary to guard against Iranian attacks, are reportedly boosting oil prices by $20 to $30 a barrel.”
Diesel production is also being affected by limited refining capacity and other constraints, Waller said, adding: “As a consequence, elevated prices for diesel in the United States are not expected to moderate as readily as crude oil prices would in a more peaceful Middle East.”
In the UK, the AA said that another 10p reduction could be on the cards for petrol because wholesale costs were falling. The wholesale cost of unleaded fell from 77p a litre to 68p in the second half of October, and now sits below 62p.
As a rule of thumb, each 5p reduction at the pump knocks £2.75 off the cost of filling a typical car’s 55-litre tank.
Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesperson on pump prices, said it was “hit and miss” but already possible to find petrol below 160p in certain areas, based on the government’s fuel finder data.
“London and the south-east stand out for not showing any fuel stations with the bargain petrol prices of northern England, Wales and even Scotland,” he said. “Some forecourts are still charging close to the peak prices of early October and, given how much wholesale costs have fallen since the middle of last month, that is unforgivable.”
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The average diesel price is down only 2p a litre, from the all-time record of £2. With the wholesale cost down around 4p a litre since mid-October a further small reduction at the pump was possible, Bosdet said.