Category: World

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a defence industry museum displaying an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States, state media KCNA showed on ​Tuesday.
The report came a day after US President Donald Trump said he might meet Kim during ​a planned trip to Asia. Trump is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic ⁠Cooperation summit in China in mid-November.

Kim, accompanied by his daughter known as Ju Ae and wife ​Ri Sol Ju, attended the opening of the newly opened Defence Revolution Museum on Sunday, KCNA said.

The museum ​displayed weaponry developed under Kim’s leadership ranging from drones to the Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), KCNA photographs showed.
A display in front of the Hwasong-20 launcher appeared to show a multiple warhead design and a world map depicting ranges extending beyond ​the US mainland to the Middle East, Australia and South America, said Shin Jong-woo, Secretary General ​of the Korea Defence and Security Forum.
“The exhibition appears intended to highlight the achievements of Kim’s defence science development programme,” ‌Shin ⁠said. “It gave the impression of propaganda aimed at gaining a strategic advantage ahead of potential a North Korea-US summit.”

Analysts said the museum also reflected a broader effort by Kim to elevate North Korea’s weapons displays into lasting symbols of the regime’s military accomplishments.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-test-fires-tactical-ballistic-missile-kcna-says-2026-10-12/

President Zelenskyy condemned Moscow’s actions as indicative of its refusal to honor the truce suggested by the US

Ukraine has accused Russia of violating a proposed energy ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump after Russian airstrikes hit at least six energy-related targets across the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks showed Moscow had no intention of observing the truce, which Trump announced over the weekend without confirmation from either side.

“It is increasingly evident that Russia is unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire proposed by the United States and intends to continue its terrorist air attacks against our people and communities,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “This is what happens when Russia sees the prospect of higher revenues for its war machine,” he added.

In remarks delivered by video link to a conference in Poland, Zelenskyy identified a gas facility and a petrol station among the targets hit by Russian drones.

The latest attacks came as Ukraine’s European allies expressed scepticism about the proposed ceasefire and reaffirmed their support for Kyiv. On Monday, the European Union also approved a new package of sanctions against Russia, adding 1,569 individuals and businesses to its list of restricted entities and people.

THE family of a pregnant woman found dead in her apartment believe allegations of a police cover-up could hinge on the discovery of a broken necklace that was initially dismissed by investigators.

The federal murder trial of former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell began this week, with prosecutors accusing him of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and staging her death as a suicide.

Birchmore, who was 10 weeks pregnant, was found dead in her Canton, Massachusetts, apartment on February 1, 2021.

Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but an FBI investigation later led to Farwell being charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

Her devastated family are now praying for justice after a campaign to overturn the suicide ruling and trigger a federal investigation proved successful.

Barbara Wright, Birchmore’s late mother’s cousin, has led that campaign.

She told The U.S. Sun that a potentially crucial piece of evidence was discovered by family friends while cleaning out the apartment.

“That was her favorite necklace,” Wright said. “She got that from her grandmother. She wore it every day. She loved that necklace.

“They were insisting it was a suicide and when my family asked why it was missed out initially, they thought that it was because in suicides, a lot of times at the end they change their minds and maybe she changed her mind, was trying to get the ligature off and pulled it off her own neck.

“I don’t think she would do that. She wouldn’t break that necklace. It meant too much to her.”

According to the FBI indictment documents, Birchmore, who worked as a substitute teacher, habitually wore a thin gold chain with a pink flamingo charm.

Canton Police officers and State Police troopers found her body seated on her bedroom floor, with a US. Army ACU-pattern duffel bag strap tied tightly around her neck and secured to the closet doorknob.

Crime-scene photographs showed the necklace broken, with the chain hanging down the left side of her neck beneath the duffle-bag strap while the charm lay on her right abdomen.

But family members later found the necklace on her bedroom floor while cleaning out her apartment and observed that the chain had broken in the middle rather than at the clasp.

A large clump of Birchmore’s hair was also reportedly embedded in the broken links.

Independent forensic expert Dr. William Smock concluded that the broken chain and entangled hair were physical evidence consistent with a violent struggle during an assault.

Wright said the condition of the necklace, combined with the hair found caught in the links, was difficult for the family to reconcile with the original suicide ruling.

“It shows a sign of a struggle,” Wright added. “The federal prosecutors described the ligature as being painfully entangled in her hair. Nobody does that when there is suicide.

“They don’t painfully entangle a ligature in their own hair. None of it makes sense to me. It doesn’t add up.”

The necklace is one of several physical findings that Smock has cited in challenging the original determination.

The autopsy documented a fracture to the right superior horn of Birchmore’s hyoid bone.

Smock placed particular emphasis on the circumstances in which her body was found: seated on the floor with a ligature around her neck, representing an incomplete hanging in which only part of the body’s weight is applied to the neck.

After reviewing hundreds of seated-hanging cases described in forensic medical literature, Smock said he found no reported examples of a hyoid fracture in a seated woman.

He concluded that the injury was more consistent with manual strangulation or a full-suspension hanging than with a seated suicide.

Additional injuries documented in the autopsy included a distinct imprint on Birchmore’s upper right chest.

According to Smock, the pattern corresponded to a buckle on the strap and indicated that the buckle had been forced downward against her body, producing blunt-force trauma.

Although first responders reportedly found the buckle near her ear, Smock cited the corresponding imprint on the chest as evidence of an injury sustained during the incident.

Autopsy photographs also showed abrasions and areas of missing skin on the lower and lateral portions of Birchmore’s nose.

Smock interpreted the injuries as consistent with a victim struggling to breathe during suffocation.

Taken together, Smock said the broken necklace containing Birchmore’s hair, the hyoid fracture, the chest-buckle imprint and the nasal abrasions supported his conclusion that Birchmore died from asphyxia and that her death was homicide.

His assessment directly contradicted the initial determination of suicide and is expected to feature prominently in the prosecution’s case over the circumstances of Birchmore’s death.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17120133/sandra-birchmore-matthew-farwell-murder-trial-necklace/

AT least four people have been killed and thousands left without power after a violent hurricane ripped through the Gulf Coast.

Florida has been drenched in heavy rains and battered by gusts of up to 105mph as Hurricane Isaias barrelled along the coast near Destin.

The monster storm slammed into the sunshine state at around 8.30pm on Friday and has continued to wreak havoc along the coastline.

Trees have been ripped from their roots and cars hurled through the air in a weekend of weather hell.

One woman was crushed to death after a tree collapsed onto her home on Saturday morning, confirmed Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

Her husband Joey Williams told NewsNation the pair had gone outside to take photos of the damage but when they went back inside the tree smashed through their roof and trapped them.

He said: “I was able to squeeze out. My wife didn’t make it.”

Another was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning after operating a generator indoors – with four others hospitalised in the same home.

At least 440,000 people were left without power in Florida on Saturday night as the hurricane knocked out power cables.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents to “be careful out there”.

He said: “Downed power lines, standing water, any of that can be very, very hazardous.

“Don’t run any generators inside your home or inside your garage.”

In Birmingham, Alabama, a second woman was trapped under a tree and a further two people were killed in the storms.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17128248/hurricane-isaias-kills-gulf-coast/

A New York City public school teacher crashed a Manhattan vigil last week honoring victims of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, alongside other protesters who cheered on Hamas and chanted violent messages such as “globalize the intifada,” The Post has learned.

Mia Kurzer, a special education teacher at The Heritage School in East Harlem, was among the protesters videotaped at the event in Union Square, where some carried flags of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Education and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.

A Jewish activist and educator who filed the complaint is demanding Kurzer be investigated for creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty at her school.

“Last night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators overran an October 7 vigil in Union Square organized by Israelis for Peace, drowned out the reading of the names of people killed, and took over chairs reserved for participants, including Comptroller Brad Lander and Mayor Zohran Mamdani,” Moshe Spern wrote in his formal Oct. 8 complaint.

“Video from the event shows Ms. Kurzer among those occupying those seats while mourners were being shouted down. Chants reported at the scene included ‘[globalize] the intifada’ and praise for the attackers.”

Spern said he had video evidence that the teacher was at the event.

“She was comfortable sitting among the Hamas flags and Hamas chants,” he told The Post Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Kurzer came to school wearing a keffiyeh, Spern’s complaint alleged.

“That choice made staff and students uncomfortable and signaled political activism inside a New York City public school,” he said.

Spern also complained that the Department of Education ignored a prior complaint he made about Kurzer attending protests outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

“A year ago I notified you that Ms. Kurzer participated in both protests outside Park East Synagogue on November 19, 2025, and May 2026, at which demonstrators chanted ‘intifada revolution,’ ‘globalize the intifada,’ and ‘death to the IDF,’ and Jewish congregants were obstructed from entering their house of worship,” Spern told the chancellor.

“Those demonstrations were widely condemned, including by Governor Hochul, as intimidation of Jewish New Yorkers at a synagogue led by a Holocaust survivor.”

The Jewish educator argued that the sum of Kurzer’s actions shows a pattern of hostility towards Israel and Jews.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/11/us-news/nyc-teacher-disrupts-vigil-for-victims-of-october-7-hamas-massacre/

The Democratic Socialists of America are demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire police Commissioner Jessica Tisch following a controversial shooting by ICE agents in the Bronx last week.

In a scathing online statement, the DSA called on its most high-profile member to get rid of the city’s top cop and disband two elite NYPD units.

“We demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and use every power available to him to drive ICE out of New York City,” it said. “

They demanded that the city abolish police strategic response and community response teams.

The lefty organization cried foul after federal immigration agents surrounded suspected gangbanger Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill on Thursday and fired multiple shots into his car, wounding him in the neck while his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat.

Tisch said at a press briefing hours later that the NYPD was not involved in the operation, but reported that Belgal, a reputed member of the Trinitarios street gang, had a troubling criminal history that included robbery and drug distribution raps.

DSA Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier called for Tisch to resign the day after the shooting, accusing her of protecting a “militia” of armed ICE thugs.

Chevalier also said during an interview with lefty streamer Hasan Piker that Belgal’s rap sheet “doesn’t even matter,” and accused the NYPD of villainizing the Dominican immigrant.

Mamdani, appearing Sunday on MS Now, was asked about Avila Chevalier’s comments but did not change course on his plans to keep her on the job despite pledging to investigate the police response to the shooting and ensuing protests.

“The NYPD was not at the scene when the incident took place when the incident took place, when ICE shot at Mr. Belgal and his 5-year-old son in the car.”

The NYPD received a 911, arrived at the scene and took Belgal to a local hospital, he said.

“What I will be doing with the police commissioner is a review of that entire 24 period,” Mamdani said.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/11/us-news/dsa-demands-mamdani-fire-nypd-boss-tisch-as-socialists-turn-on-mayor-over-ice-shooting/

US President Donald Trump is facing a growing backlash over plans to import diesel from Russia as the Iran war continues to impact global energy prices.

Trump on Friday announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately “to the American and global marketplace” followed by several other shipments.

That is despite signing legislation to authorise fresh US sanctions and tariffs on nations that import Russian oil and gas just weeks ago.

The move has been criticised by some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who believe the deal violates US laws.

As well as the initial release of 300,000 tonnes of diesel, Trump said Russia would then supply 500,000 tonnes in November and one million more after that.

This would be followed by a further three million tonnes, which would be delivered “within a short period” dependent on the condition of its refineries, which have been attacked by Ukraine during the ongoing war between the two countries.

“Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed these numbers to Tass, the country’s state-owned news agency, saying the export volume could reach three million tonnes per month in future.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the deal a gift to Putin that amounts to “an investment in a war that must be ended”.

It is understood the US Treasury is suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April as part of the deal, but other assets like those in American banks are still frozen.

A group of seven senators – four Republicans and three Democrats – on Sunday said the deal violated US laws, urging Trump to “reverse course”.

“The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians,” the lawmakers said.

They added that Congress had “explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars from financing Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine”.

The statement was signed by Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and John Curtis, as well as Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden.

Not everyone is opposed to the deal. Republican Thomas Massie, who has sparred with Trump a number of issues, said the US should lift sanctions on all petroleum products.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News the agreement would work through existing legal channels the US has to help bring prices down and that anyone in Congress who said it would not was wrong.

Global fuel prices have soared since the US-Israel war with Iran began at the end of February, with the fighting severely disrupting supplies of crude oil – a key ingredient in petrol and diesel.

The rising prices have become a key issue for Americans ahead of next month’s midterms elections, which will determine if Trump’s Republican Party maintains control of Congress.

Polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy and the war in Iran and he has been searching for ways to ease his party’s political pain.

The toll the war is taking has been acutely felt by US agricultural states, which rely heavily on diesel to operate farming machinery and to transport their products to market.

The average diesel price in the US is currently $6.28 (£4.74) a gallon, according to the AAA, down from the record high of $6.53 recorded at the end of September.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjn5v21py07vo

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a man accused of plotting an assassination attack against him and his defence minister has been detained.

The interior ministry earlier reported that police had received credible information about possible attacks against Tusk and Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz.

Polish security services convened a special meeting on Sunday after receiving information about the planned attacks, with a spokesman saying officials were treating the threat as “deadly serious”.

Tusk thanked the police for “swift and decisive action” in arresting the suspect.

The suspect was arrested in the Lower Silesia region and was a Polish national, Jacek Dobrzynski, a spokesman for the Special Services Co-ordinator told local media.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6n9rvynl5p5o

Pope Leo XIV has announced he will be operated on “in the coming days” after a nodule was found on his lung during a medical check-up.

“The doctors found an early, well-localised nodule on my lung,” he told the public during his weekly Sunday prayers in St Peter’s Square in Rome.

The 71-year-old said his medical team “believe it would be right to intervene” and he had agreed to the operation, while reassuring pilgrims that the mass was “well-contained” and caught “at an early stage”.

The pontiff’s admission that he would need surgery comes nearly a year-and-a-half after he succeeded the late Pope Francis, who also experienced issues with his lungs that required hospital treatment.

Leo concluded his Angelus prayer by thanking everyone for their “spiritual closeness” and said he entrusted himself to their prayers.

Holy See Press Office spokesman Matteo Bruni told the media that “the operation is scheduled for the first days of next week”.

He added that the Pope is expected to take about a week to recover.

Vatican News, the Holy See’s news portal, said the operation will take place at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

The hospital set up a special Papal suite following the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life in May 1981, which is still in use today.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “personal solidarity” with the Pope as he “faces the ordeal ahead in the coming days”.

Her sentiments were echoed by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who offered his “sincerest wishes for a peaceful recovery and a speedy and full return to health”.

Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, also wished the pontiff “a full and speedy recovery”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6m2dnngvw8xo

Pakistan has authorised the deployment of army troops in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Article 245 after imposing emergency and governor’s rule in the PTI-ruled province.

Pakistan has formally authorised the deployment of Army troops and resources in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Article 245 following the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in the province.

According to top security sources, the plan to impose emergency, introduce governor’s rule and deploy troops was allegedly planned by Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir.

The sources claimed that Imran Khan’s PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been opposing and challenging Asim Munir’s writ in the province.

The sources further claimed that Pakistan wants absolute control over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s mines and minerals. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and the PTI government had allegedly opposed the Pakistan military’s direct involvement in matters related to mines and minerals and their legislation.

With emergency and governor’s rule now in place, the Pakistan military could have greater control over affairs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the sources claimed.

The federal government has formally authorised the deployment of Pakistan Army troops under Article 245. The troops will assist the KP civil administration in maintaining law and order and protecting citizens.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/pakistan-authorises-army-deployment-in-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-after-emergency-governors-rule-exclusive-ws-l-10377222.html

US President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement of an energy ​ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday that he said was “effective immediately”, but Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was still waiting to see details of the deal.
There was no ‌word from Moscow on the ceasefire announcement, which followed days of intense pressure from Trump for Ukraine to halt its attacks on Russian oil refineries. He blames those strikes for a rise in diesel prices that is hurting his Republican Party ahead of US midterm elections next month.

In a dramatic deterioration in relations, Trump on Saturday warned Zelenskiy that he had “better damn well stop” attacking Russian refineries, and urged Ukrainians to replace their leader at new elections. Trump said Zelenskiy had missed several opportunities to strike a ​deal with Moscow.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump unexpectedly announced that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to an energy ceasefire, but did not elaborate further.
“Effective immediately, there is ​an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote.

RISING GLOBAL FUEL PRICES

Trump, whose war in Iran ⁠has been widely blamed for hiking global fuel prices, had previously announced an energy ceasefire in Ukraine in mid-September, although neither side ever confirmed that such an agreement had been reached.
A person familiar with the situation said ​the US had threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine as well as weapons procurement under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) system, as it pressed Kyiv to halt strikes on Russian energy sites. The US threats were ​earlier reported by the Financial Times.
The person added that Zelenskiy was speaking to European leaders about de-escalating the situation with Trump.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zelenskiy said he had discussed Trump’s ceasefire announcement with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

“Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well. We are awaiting details from the American side,” he said on Telegram.
Speaking in his nightly video address, ​Zelenskiy said Russian forces were still launching air attacks on energy infrastructure, including a strike on a joint heating and power plant in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. A Ukrainian official confirmed the attack had taken place after ​Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire.
Hours earlier, Zelenskiy had pushed back against US pressure for a unilateral end to Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, repeating his long-standing position that he was willing to do so only if President Vladimir Putin suspended ‌Russian strikes on ⁠Ukrainian power infrastructure.

PROMISE OF ELECTIONS

Trump also called for elections in Ukraine, suspended since the 2022 Russian invasion, to which Zelenskiy responded that he would call a vote if Putin agreed to a 60-day ceasefire.
Zelenskiy said it was “up to Ukrainians” to choose their leader, but added that there needed to be an end to the fighting first. Ukrainian law prohibits elections under martial law for security reasons.
“Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organise elections,” Zelenskiy said.
The Ukrainian leader rejected that he was to blame for energy price rises, adding that “everybody in the world” knew that the war in the Middle East was a ​bigger factor.
The steep rise in global diesel prices, which ​followed the outbreak of the Iran war in ⁠February, has become a political liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of the midterms, when opposition Democrats could gain control of one or both houses of Congress.
On Saturday, Zelenskiy responded angrily to Trump’s announcement of a diesel supply deal with Russia, saying it would embolden Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine and cost more lives.
Under terms of ​the deal as described by Trump on Friday, Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel to US and global markets, equal to ​about 2.25 million barrels of ⁠fuel. The US exports about 1.5 million barrels of diesel per day.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-will-halt-strikes-refineries-if-russia-stops-energy-attacks-zelenskiy-2026-10-11/

One person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a new attack ​Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, Saudi authorities reported, a day after a strike claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
Saudi-led coalition forces in ‌Yemen said an unidentified projectile had targeted Riyadh’s international airport Terminal 4 on Sunday, causing a fire. Eleven people were wounded in addition to the fatality, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.

Coalition forces also said Saudi air defences had intercepted a cruise missile in the vicinity of King Khalid International Airport. They later added that a drone had been intercepted and destroyed in the country’s Eastern Province, and a ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait had been intercepted. Emergency alerts were also issued in Abha, in the ​south, early on Monday but the danger had since passed, the Saudi Civil Defense said.
The strikes have exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi defence capabilities as the kingdom wages an air campaign against the Houthis, ​who are fighting a ground war in Yemen against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Footage released by Saudi state television of the Saturday attack on the Riyadh airport showed scores ⁠of religious pilgrims lined up at a gate as they prepared to travel to Islam’s two holiest sites. A bright orange flash sent people running in panic, while parts of the roof appeared to cave in.
The ​airport was closed after the attack, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.

HOUTHIS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR OTHER ATTACKS

In a televised speech on Sunday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack and said ​the group had also struck the airport in Dammam in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and two facilities of Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco (2222.SE).

The Saudi government’s media office and Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.
The Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed the strike on Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport late on Sunday, adding that “damage assessments and safety inspections of airport facilities are under way.”

An eyewitness aboard a taxiing aircraft at Dammam told Reuters that around 8:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Sunday, they saw a projectile strike ​the tarmac beside several parked aircraft, causing a fire. The witness said the aircraft returned to the gate. Passengers disembarked and were told to leave.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed several delays and cancellations on Sunday for arrivals and ​departures at Dammam airport, the kingdom’s third-largest.
The Houthis earlier on Sunday had renewed their warning against using Saudi airports. “We urge everyone to take our warnings seriously, and Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for any failed interceptions,” the group said.

‘WORSE IS YET TO COME,’ HOUTHIS WARN

ENERGY CONFERENCE STILL GOING AHEAD

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit vote, as he warned voters in France and Germany about Moscow-backed efforts ​to influence their politics.
Burnham, who took over as Britain’s leader in July ‌and said last month that Britain could consider rejoining the European Union in the future, is the first British prime minister to say openly there was evidence of Russian interference in the referendum a ​decade ago.

“I asked the question coming to Downing Street, was there interference in ​the 2016 referendum from Russia? And I’ve had the clear answer that ⁠yes, there was,” Burnham said in an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast ​released on Sunday.
Burnham did not spell out how he believed that Russia interfered in the ​referendum and gave no details on what evidence this statement was based.
The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia has previously denied meddling in the Brexit vote, ​casting Britain as gripped by anti-Russian hysteria.
Burnham’s comments mark a departure from those of ​former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who campaigned to leave the EU, and said in 2020 there was ‌no ⁠evidence of Russian interference in the referendum.

Britons voted 52%-48% to leave the EU in 2016, plunging the country into its biggest political crisis since World War Two.
Burnham said voters in European democracies needed to be better informed about efforts to disrupt their politics.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-pm-burnham-says-russia-interfered-2016-brexit-vote-2026-10-11/

The US Justice Department said on ‌Saturday it is investigating whether television networks violated federal antitrust laws over their decision to boycott covering the White House following its decision to pull the credentials of reporters from three news organizations, including CNN.
The networks under investigation are ​ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News, the Justice Department said.

“Group boycotts among commercial competitors ​can violate the Sherman Act,” a Justice Department spokesperson said.

“The Antitrust Division is ⁠simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.”
The investigation is the latest in ​a series of clashes between the Trump administration and major news organizations. President Donald Trump has repeatedly ​called the mainstream media “fake news” and frequently clashes with reporters during encounters with the press.
The action also puts legal and potentially financial pressure on the media to continue coverage of the president even when they disagree with how the ​White House handles them.
The networks did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment. The New ​York Times was first to report about the probe.

The investigation comes after weeks of tension between the White House ‌and ⁠the press.

CREDENTIALS REVOKED IN SEPTEMBER

On September 19, the White House blocked reporters from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from entering the building, revoking their credentials. The White House said covering the president was a “privilege – not a right.” The outlets sued the administration, alleging the exclusions violated the First Amendment and that the ​White House was retaliating ​over their coverage.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/justice-department-probes-tv-networks-over-trump-pool-coverage-new-york-times-2026-10-10/

The Rangers saw their worst fears realized Saturday morning.

Igor Shesterkin, the face of the franchise and one of the NHL’s premier goaltenders, is out for the remainder of the season with what the team is terming a lower-body injury. Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan declined to offer any other details after practice Saturday.

It is a crushing blow for the Blueshirts, who were off to a solid start after a nightmarish 2025-26 campaign. Then Friday night happened. In the second period of a 3-1 loss to the Capitals in Washington, he appeared to jam his right skate into the right post as he scrambled to get back into the net. His right leg then bent awkwardly as he fell to the ice.

The 30-year-old Shesterkin was helped off, unable to put any weight on his right leg.

“It’s obviously horrible to hear. A guy like that who means so much to our team, we’re still kind of processing that and you just feel terrible for him,” alternate captain Adam Fox said. “I personally dealt with injuries the last few years and him too. It sucks when you’re not able to be out there and help the team. He’s such an important piece to this team and what we’re able to do, you just feel for him.”

Now, a season that began with such positive vibes is in crisis. Dylan Garand, less than two weeks removed from being placed on waivers, will be the No. 1 goaltender for the foreseeable future. The 24-year-old has made four NHL starts in his entire career.

Veteran Joonas Korpisalo, acquired in the summer in a trade with the Bruins to serve as Shesterkin’s backup, is on injured reserve and is expected to be out another month due to a lower-body injury. Spencer Martin (lower-body injury) is healthy and expected to be called up to serve as Garand’s backup on Sunday at the Garden against the Canucks.

Asked if he can envision the franchise looking outside the organization for a goalie, Sullivan shot down the possibility. In other words, don’t expect a trade for an established netminder.

“I’m going to coach the twenty-something guys that we have here,” Sullivan said. “We like the group we have.”

Saturday, alternate captains Fox and Mika Zibanejad expressed sadness for Shesterkin, but belief in Garand and the team around him. They also believe the Rangers have the fortitude to survive this, that this devastating injury won’t ruin their season.

New York Rangers announce that Igor Shesterkin is out for season with a lower-body injury https://t.co/I8CgkEzE3H

— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) October 10, 2026

“The season doesn’t stop. We still have 77, 78, whatever it is, games to go,” Fox said. “We have confidence in our goalies in here, confidence in our team, to play well in front of them and keep going. We have to keep pushing and keep trying to play good hockey.”

Sullivan doesn’t expect a woe-is-us mentality to pervade the locker room. He’s seen too much good so far for that to happen.

“I’m not worried about this group from that standpoint. We’re not looking for excuses,” Sullivan said. “We like what’s going on around here, and we’re going to continue to work at becoming the best team we can become. There are certain things you can’t control, and it’s an unfortunate injury. We’ve got very capable guys. We feel like we’ve built a pretty good team up to this point. We’re going to continue to try to develop that.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/10/sports/igor-shesterkin-out-for-season-after-scary-injury-in-rangers-nightmare/

As Halloween approaches, one New Jersey road stands apart for constant reports of paranormal activity — and it’s getting so notorious, even car rental companies are apparently warning clients to steer clear.

In a recent worldwide ranking by Sixt, a piece of pavement called Clinton Road in West Milford took the top spot — for the third year in a row.

The experts behind the list told The Post that the northern Passaic County thoroughfare is “one of the country’s most haunted roads, with a reputation built on decades of local folklore and eerie encounters.”

“The 10-mile stretch of heavily forested road is particularly unsettling after dark,” a representative explained, “when its dense tree canopy leaves parts of the route almost completely shrouded in darkness.”

The road has a macabre reputation for creepy activity that dates back more than a century.

In 1905, writer J. Percy Crayon described the area as inhabited by “robbers, witches and ghosts that made their appearance in frightful forms.”

In one famous story, Ghost Boy — a spirit said to linger beneath a bridge — returns coins that are tossed into the water below.

“Visitors continue to test the story, with coins still visible in the stream below Dead Man’s Curve,” Sixt explained, adding that the road is also associated with the appearance of “ghost lights” — mysterious floating orbs or unexplained lights that appear in the darkness and sometimes surround solo drivers.

Commuters also describe seeing phantom cars — specifically, a black Camaro and an old pickup truck —that appear in their rearview mirrors before disappearing into darkness.

Legend even holds that Clinton Road is the preferred thoroughfare of the Jersey Devil, a mysterious creature of disputed (albeit dubious) origins who has been blamed for drought, crop failure, the death of livestock and even the onset of war.

“Together, these tales give Clinton Road a fascinating mix of history, folklore and roadside mystery,” said Sixt scribes.

To determine the most haunted stretches of highway in the world, experts analyzed search trends on Google and TikTok, then compared the results with previously published lists of haunted roads in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/10/lifestyle/nyc-is-just-an-hour-away-from-the-most-haunted-road-in-the-world/

Six weeks after making their shock move from California to England’s bucolic Cotswolds, sources tell Page Six that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in a “honeymoon” phase with their new life — despite not yet having seen King Charles.

Although Harry is believed to have had multiple phone calls with Charles, the father and son have yet to meet in person, we’re told, as Charles and Queen Camilla have been enjoying a break in Scotland.

The holiday included a stay at Balmoral Castle, where Harry’s estranged brother, Prince William, Princess Catherine, and their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, joined them.

The King and Queen, who remain in Scotland but have been popping down to London for meetings, will also undertake a tour to the Caribbean on October 27, so it could be a while before they see the Sussexes.

That is not to say there isn’t still a good chance of Harry and his father reconciling.

“Absolutely, everyone hopes that father and son can have a closer — more private — relationship,” a royal insider said. “It just does not help when every time they meet or speak it leaks out.”

Another thing that hasn’t helped father-son relations is Charles Spencer’s new book about Diana, which is currently topping the book charts.

Royal sources told us that Spencer, Harry’s uncle, received a staggering £4 million for the book — “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.” In it, he claims that Charles hissed down the phone that Diana would soon be forgotten following her 1997 death. That allegation has not gone down well with the King, whose reps issued a stern denial of the allegations.

“The fact that Harry was just with his uncle in the summer makes it seem that he has a good relationship with him — and the King is furious about the book,” said another source.

As fall settles on the English countryside and the Sussex children — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — settle into their new schools, many Brits are still baffled by just what made the Sussexes jet back to Harry’s homeland seemingly out of the blue.

But, we’re told that Harry, 42, and Markle, 45, had been mulling over a decision to return to the UK for the past few years. Indeed, this week Harry revealed how he “slipped into depression for two weeks” following ‘Megxit’ back in March 2020 and felt a “crash unlike anything I’d ever felt before”.

The Duke of Sussex, 42, said he became “useless” after he and his wife sensationally quit both royal life and the UK and fled to British Columbia.

“Being in Canada, away from the stressful environment where presumably my body was just pumped full of adrenaline, within two or three days, I experienced this adrenaline crash, something that I’d never experienced before,” he told neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor in his new grief Masterclass.

“It was as if I needed stress in order to get the adrenaline to make my brain function … I felt like I couldn’t function.”

The couple made the final decision to leave their Montetico mansion after their summer vacation, which included a reunion between Charles, 77 and his grandchildren — and a visit to Diana’s ancestral estate, Althorp. They had to move quickly to get their children in to school.

They’re thrilled to be back in Harry’s homeland and now plan to stay for at least the school year, which ends next summer, a source in-the-know told us.

This will give Harry time to work on a reported documentary marking the 30th anniversary of his beloved mother Princess Diana’s death and helm next year’s Invictus Games in Birmingham.

It also gives enough time for Harry to get his long-awaited wish for armed security from the British government, alongside crucial security briefing.

After that, the family could set up home even farther afield — potentially in Canada or even Australia, both places they have an affinity for. “They love traveling,” said a source in-the-know.

The Sussexes returned to live in the UK in late August after six years in North America. They have described the move as an “extended stay” with their children, while they plan to live as an “international family,” keeping their homes in California and Portugal.

Amid the likelihood of putting both Harry, Markle and the rest of the royal family back in the headlines with “crisis over Christmas”-style stories, the Sussexes don’t plan to join the monarch and Harry’s brother William for the traditional festivities at Sandringham, according to the source in-the-know.

Instead, they will either remain at the cottage where they are currently staying — on multi-millionaire financier Ian Wace’s estate in Northamptonshire — or return to California for the holidays. Either way, they will be joined by Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland.

“There is a hierarchy,” said a palace insider, “And the King is the CEO, he’s the boss — what he says go, so it’s better not to put themselves in any difficult position.”

Harry and Markle are planning on making their first official public outing together in the UK within days, we’re told, after being photographed holding hands on a lunch date at The Falkland Arms, a 16th-century pub in the Cotswolds village of Great Tew, Oxfordshire.

The pair were dressed casually, with Markle opting for gluten-free fish and chips and Harry choosing a chicken, ham, and leek pie.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/10/10/royal-family/prince-harry-meghan-markle-still-not-seen-king-charles/

A few weeks back, in a former bank building that’s now a music venue in Falmouth, Cornwall, I was DJ-ing at a night I run called Rave Machine. It was a noisy, high-energy, sweaty affair, just as a night’s dancing should be.

All of the elements – the crowd, performers, staff, music, the journey home – connected to create something special, a one-off. It was also completely human.

Something, in theory, well out of reach of what technology could possibly offer.

In the DJ world, though, technology has already changed the equation. In the 1990s, a DJ had to not only pick the tracks, but also thread them together armed only with vinyl records, a pair of turntables and a mixer. Now, much more assistance is on offer, including software that will sync beats on different tracks should you ask it to (I don’t). Apple Music and Spotify have an AI tune-mixing option too.

If you were out dancing, would it matter to you if a DJ was, well, not really DJing? If you loved the music being played, would you care if technology was doing the work?

It’s a question that generative AI – the type of AI that creates content – is asking of us all. One of the thrills of that night in Falmouth was seeing our special guest, Andy Cato from Groove Armada, artfully weaving an array of tracks. How would I feel if a DJ was just pressing play? (And that does happen).

I mention all of this because that experience in Falmouth connects to a far broader question: whether we actually care if a piece of art has been created by a human, be that a painting, song, book, poem, or any other type of art.

Renaissance frescoes and chess champions

The music platform Deezer says 44% of tracks uploaded to it are AI-generated. Its research also found that 97% of listeners couldn’t tell what was AI-generated and what wasn’t. But here’s a third statistic: more than half of those surveyed said they did care if it was made by AI. They want humans to be involved.

Daniel Susskind, an economics professor at King’s College London, says many of us place huge value on the human role in making art. It’s what makes the creative process different from more functional, practical tasks, he thinks.

“I was once in a room of accountants, and one of them stood up and said, ‘My clients come to me for the personal touch, the human process’,” he remembers. “And I said, ‘That isn’t why they come to you, they come because they want their taxes done properly’.”

But it’s different with art, he says. “If I walk into the Sistine Chapel and look at the ceiling, I think not only is that extraordinarily beautiful, but isn’t it amazing that a human hand, flesh and blood like my own, came up with that. A mind like mine dreamt that up,” he says.

As Susskind describes it, what we value isn’t just the destination, it’s the knowledge that a human – one of us – got us there. We can wonder at that achievement.

Of course, it could be argued that computers and AI software were themselves created by humans. If Susskind feels awe walking into the Sistine Chapel, others might experience awe of a different type using a chatbot like ChatGPT.

Serhii K appeared relaxed as he checked in to the glamping resort near Italy’s Adriatic coast with his wife and young children.

Dressed in shorts, sandals and a dark baseball cap, the former Ukrainian Special Forces soldier strolled back and forth, chatting with the receptionist and dipping repeatedly into a bowl of free snacks.

But German police were already closing in on him.

After a painstaking investigation, they had concluded that Serhii K had commanded Europe’s biggest act of sabotage in decades: a series of explosions in September 2022 deep beneath the Baltic Sea that ripped through the giant Nord Stream pipelines and ruptured the supply of Russian gas to Germany.

Next week, following his extradition to Germany and months in isolation in a high security prison, Serhii K will go on trial in Hamburg. He is charged with causing an explosion and a war crime – attacking civilian infrastructure – allegedly acting on behalf of “state agencies of Ukraine”.

Both he and his country have denied any involvement.

Under Germany’s privacy rules, he will be named during the trial only as Serhii K, but during extradition proceedings he was identified as Serhii Kuznetsov.

It was 02:03 on 26 September 2022 when the first blast severed part of the Nord Stream pipelines, sending vast quantities of gas gushing through the surface of the Baltic Sea.

There were two further explosions targeting both Nord Stream 2 – not yet in action, but already full – and the original Nord Stream 1 that had supplied around half of Germany’s annual demand for natural gas.

Both have been inoperable ever since.

Prosecutors say “high-performance explosives” were planted approximately 80m (260ft) below the surface: four devices weighing up to 27kg each, activated with timers.

They “strongly suspect” that Serhii K led a crew that included four deep-sea divers, using a rented yacht called Andromeda.

Once their complex, dangerous mission was done, the saboteurs slipped back into Ukraine unaware of the DNA evidence some had allegedly left on the boat.

As word of the blasts spread, experts and some governments initially rushed to the same conclusion: they blamed Moscow.

Russia had a history of hybrid attacks, after all, and of using its energy supplies for political pressure.

But as the airwaves filled with commentators citing “suspicious” Russian naval activity near the blast site, German police ignored the noise.

They went on following the forensic crumbs.

Eventually they led to Ukraine.

The case since built by investigators alleges that Serhii K entered Germany for the Nord Stream attack on a forged passport, likely issued by Ukraine’s security services.

In the extradition files sent to Italy he is named as Serhii Kulinich.

That might explain why he looked so calm on his holiday in Italy.

He had been travelling widely, and without incident, for the past year. In a copy of his real passport seen by the BBC there are more than two dozen stamps from countries including France, Spain and Canada – all dated after the Nord Stream attacks.

But by 13 August 2025, Germany had identified its key suspect and this time, when Serhii K crossed into Poland, he was detected.

Italian police say the actual arrest warrant was only issued on 18 August after he had travelled south and left Poland, suggesting the Germans were not sure their neighbours would co-operate and detain him.

By the time his wife made a booking at La Pescaccia though, he was officially a “wanted” man. As soon as he showed his passport at check-in at the resort, the local carabinieri got an automatic alert.

Police arrived to make their arrest late that night, leading Serhii K away from the glamping site and his family in handcuffs.

The saboteurs

None of the Nord Stream suspects have spoken publicly and no-one admits any role in the explosions.

But I have talked to some of the Ukrainians caught up in the case, and people close to them.

“Anyone who admits involvement in this mission, they’re immediately a target for Russia,” one source explained. “Whoever did it can never confirm that.”

Nord Stream was a major investment and worth big money to Moscow in fuel sales. But it also made Germany and others dependent, giving Russia immense leverage over Europe.

That is why Ukraine, the US and Poland in particular all loathed it.

Another source I spoke to was “eaten alive by anxiety” over the investigation and baffled that Germany, a close ally of Ukraine, was even pursuing prosecution.

“Many Ukrainians believe that these pipelines, they helped Russia to fight so blowing them up was a good thing for our country,” they pointed out.

The German prosecutor’s office told me the justice system was outside of any politics. Sabotage is an offence against Germany’s constitution.

Equally frustrating for the Ukrainians I met was their own government’s silence.

“At the very minimum, he’s a military man, so if there are any questions, they should be addressed to the state, not to him,” a close contact of Serhii K complained.

Ahead of his extradition to Germany, his lawyer here in Italy told me his client had felt “abandoned”.

Germany has a whole list of suspects, but only one other name has been revealed so far.

Volodymyr Zhuravlyov is currently fighting extradition from Croatia where he was arrested in August.

He was there as a consultant on a new thriller film about the Nord Stream blasts, though he denies any role in the real-life operation.

Travelling was a risky move, when he knew Germany was pursuing him.

Zhuravylov has lived in Warsaw with his family since just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has his own business there installing air conditioning.

He is also a keen and competent deep-sea diver.

But he is a civilian.

Residents across the UK were left stunned as the sky was illuminated by the spectacular colours of the Northern Lights on Friday and Saturday evenings.

The natural phenomenon, known as the Aurora Borealis, is the result of increased solar activity.

Such occurrences are mostly visible near the Arctic Circle and northern Scotland, but particularly strong activity levels meant they could be seen as far south as Devon, Hampshire and Kent on Saturday night.

The Met Office has said sightings could continue to be possible during clear skies until Tuesday.

Northern Lights are caused by powerful solar eruptions from the Sun, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Towards the end of last week, the Sun was observed to unleash CMEs directed towards the Earth.

This stream of charged particles can get captured by the Earth’s magnetic field and directed into our atmosphere, especially towards polar regions.

When these charged particles collide with oxygen and nitrogen, photons of coloured light are emitted – this is the aurora.

The chances of seeing the aurora vary across the UK depending upon its strength. When activity levels reach 200nT (nanotesla) the aurora would be visible in the north of the UK, but not the south.

On Saturday evening, those levels reached 600nT, meaning it would be visible across the whole of the UK, even in the south, which is a much rarer phenomenon.

Experts have previously said 2026 will be a peak year for aurora-spotting as the Sun has been in a heightened state of activity as part of its 11-year natural cycle.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9rkyey458xdo

King Charles III has warned of the challenges disinformation and other “hostile online activity” pose to trust and security in the digital age.

The comments, made in a letter to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to mark its 10th anniversary, spoke of “malicious actors” continuing to “evolve their tactics by using automated technologies”.

“From threats to our international order, to the need to balance the risks and opportunities of powerful new technologies, strong cyber security is fundamental to making the online environment safer and more resilient,” he wrote.

Last month, the King warned AI executives of the “existential dangers” posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands.

In the letter published on Saturday by NCSC, the King praised the government agency. He said its achievements over the past decade have included defending the country against cyber attacks, safeguarding democratic institutions and protecting “the critical infrastructure upon which daily life depends”.

“You have built resilience across our public services, businesses and communities, equipping us all to prosper in our ever-evolving digital world,” the monarch added.

The King said he was “acutely aware” that much of the work done by the NCSC cannot be praised publicly and that he was filled with “profound gratitude”.

The NCSC was established in 2016 as part of the Government Communications Headquarters to protect the UK against cyber threats.

Earlier this week, the NCSC offered assistance to online shopping store Asos after customers received a notification from its app sent by hackers, the BBC understands.

The high profile hack made global headlines on Tuesday when cyber criminals used Asos’s own app system to send a pop up notification to potentially millions of people.

Asos said it was investigating “unauthorised activity” involving third-party platforms. The company told its customers that hackers are in possession of detailed profiles of potentially millions of the company’s users – including names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, customer numbers and dates of birth.

It issued the update after BBC News told the retailer it had been contacted by cyber criminals who said this week’s breach went beyond the “basic contact details” Asos previously said might have been accessed.

The letter from the King to NCSC came after he spoke to AI executives at Dumfries House in Ayrshire last month on how the tech can be used to benefit security.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cme3xl7d18z2o

The winner of a prestigious scientific photography competition has been disqualified following concerns raised by other scientists that it was fake.

Nikon said the use of generative AI in the composition of the video broke the rules of its Small World In Motion contest, which accepts photos and video taken using powerful microscopes.

The firm said the video “did not comply with the competition rules regarding generative AI”, but added it was not a judgement of the entrant’s professional reputation or scientific contributions.

It said it would now look at the rules and procedures of the annual contest, which has been running for 15 years and is specifically for microscopic images.

Nikon said it came to the decision “after thoroughly re-evaluating the video and supporting materials and consulting with members of our judging panel”.

The winning entry came from Dr Ning Xu, from Tsinghua University in China, who submitted a short video showing tiny, hair-like structures called cilia moving in the airway of a child with the respiratory condition PCD.

The BBC has approached him for comment.

A number of scientists, including former competition judges, complained to Nikon on its LinkedIn page that the video did not appear to be real.

Xu had acknowledged using AI, but said he believed he had acted within the rules, and had cooperated with Nikon’s investigation.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr86z33pdy9vo

US President Donald Trump on Saturday called for Ukraine to replace its leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy and railed against Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, a day after announcing a diesel supply ​deal with Russia that had drawn a sharp rebuke from Zelenskiy.
In some of his harshest criticism yet of the White House, Zelenskiy linked the US lifting of sanctions ‌on Russian diesel with a Russian attack on Saturday that killed 20 people, including 3 children, in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

A steep rise in global diesel prices, which followed the outbreak of the Iran war in February, has become a political liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections, when opposition Democrats could gain control of one or both houses of Congress.
“I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump told ​reporters at the White House, saying Zelenskiy had hurt global diesel supplies with strikes on Russian refineries.
“He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel because ​Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world.”

ZELENSKIY SAYS DIESEL DEAL EMBOLDENS RUSSIA

Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy said Trump’s announcement ⁠on Friday of the diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin had emboldened Moscow. Kyiv has instead urged Washington to pressure Moscow for serious negotiations to end the 4-1/2-year-old war.
The Russian government said on Saturday ​it had partially lifted a ban on diesel exports.
“Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskiy said.
“Last ​night provided yet more confirmation that Russia perceives any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly keep fighting, that it can supposedly keep dropping bombs on cities. Different signals are needed.”
The southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has been a regular target of Russian bombardment with strikes intensifying in the past few months.

On Saturday, a 6-year-old girl was among those killed in Zaporizhzhia when one strike reduced part of an apartment block to rubble. Her grandfather, ​Anatoliy Chumniy, stood sobbing over her body, laid on the ground in a white bag, after rescuers pulled it from the wreckage.
“Her birthday would have been at the end of the month,” ​he said through tears.

BRITAIN VOWS TO STRENGTHEN RUSSIA SANCTIONS

The third attack this week on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday left at least 12 people dead and ​more than 300 wounded, Saudi authorities said, as Iran-backed Houthis escalated the campaign they launched this summer against the kingdom.
The dead included four Saudis, two ‌people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, the Saudi civil aviation authority said. At the latest count, officials said, 309 were wounded.

Hospitals were flooded with wounded brought by ambulance and helicopter, people briefed on the matter said. Some were in critical condition.
Saturday’s attack, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade, occurred without warning, with no alert issued by Saudi ​Arabia’s threat warning system. This week’s two previous attacks on King Khalid International Airport left four people dead and caused heavy damage to a Saudi commercial plane ​parked on the tarmac.
The deadly strikes exposed vulnerabilities in the kingdom’s defence capabilities as it wages an air campaign against the Houthis to ⁠support a ground war by the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed group.

A Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond to the attack.
Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government have claimed hundreds ​of strikes on targets in Houthi-held territory. The Houthis have said these killed civilians including women and children. Reuters could not independently verify those claims.
All flights were diverted from Riyadh on ​Saturday, and operations at the airport that serves a city of roughly 8 million people were temporarily suspended, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
The head of the Houthi media office said in a post on X after the attack that the group had “shut down Riyadh international airport”. The Houthis have said airliners should avoid Saudi airspace, declaring it a zone of military operations after the Saudi-backed Yemeni government launched an ​offensive against the group on Monday.

US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House, was asked whether Washington planned to join Saudi strikes on the Houthis.
“We may. ​We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks, saying ‌they “demonstrate a ⁠blatant disregard for innocent civilian life.”

EYEWITNESS SAW WOUNDED ON THE GROUND

One eyewitness at the airport on Saturday reported seeing an explosion and then multiple people lying injured on the ground inside. More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing towards the facility. A video verified by Reuters showed ambulances at the airport.
An injured traveller told Reuters they saw something fly across the sky outside the airport before part of the ceiling near a departure gate collapsed.

The US embassy in Riyadh said it was “aware of attacks” and “strongly recommends all US citizens avoid this ​airport and surrounding areas.”
Saudi Arabia entered the Yemen ​war in 2015 at the head ⁠of an Arab coalition to try to force the Houthis out of the Yemeni capital Sanaa. The Houthis had stormed Sanaa the previous year, pushing out government forces.
The war was fought to a bloody stalemate, with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis killed by fighting and famine. ​Saudi Arabia struck a 2022 deal with the Houthis, freezing the conflict.
That ceasefire unravelled over the summer, culminating in a lightning Houthi ​advance that took the ⁠Red Sea chokepoint of Bab el-Mandeb from Saudi-backed government forces.
The Saudi-backed Yemeni government began an offensive this week to try to retake that territory, which has so far made slow gains, even as the Houthis put the country’s third-largest city, Taiz, under siege.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/loud-blast-heard-riyadh-airport-airlines-cancel-more-flights-2026-10-10/

The World Health Organization said on Saturday that it ​still does not know what caused the pneumonia that ‌killed a Russian lab worker at an anti-plague research center in Siberia this month, and that no case of plague had been registered.
The WHO ​said the Russian state regulator reported that tests of the ​lab worker and those who came in contact with ⁠her were negative for the high-threat pathogens tested, that her contacts ​still showed no symptoms, and that no further linked cases of ​severe pneumonia had been identified.

“Based on the information provided … (the) WHO has not identified evidence of ongoing transmission associated with this event. A key uncertainty remains ​the absence of a confirmed diagnosis in the deceased laboratory worker,” ​it said in a statement.
The lab worker fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances on ‌October ⁠2, prompting authorities to quarantine about 200 people and causing public health fears on social media.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-says-russia-confirms-death-research-lab-no-plague-case-registered-2026-10-10/

Multiple people were killed – including two children and a pregnant woman – when a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania home on Friday night.

“I wanna be candid with our community, this is one of the most difficult and heartbreaking scenes that our officers and investigators have ever encountered,” Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah told reporters.

“The loss of life is devastating and the circumstances we are working through are deeply disturbing.”

Police responded to reports of a shooting at around 5 p.m. on the 700 block of Perry Street in Erie, Pa., Erie News Now reported.

Two women were found lying in the road outside the house, suffering from fatal gunshot wounds when officers arrived, according to the outlet.

The suspected killer, armed with a handgun, had barricaded himself inside the home and sparked a standoff between himself and a SWAT team.

Several shots were fired inside the home during the standoff, according to video from Erie News Now.

The killer, who has not been identified, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/10/us-news/pennsylvania-mass-shooting-leaves-multiple-dead-at-erie-home/

Chicago may have lost some of its biggest billionaires, but finding an apartment in the Windy City has never been more competitive.

Despite years of headlines about violent crime, corporate departures and wealthy residents heading for sunnier pastures, Chicago has overtaken Miami to become America’s most competitive rental market, according to a new RentCafe report.

An average of 17 prospective renters competed for every available apartment during the peak 2026 leasing season, with vacancies filling in just 27 days.

It’s a remarkable climb for a city that ranked fifth during the 2024 peak rental season and second in 2025.

Just four years ago, Chicago was making headlines for an entirely different reason.

Billionaire hedge fund founder Ken Griffin moved Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, citing concerns over crime and political leadership, and has since been selling off his Chicago real estate holdings, including his final home in the city.

The departure came amid a wave of high-profile corporate relocations, including Boeing’s decision that same year to move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia.

But while some of Chicago’s wealthiest residents and major employers have headed elsewhere, competition for the city’s apartments has only intensified.

“Chicago’s rise is primarily a supply story reinforced by steady demand. The city did not suddenly experience an unprecedented influx of renters,” Doug Ressler, a senior analyst at RentCafe, told The Post.

“Instead, apartment construction slowed dramatically while renters continued to compete for a very limited number of openings.”

Chicago’s housing shortage is nothing new. But the latest figures suggest the squeeze is getting worse.

Newly built apartments accounted for just 0.27% of Chicago’s rental inventory, according to RentCafe’s analysis.

Apartment construction across the Chicago region is expected to fall to its lowest level in more than a decade this year, while the metro area faces an estimated shortage of 165,000 homes, according to the report.

Mark Brown, a Chicago real estate broker with HotSpot Rentals who specializes in luxury high-rise apartments, said the shrinking supply has made finding desirable units increasingly difficult.

The shortage is also driving up prices. Brown said one-bedroom apartments that rented for roughly $2,800 to $2,900 three years ago are now commanding as much as $3,800 to $4,000.

That squeeze has left more than 95% of apartments occupied, with nearly two-thirds of existing tenants renewing their leases rather than moving out.

Chicago also offers something increasingly rare in major American cities: relative affordability.

Compared with coastal markets such as New York and San Francisco, the Midwestern hub offers big-city jobs, restaurants and cultural attractions without the same sky-high housing costs.

“Affordability is part of Chicago’s appeal, especially relative to New York, Miami and other coastal gateway markets,” Ressler said. “But we should not overstate migration as the sole explanation. The stronger evidence is that Chicago has a very limited supply of available apartments.”

Meanwhile, Miami, the city that welcomed Griffin and Citadel, has lost its grip on the top spot.

The Florida hotspot ranked first in RentCafe’s 2024 and 2025 year-end reports.

But it slipped to second place this summer, with 16 prospective renters competing for each available apartment, compared with Chicago’s 17.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/09/real-estate/chicago-beats-miami-manhattan-as-americas-toughest-rental-market/

Katie Zacharia, a former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, will be the White House press secretary, President Trump announced, describing her as a “loyal and brilliant supporter.”

Zacharia is a longtime backer of Trump and a fixture on conservative media, particularly on Fox News. She’s also contributed op-eds to The Post.

“She’s a friend of most of you,” Trump told reporters at the White House about his new spokesperson. “I know she likes people. She likes all of you, actually. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but we just hired a new press secretary. And she’s going to be, I think, terrific.”

Not well-known to the public, Trump, in the formal announcement, noted her ties to his team in his announcement and her long career in Republican politics.

“She was previously involved in my Campaigns, assisting in key Swing States, where we won 7 out of 7,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning. She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA!,” the president said.

She responded by thanking the president, and called the job “the honor of a lifetime.”

“President Trump has shown America that we can be great again, and he works to effectuate that greatness every single day. His confidence is a true privilege, and his leadership is a blessing to this country,” she wrote on X about her appointment. “I look forward to working with the White House press corps, and with reporters across the country, to get that record out.”

Zacharia works at Fix California, an organization founded by Trump special envoy Ric Grenell that is focused on advancing the conservative agenda in The Golden State. She also advises the Trump Media & Technology Group, which is the president’s social media company.

She will replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the job in August to spend more time with her family following the birth of her second child this past May 1.

Zacharia spent about three months at the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year, leaving the agency after Markwayne Mullin took over as secretary in March.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/09/us-news/white-house-wants-katie-zacharia-to-replace-karoline-leavitt-as-press-secretary/

THE Kardashians have built a reality TV empire that has survived cheating scandals, messy breakups, family feuds and more – but after two decades on screen, could their reign finally be nearing its end?

The family’s reality TV crown may finally be slipping, as an alleged battle over budgets and dwindling viewership could put their flagship show on borrowed time.

The U.S. Sun can reveal that while Hulu has renewed The Kardashians, which is currently airing Season 8, for a ninth and 10th season – the latter could potentially serve as a farewell to the family’s long-running reality TV run.

“When the time does come to close the chapter on the show, there was chatter of doing a farewell season before pulling the plug altogether,” an insider claimed.

“They don’t want it to just fizzle out. One final bow for reality TV’s royal family which would be a celebration of all the years past and include lesser seen family members like Rob.”

The source stressed that Hulu is still interested in doing business with the family, but claimed the streaming service is increasingly looking toward spinoffs rather than the main show.

“The [viewership] numbers have continued to go down,” the insider spilled.

“There have been clashes with Hulu execs and Kris about the show’s budget. Hulu has been wanting to spend less and Kris doesn’t find that acceptable.

“Even things like music clearance – on past seasons they had Beyonce songs. They no longer get the viewership to justify the budget.

“Hulu is still wanting to do business with the family. But is focused more on spinoffs and their own projects.”

The U.S. Sun has reached out for comment.

The alleged budget disagreements are a significant issue for momager Kris Jenner, who has spent years turning her family’s personal lives into a lucrative entertainment business.

And while the family remains one of the most recognizable names in reality television, Hulu’s promotional push for The Kardashians has appeared less prominent than in previous seasons, raising further questions about where the show fits into the streamer’s plans.

That doesn’t mean the Kardashian-Jenners are running out of things to put on television.

If anything, their entertainment empire is expanding in several different directions.

Kim has moved further into scripted television, with her legal drama All’s Fair, which The U.S. Sun first reported will return for a second season on Hulu on November 4.

The series, created by Ryan Murphy, stars Kim as high-powered divorce attorney Allura Grant alongside Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash, Sarah Paulson, Glenn Close and Teyana Taylor.

Kim is also expanding her producing portfolio beyond her own family. She executive produces Team Moms: Baseball, a Paramount+ reality series that premiered in September and follows ambitious parents whose teenage sons train at an elite baseball academy in Arizona.

Meanwhile, Khloé has branched out with The Girls: A Khloé Kardashian Project, a Hulu reality series centered on her close-knit circle of friends, including Malika Haqq, Khadijah Haqq, Natalie Halcro, Olivia Pierson, Yris Palmer and Nicole Williams English.

The show follows the women as they navigate motherhood, relationships, businesses and friendship, with Khloé serving as an executive producer.

Kylie Jenner is also taking steps into scripted television. She is attached to star in and executive produce Bachelorette Weekend, a Hulu thriller being developed with Kim among its producers.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/17121202/kardashians-hulu-show-canceled-ratings-kris-jenner-salary-budget/

George Clooney called Presley Gerber’s death last month “the worst thing that could ever happen with family” in his first comments on the tragedy.

“Quite honestly, it’s one of the most devastating things that’s happened to our family,” Clooney told Entertainment Tonight at the Albies on Friday evening.

“And their family is just … as you can imagine.”

George’s wife, human rights attorney Amal Clooney, stood alongside her husband as he made the heartfelt comments.

Clooney and his wife are longtime friends with the famous family — Presley’s parents are supermodel Cindy Crawford and George’s business partner, Rande Gerber.

Together, Rande and George co-founded tequila brand Casamigos, and their families have remained friends for decades.

Presley died on Sept 20 of an apparent overdose on Sept. 20 while staying at a luxurious sober living facility in Santa Monica, Los Angeles.

He was 27 years old.

A family rep told Page Six in a statement at the time that the family hoped for “privacy during this very difficult and painful time.”

Sources also told Page Six that Presley had checked into the Resolutions Living facility the same weekend he was pronounced dead and was said to have been found in a bedroom.

Dispatch audio obtained by Page Six indicated that first responders were notified of a “cardiac arrest” and “overdose.”

Days later, footage surfaced of the model filming himself in the facility in the hours before his death.

An insider divulged to us that Presley had “seemed off” prior to the tragedy, and a separate source explained to us last month that Presley’s only sibling, Kaia Gerber, 25, was struggling to come to terms with her older brother’s death.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/10/09/celebrity-news/george-clooney-speaks-out-on-presley-gerbers-death/

Deputies for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department visited Keegan Allen’s home Friday afternoon as the investigation into the “Pretty Little Liars” star’s bloody grocery store attack continues.

Exclusive video obtained by Page Six shows law enforcement officers leaving the actor’s residence less than 24 hours after he was allegedly robbed at gunpoint and knifepoint near Laurel Supply, a luxury grocery store in West Hollywood, California.

One of the deputies at the scene told Page Six that the investigation into the attack is “ongoing.”

Allen, 37, detailed the terrifying encounter in a graphic video shared on his Instagram account Thursday night, showing his face covered in blood as he claimed he was attacked by two masked men.

“I was just robbed of my watch outside of Laurel Supply,” the “Palo Alto” actor said in the clip.

“These two dudes hit me in the head and pointed a gun at me with a knife and then took off.”

The video also included surveillance footage of the alleged robbery, which showed two individuals dressed in black confronting Allen in the parking lot.

One appeared to brandish a weapon as Allen held out his arms and removed his watch. The other then appeared to strike him in the head with a handgun before they fled the scene.

Emergency response to the incident was also captured in exclusive 911 dispatch audio obtained by Page Six.

Dispatchers could be heard discussing an “assault” at the grocery store’s address on Santa Monica Boulevard shortly before deputies arrived after 9 p.m. Thursday.

A representative for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told Page Six that deputies contacted Allen at the scene and learned he had been approached by two men dressed in black.

“One suspect pointed a silver handgun at the victim while the other pointed a knife and demanded the victim’s watch and bracelet,” the representative said.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/10/09/celebrity-news/watch-deputies-leave-keegan-allens-home-as-investigation-continues-into-grocery-store-attack/

US immigration officials have defended officers who shot and wounded a man in his car in New York on Thursday while his five-year-old son was in the back seat.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Markwayne Mullin said officers opened fire while trying to arrest a man with a criminal history.

“We weren’t aware the child was in the car,” Mullin said, arguing that it was the man, Oscar Belgal, who had put his child in danger. Belgal is being held at a detention facility. His lawyers appeared at a hearing on his behalf on Friday.

“The first thing he asked me, is whether his son is OK,” his attorney Harold Solis said outside court.

A handful of friends and family members, including a cousin and an aunt, attended the hearing but did not speak to the press.

Another of his lawyers, Paige Austin, told the judge at the hearing that Belgal “still has a bullet in his body” and had been taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after being discharged from hospital.

Austin said he had only been able to make a brief phone call within the hour prior to the hearing.

The BBC has not been able to confirm his medical condition, but contacted DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The shooting happened in the residential neighbourhood of Marble Hill.

Marcos Charles, a top ICE official, said the agency’s officers used their vehicles to try and stop Belgal in his car but that he resisted orders to get out and instead accelerated, smashing into two ICE vehicles.

Charles said Belgal then “weaponised his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers”, adding: “Our officers, using their training, and believing that their life and the life of their partners in the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons.”

The number of officers who fired their weapons is being investigated.

Charles said Belgal “was struck by one of the bullets or fragments superficially in the neck”.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called what happened “unconscionable and incredibly serious”, said ICE agents surrounded Belgal’s car before opening fire.

“They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There is no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents,” Mamdani said. He confirmed the child was unharmed.

Mullin said the officers identified themselves and were wearing body-worn cameras that were turned on during the incident.

Video of the shooting, including body camera footage, has not been made public but unverified videos on social media appear to align with Mamdani’s comments.

Body-worn camera footage released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) on Friday shows its officers arriving on scene and attempting to help Belgal after he has been shot. One ICE officer appears to be wearing a neon construction vest and carrying a large gun.

The NYPD officers then call for an ambulance and put him in a police car to take him to hospital. They are later seen pulling Belgal from the vehicle and carrying him into the hospital.

Mamdani said on Thursday that he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and Mullin for two hours but failed to negotiate Belgal’s release.

Mamdani said he would ask Trump, who has not yet commented publicly on the shooting, to end ICE enforcement actions in New York. Mullin has said he will not pause enforcement.

The DHS said Belgal, 28, was from the Dominican Republic and had “a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs and weapons possession”.

Belgal was arrested by police officers in New York in December 2023 and released “a few days later”, according to the DHS.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq78px5y1zmzo

US country music star Ella Langley has said she had to cancel her sold-out concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Friday night, due to a “serious security threat”.

The singer made what she called the “incredibly difficult” decision around two hours before the show at the 19,000-seater arena was due to start.

In a post on Instagram, the 27-year-old said the threat involved “the safety of my fans, the venue staff and my team”.

Cpt Richard Meulenberg from Tulsa Police Department said a person had called saying “great harm” would be done at the event with “shots fired and bombs.”

He stated his team had checked the venue at BOK Center several times before the show and “could not find any threat”.

“The event was ready to go,” he added, saying officers with sniffer dogs did a sweep of the arena again after the phone call was made.

“We could not find a credible threat,” he said, stressing that the person who had made the call “disrupted this entire event” for thousands of Langley fans.

The star – who did not give any further details – also apologised to her fans, saying additional information regarding ticket refunds “will be shared as soon as possible”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm79pdlywqd4o

Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navi Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

The South African judge was recognised “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”, which paved the way for a “more comprehensive global legal order”, the Nobel committee said.

Pillay, 85, has taken part in high-profile work considering allegations of human rights violations during a decades-long career, including in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza.

Her early work included defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and on Friday she became the country’s fifth Peace Prize winner – following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Pillay’s work had been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted”, said the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

“Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career,” he said.

“At a time of existential challenges – including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time – international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity.”

Frydnes said the committee had not been able to notify Pillay that she had won in advance, “so my message to her would be ‘if you see a Norwegian number calling, please pick up'”.

Shortly afterwards, Pillay reacted to the news from Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice by saying “it must be a joke” and thanked those who had gathered to applaud her.

“If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” she joked. Last year’s winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gave her medal to the US president in January as “recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom”.

Pillay dedicated her award to “all the survivors of international crimes” and the practitioners of international justice “whose compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign”.

Navanethem “Navi” Pillay grew up in South Africa during apartheid as a bus driver’s daughter in a poor Indian section of Durban.

She went on to become the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province in 1967, and later the first non-white woman to be appointed to the country’s high court.

Pillay served as a judge on the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda – focused on the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed – including four years as its president. She was elected to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2003.

From 2021-25, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory – a fact-finding body established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international law.

The commission concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, had “incited the commission of genocide” in their speeches and statements.

The three-member expert panel did not speak officially for the UN and had no legal authority. Israel rejected its findings and accused the three members of the commission of serving as “Hamas proxies”.

The panel had previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage. The same report also accused Israel of war crimes.

Reacting to Pillay’s award on Friday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it represented a “grotesque weaponisation of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”.

It said in a statement: “Her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonisation of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes.”

US President Donald Trump, who has previously expressed a desire to receive the prize, reposted a statement on social media that said the Nobel committee had “demeaned” the award by giving it to someone it described as an “unabashed hater of America and Israel”.

The US later announced sweeping sanctions on the court, saying it wanted to restrict its resources and ability to operate. The ICC called the move an assault on the rule of law.

Nobel committee chair Frydnes said the organisation was not taking a position on whether the Israeli offensive in Gaza amounted to genocide by handing Pillay the peace prize. Asked about Pillay’s UN commission on the matter, he replied her award had been given “for her whole work”.

Pillay is currently a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case where Myanmar stands accused by The Gambia of genocide against the Rohingya people.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm9wz5kng0x1o

Donald Trump said that he had secured Vladimir Putin’s agreement to release diesel into US and global markets, vowing this will help cool surging energy costs amid war with Iran.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he had secured Russia’s agreement for a major release of diesel, as he eased war sanctions on Moscow in a push to lower energy costs ahead of midterm elections.

Moscow has been hit with waves of sanctions by the United States and partners since its 2022 invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Trump for an “unworthy” and “weak” move.

The deal comes weeks before key US elections where Trump’s Republican Party risks losing its grip on Congress as voters express frustration over the mounting cost of living.

Prices at US gasoline and diesel pumps have surged since late February, when US-Israel strikes targeting Iran triggered Tehran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for energy transit.

“Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace,” Trump said on social media after talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The Kremin said Russia “reaffirmed its readiness to supply oil and oil products to the American and world markets.”

Trump added Moscow would supply 500,000 tons in November, followed by one million tons, with further larger releases promised.

Zelensky told reporters: “It is certainly not honest, it is certainly unworthy of our partners, and it is, in my view, a weak decision.”

The US Treasury issued a temporary license Friday to enable Russian diesel to flow to global markets through April 2027.

“Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority,” Trump posted on social media.

Conflict stalemate

The average cost of regular US gasoline has jumped more than 46 percent since late February to $4.37 per gallon, while that of diesel rocketed 67 percent over the same period to $6.28 per gallon.

Trump has blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for surging fuel prices, although the US-Israeli war with Iran has been the principal disruptor of global energy supplies.

News of the deal came as Ukrainian and US negotiators met on Friday in Miami in a fresh attempt to break the conflict’s stalemate.

The sides “held constructive discussions on potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter,” said US envoy Steve Witkoff.

The Miami meeting follows visits to Moscow and Kyiv last month by Witkoff, a longtime Trump confidant, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, as Washington seeks to revive negotiations that have yielded little progress.

With winter approaching, the prospect of continued fighting and attacks on vital infrastructure has added urgency to the search for a settlement against a backdrop of deadly Russian attacks.

On Thursday a Russian strike on buses in the frontline Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed 30 people.

Trump’s repeated attempts to broker an end to the war have foundered over Moscow’s sweeping territorial demands, particularly its insistence on controlling all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, including areas still held by Kyiv.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-says-putin-agrees-to-major-release-of-diesel-to-us-global-markets-12164042?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The flydubai attacker meant to carry out a September 11-inspired suicide mission, crashing the plane into Israel’s largest airport, Emirati investigators said.

The flydubai attacker meant to crash the plane into Israel’s largest airport, in a September 11-styled suicide mission, Emirati investigators have said. They noted that the co-pilot had developed increasingly extreme Islamist views over the last few years.

The announcement came from the Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates. He provided a comprehensive account of the co-pilot’s motives, and preparation for what the Emiratis called a ‘terrorist operation’.

The report raised questions of how signs of radicalization were missed and how the individual was allowed to fly this sensitive route. Over 170 passengers, mostly Israelis, were on the flydubai plane, when the co-pilot started to attack the pilot with the crash ax and then tried to crash the flight. Captain Smit Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door and passengers then subdued the co-pilot, averting the tragedy.

Backup pilots who happened to be on board stabilized the plane, and there was an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

While the AG did not identify the co-pilot, people familiar with the matter said it was Hamam al-Hammami, as per New York Times. They added that his embrace of radical Islamist views had prompted Omani authorities to take a closer look at the man.

They found that he’d begun a ‘drift towards extremism and terrorism’ almost a decade ago, when he was a student in Melbourne, Australia. The co-pilot was enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, between 2015 and 2017. The institute in a statement said that he did not complete his engineering degree, as per NYT.

During his time in Australia Hammami is believed to have developed a fascination for extremist literature, and online content which glorified ‘terrorist organizations and suicide operations,’ as per the Emirati statement. He also reportedly got ‘support’ from groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist movement, the statement added.

The statement noted that the co-pilot took inspiration from the 9/11 attacks and takfir ideology, which allows one Muslim to declare another an apostate. He became interested in a similar attack, the Emiratis found.

US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on the ​International Criminal Court on Friday, hours after one of its former judges won the Nobel Peace Prize, putting Washington on a diplomatic collision course with European allies.
The court denounced the ‌move as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order,” and called on its 125 member states to take action to defend it.

“The Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it,” it said in a statement. “This is not just about defending a single institution, but about safeguarding the international order grounded upon the rule of law. History will judge this moment.”
The Trump ​administration has long been hostile to the court, founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges.
Friday’s move goes much ​further, potentially punishing companies that provide services to the court itself, amounting to an unprecedented attack on an institution founded on an international treaty. The ⁠US initially signed the Rome Statute that founded the court but never ratified it.

SANCTIONS INCLUDE ​GRACE PERIOD

Rubio in his statement cited calls from outside experts for the ICC to prosecute American service members, border patrol agents and ​elected leaders. ICC officials have not taken steps toward such prosecutions.
“The sanctions are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work that an independent judicial institution is doing,” ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told ‌Reuters. “Our work ⁠will continue across all our situations, our investigations and our prosecutions.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on social media that the six-month period “offers a window for dialogue” but added that the bloc “has options to ensure that (the ICC) can continue its vital work.” Belgium’s foreign minister called for an EU blocking statute to be activated to protect the court.
The ICC has issued arrest warrants against more than 70 people, including world leaders and major figures in global conflicts. In addition to Netanyahu, it has sought the arrest of Hamas figures. Others who were the subject of arrest warrants include Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Sudan President ​Omar al-Bashir and former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. ​Charges against Kenyan President William Ruto and former ⁠Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta were withdrawn.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-imposes-sanctions-international-criminal-court-hours-after-former-judge-wins-2026-10-09/

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday, damaging buildings and sending ​thousands into the streets, but the country appeared to escape widespread destruction or deaths.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake hit at ‌a depth of 12.6 km (7.8 miles), with an epicenter in a sparsely populated area about 200 km (124 miles) from the capital, and that some casualties were possible.

In the following hours, even as more than 40 aftershocks rattled the isthmus nation, the Panama Canal and Cobre Panama copper mine reported normal operations and the Tocumen International Airport lifted a suspension on flights.
Office ​workers in the upscale business hub of downtown Panama City fretted about how to get home in the snarl of traffic, after the quake ​sent thousands into the streets.
Juan Sanchez, a 37-year-old economy ministry employee, waited for a bus he said he doubted ⁠would arrive.
“They evacuated all of these buildings. Everyone is outside. Now the problem is, how do we get home?”

President Raul Mulino traveled to Penonome, a ​city about halfway between the epicenter and Panama City, where some buildings collapsed and a church was damaged.
Despite the force of Friday’s tremor, the country appeared ​to have been spared the destruction of other recent powerful quakes in the region, with no deaths or injuries immediately reported.
Back-to-back quakes in Venezuela in June killed several thousand people, while a quake in Colombia in August killed more than 300.
An exposure report by the USGS estimated about 43,000 Panamanians lived in areas with at least severe exposure to the quake. This ​compares to nearly 1.4 million in the area of the twin quakes in Venezuela and over 1.6 million in the quake-hit zone of western Colombia.

PROLONGED VIBRATIONS

Nestor ​Luque, director of Panama’s geosciences institute, attributed the quake to the Azuero Sona Fault System that he said contained a massive buildup of pressure that is occasionally released.

“The seismic signals have traveled throughout ‌the national ⁠territory and that is why it could be felt everywhere.”
In Panama City, Luque said he counted 40 seconds of vibrations, though other areas may have felt even longer tremors.
Sabina Rios, who was on the sixth floor of an old US military-era building in Panama City, said the shaking was unusually strong and prolonged.
“The quake felt strong and lasted a long time, the longest I’ve felt in years,” Rios said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/strong-80-magnitude-earthquake-felt-panama-usgs-2026-10-09/

New screenshots of text messages between the “Cornell 7” Jane Doe and one of the accused frat brothers show her telling him, “I don’t think we should feel any shame” a day after the alleged gang rape, adding, “our body our choice.”

Some of the texts from Oct. 21, 2024, between Doe and Jonathan Newell were previously reported — in which the alleged victim reassures Newell that the sex was consensual.

Doe’s attorney dismissed the newly revealed screenshots as part of her processing what had happened on Oct. 20.

“This was part of the processing that she was going through, denial, shame and ultimately acceptance,” attorney Thomas Giuffra told The Post.

The texts started on Oct. 21 — a day after Doe’s alleged rape at Cornell’s Chi Phi house — when Newell texted her apologizing for “how things went down” with her and student Matthew Ingalls, both of whom she later claimed plied her with ketamine during a threesome that devolved into a series of brothers arriving to take turns having sex with her.

“My memory’s kinda fuzzy abt a lot of it but me and Matt both feel like s–t for being too f–cked up to shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand,” Newell wrote, according to screenshots obtained by TMZ.

“You’re an amazing person and I genuinely hope ur not catching as much heat from this as we r,” he added. “We’ve been shutting down any stories we’ve heard but again I’m so so sorry.”

Doe then responded with “aw jonathan i really appreciate this text. my memories super clouded too. i think we were all way to f–king drunk and high.”

She continued saying, “at the end of the day non of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly i really like being w u and matt. so anything anyone has to say about the gamgbang [sic] is out of their jurisdiction.”

“I don’t think we should feel any shame for the part. our body our choice asf,” she added, before alluding to other people getting involved in the sex she had with Ingalls and Newell.

“yall were both super out of it and they should have taken it on themselves to leave. at the end of the day you, matt, and i were in your bed and they didn’t need to get up on that,” she wrote, finally consoling Newell again.

“if you have any regrets or anything you want to talk about i am always here to talk about it cause that was a lot,” Doe wrote. “i really do love u and matt and i promise i wont get quiet and weird w u like i did last time.”

And then things ramped up from there, with Doe recalling one of the more lewd moments of the night, TMZ reported.

“ps. i’m not sure if u remember but i did ket off your d–k at some point? and i honestly think that was one of the most insane/jaw dropping moments of the night,” she wrote — with Newell responding that he had “no memory” of it.

Things deteriorated between the former friends in the ensuing three weeks — with Doe claiming it began to dawn on her that what happened that night was not consensual before she finally accused Newell, Ingalls and five others of rape and sexual assault.

At the center of her claim was the alcohol and ketamine she was offered at the frat house when she went over that night, which she claimed left her so incapacitated that she became powerless to resist the group of brothers who started filing into the room to join in on the threesome.

And she let Newell know it by Nov. 3 — when she texted him, “let’s be clear that 90% of what happened that night was not consensual.”

“I was given more [ketamine] than i can remember and i know that i told u i felt uncomfortable and i didn’t know anyone in the room,” she added. “all i remember after that was u giving me [ketamine] to do off your d–k in front of everyone like a sex/doll worker.”

Newell then reiterated that he had no memory of any of that happening, writing, “had I been less f**ked up and even somewhat aware of the situation and how out of hand it got, I would’ve shut it down the second guys started walking in the room.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/08/us-news/texts-between-cornell-7-jane-doe-frat-brother-she-later-accused-of-rape-revealed-our-body-our-choice/

A whistleblower in the state Attorney General’s Office was ordered to dig up dirt on President Trump, even after a year-long probe found no wrongdoing – because it was what AG Letitia James was demanding, he told The Post.

Daniel Wiesenfeld, a prosecutor in the Investor Protection Bureau, claimed he was told by Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe to keep trying to make a case against Trump and his pals despite finding no evidence that there was a crime.

“By June 2026, after several meetings, we had become exasperated,” Wiesenfeld told The Post in an exclusive interview. “Shamiso told us, in sum and substance, that she agreed with us and that if it were her call, she would close the case – but that it was Tish’s call.

“Tish was the boss and what Tish wanted, Tish got,” he said. “So we had to keep going.”

Wiesenfeld has been at odds with his boss since August, when he blasted out an email to more than 2,000 colleagues claiming he was being forced to find dirt on Trump and his pals.

“If you believe Trump is using the [Department of Justice] attorneys to prosecute his enemies to further his political interests, you should find it equally troubling that Tish is doing exactly the same thing,” the email said.

“I ask you that you not serve as Tish’s personal attorneys by targetting her political enemies,” he added. “Instead, I hope you choose to prosecute crimes and find the individuals accountable, rather than targeting individuals and then find the crimes.”

A copy of the email was obtained by the Times-Union and made public, unleashing a firestorm of controversy and leading to Wiesenfeld getting placed on administrative leave.

He was later fired.

The controversy started when he was assigned to investigate an insider-trading claim against a company affiliated with the Trump family. He said the case was based on a tip from a “cryptic text” that was never shared with him.

Wiesenfeld said he was given the assignment on July 25, 2025, with the tip from an unlisted phone number suggesting that Donald Trump Jr. and his associates were selling inside info to private companies for millions.

“I asked for information about the cryptic text and any context that could be provided, but my boss, Shamiso Maswoswe, told me they could not provide me with more information.

Despite being kept in the dark, “we affirmatively conclude that no crime had taken place,” Wiesenfeld said.

When he was told to keep pursuing the case, he said he “pushed back.

“I said the investigation was a waste of time and that there was no way forward,” he told The Post. “Nevertheless, I was directed to send subpoenas to several banks, wasting taxpayer dollars and the banks’ resources on what I believed was a fruitless, politically motivated investigation.”

The Post later confirmed that the FBI and DOJ also looked into Wiesenfeld’s claims.

Earlier this week, Wiesenfeld claimed he was being threatened by the AG’s office for refusing to delete evidence of the alleged corruption.

In an exchange of emails – copies of which were obtained by The Post under state Freedom of Information law — Wiesenfeld denied earlier this week that the documents in question were “confidential and privileged information,” as the AG claimed.

“These documents are simply evidence and your threats will not compel me to destroy such evidence,” he wrote. “If anything, carrying out your threats by bringing this to a legal forum will make this information public.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/08/us-news/ex-ny-prosecutor-claims-letitia-james-pushed-trump-probe-despite-investigators-finding-nothing/

CHRISTA Pike may have survived two rounds of lethal injection drugs because of a bizarre paradox that saw the drug fail to kill her while potentially helping protect her brain, a medical expert has claimed.

Death row inmate Pike, 50, was administered pentobarbital during her botched execution in Tennessee before the procedure was called off.

Her attorneys have since revealed she is now awake, talking and walking after spending days unconscious and on a ventilator in the hospital.

The U.S. Sun spoke exclusively to Dr. Kenneth Katz, a medical toxicologist who has published case reports involving two women who survived severe pentobarbital poisoning, including a 94-year-old woman who spent days unresponsive before fully recovering.

Katz believes the execution team may have blown Pike’s veins, causing pentobarbital to leak into the tissue of her arms and form what he described as a localized “poison depot.”

Instead of the lethal drug rapidly flooding her bloodstream, he said it may then have been absorbed more slowly into her system — potentially helping explain why she became profoundly unconscious but survived.

And the pentobarbital that did reach her bloodstream may have had another unexpected effect — suppressing her brain’s demand for oxygen and potentially protecting it while she was unconscious.

“It appeared that both of her forearms, her arms were swollen and injured, probably because the drug had extravasated or leaked either from a blown vein or the catheter didn’t function properly,” Katz said.

“So I think what happened was she got some of the dose in the vein, probably, because she was comatose at that what it appeared to be, but probably not enough to be lethal,” he said.

The pentobarbital that leaked into her arms may then have remained trapped in the surrounding tissue rather than immediately circulating through her body.

“The drug is an alkaline drug, so it can cause swelling, burning, inflammation, pain,” Katz said.

“It sort of acted like a little depot in the tissue. The paradox is that [the drug] can actually make that tissue less demanding of oxygen.

“It’s almost neuroprotective at the same time.”

Katz said that creates a remarkable paradox in cases of severe pentobarbital poisoning, where the drug can profoundly suppress the body without necessarily causing permanent neurological damage if the dose is survived.

“So you have a drug that in extreme amounts can obviously kill you,” he said.

“But at the same time, if it’s not to that degree, it can cause coma but also be neuroprotective at the same time.”

The 94-year-old patient Katz studied had ingested pentobarbital alongside another barbiturate and became completely unresponsive before waking on the third day with no memory of what had happened.

She was discharged from hospital 11 days later.

Katz said the drug’s effects can mimic the signs of brain death, despite a patient later regaining consciousness and neurological function.

That could shed light on what happened in Pike’s case, after her lawyers believed she was brain dead and expected her to be taken off life support before she suddenly woke up and began talking.

Asked if he thinks Pike could eventually walk out of the hospital, Katz said, “If she received adequate ventilation, oxygenation, in theory, I would not be stunned if she has a complete neurologic recovery.”

But he said the crucial question for Pike’s long-term recovery is whether her brain was deprived of oxygen at any point during the failed execution.

“The brain does not tolerate that for very long, for only a few minutes or so,” he said. “And that can cause what we call anoxic brain injury.”

Katz said doctors can use MRI scans to look for evidence of damage caused by a lack of oxygen, while Pike now being awake, speaking and beginning to walk are encouraging signs.

The other case Katz studied involved a 48-year-old woman who injected a veterinary euthanasia solution containing pentobarbital.

Discussing the case, Katz said, “One woman was out cold, out in a coma for several days, and then just woke up and we took the tube out, we extubated.

“She didn’t recall all the events, but she understood generally what had happened.”

The woman also suffered severe damage to her arm where the drug was injected and required emergency surgery, but ultimately woke up neurologically normal and recovered.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17117688/christa-pike-brain-dead-to-walking-talking-pentobarbital/

The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said.

A Defense Department official told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed.

It is believed it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. The decision to livestream it is “unprecedented in the modern era” and “on uncertain legal terrain,” said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death.

“People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” said Hegseth.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN that livestreaming it was “disgusting” and reminiscent of executions carried out by the Islamic State group.

The Pentagon announced earlier this week it would execute Hasan in the first military execution in more than 60 years.

Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist from Virginia, admitted fatally shooting 13 unarmed soldiers in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood.

Alonzo Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who was shot seven times in the attack, told the BBC’s Today programme that he supported the execution by firing squad, as a method “befitting” for what he did.

He does not believe everyone should be able to watch the livestream, concerned about the message it sends younger people, but says it is important that those affected by the shooting are given the opportunity.

“As far as the families of the fallen and the families of the survivors, and the survivors themselves, yes, I think we should be able to look at it uncensored.”

Lunsford says he plans to attend the execution and before they pull the trigger he wants Hasan to look him in the eyes. “I want him to know he failed. I’m still here.”

Hegseth said in an interview with conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice that Hasan is “gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be”.

Asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to President Donald Trump, Hegseth said: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”

A Pentagon spokesperson said on Monday that Trump had approved the defence secretary’s recommendation. The BBC has asked White House whether Trump supports a livestreamed public execution.

While there were more than 2,700 executions across 17 countries last year, only two countries carried them out publicly.

Eleven public executions were known to have been carried out in Iran in 2025, and another six in Afghanistan, according to Amnesty International.

The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood in Texas on 3 December, the secretary of the US Army said on Tuesday. It will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War Two.

In court Hasan apologised for “any mistakes”. He said during his court martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A military execution requires approval from the US president, according to military law. It also requires appellate review, where a higher court inspects the decision, and a final judgement on its legality to move forward.

The appellate process for Hasan is not over, Mills said, and he is likely to seek review of his conviction and sentence in federal court, which would likely stay the execution.

As such, Mills said that he would be surprised if the execution happened.

“Seeking to make it livestreamed, a firing squad execution, is little more than attention-seeking by the Trump administration and is unlikely to occur, much less deliver any semblance of justice,” he added.

Eugene R Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, told the BBC it was a “really unfortunate decision”.

“To livestream an execution is just so out of the Middle Ages. In a way, we are so past that as a society, at least I thought so until today,” he said.

Fidell said if Hasan pursued legal action, the “proceedings would last years” and “far longer than President Trump’s term in the White House”.

Certain states require some form of public viewing of executions. Many states require journalists to be present, and the person due to be executed can invite people. Others also allow ordinary citizens to volunteer as witnesses.

But “there hasn’t ever been a livestreamed execution,” says Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, who has studied US execution methods.

A livestreamed execution would “force a level of transparency that we have probably never seen before in this country”, she says.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmy0r96xygx6o

Adidas is suing Australian label White Fox for selling and advertising clothes with a four-striped design, arguing it is “deceptively similar” to the German brand’s distinct logo.

The sportswear giant said it had repeatedly asked White Fox to stop selling and promoting the clothes since March, but the Sydney-based company refused.

The fast-fashion online retailer is popular with teenagers and young adults in Australia, the UK and the US, and has relied on billboards, bus advertising and influencers – often university-aged – to grow its profile.

In the Federal Court on Friday, lawyers for White Fox denied any breach of trademark.

While White Fox has not yet lodged a formal defence, its lawyers told Justice Ian Jackman that the firm intends to argue that other prominent Australian brands such as Cotton On, Sportscraft and Glassons sell clothes with “similar decorative stripes”.

Lawyers for Adidas told the court that White Fox, in advertising and selling its clothes with four stripes, had the “intention to trade off our reputation”.

A three to four-day trial is expected to take place early next year, the court heard.

In its written statement of claim, Adidas says its three-striped design has a “substantial and valuable reputation” in Australia, where it has been trademarked since 1957.

The company says since at least March, White Fox has been selling and advertising clothes with four parallel stripes of equal width, which it claims is an infringement of Adidas’s trademark.

White Fox’s designs are “substantially identical with or otherwise deceptively similar” to Adidas, the company claims.

It also argues that White Fox’s advertisements for its four-striped clothes and White Fox-branded socks feature people wearing “genuine” Adidas items.

This might lead Australians to think Adidas is associated with White Fox and has approved of the design, the documents claim.

The company says White Fox is “drawing an association in the minds of consumers” of the two brands, or at least “sailing close to the wind”.

Adidas, which reported €24.8 billion (£21bn; $28bn) in revenue in 2025, is also seeking damages, saying White Fox must pay them the profit from the products plus interest and costs.

Evidence provided by Adidas included side-by-side comparisons of its products with White Fox clothes which include sweatpants and lounge shorts, as well as images of billboards on buses and at bus stops.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9e8ld448km8o

Pierina Nicuray, a 21-year-old university graduate, has spent a week camped out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square.

Like many of the hundreds of others who have pitched their tents here to protest at Spain’s housing crisis, she has no doubts when it comes to diagnosing the cause.

“It’s the same problem as always,” she says. “A lack of homes.”

She adds: “Landlords are taking advantage of the situation to raise rentals, and then there’s also Airbnb.”

Jorge Moreno, a 19-year-old film-dubbing student who has also been living in a tent here in central Madrid for the last few days, agrees.

“There are so many homes standing empty because they have been bought by vulture funds and investment funds which hike up the rent of people living in properties until they get rid of them,” says Jorge, who lives with his mother and fears it will be a long time before he can afford a home of his own.

“They’ve been making a business of housing for a long time,” he adds. “But it’s an abusive business which stops Spaniards from being able to live in a decent home.”

His and Pierina’s diagnoses are frequently voiced by fellow protesters, ordinary Spaniards and even the Spanish government.

On presenting a recent package of emergency measures to tackle the housing problem, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he was legislating “against those who consider housing just another object on the market with which to speculate”.

Those reforms were rejected by Congress, prompting Sánchez to call a snap election next month.

Nicuray and Moreno can point to the single case that sparked the current Spanish housing protest movement as proof that profit-driven practices are at the heart of the crisis: the 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her home after the investment firm that had bought it tried to persuade her to leave, then sharply increased her rent, which she was unable to pay.

Although the social backlash that followed caused the company to invite Abascal to return to her old home, she never did, dying in hospital on Wednesday.

Many others have their own stories of struggling with a soaring rental market.

Carmen Pérez is a retired widow, originally from Ecuador, who has been living in Spain for 17 years.

When she arrived, housing was relatively cheap and accessible, but – as costs have risen – she has been forced to move in with her daughter and son-in-law as she looks for somewhere affordable to rent.

“When a property is listed to rent, there’s always a long waiting list,” she says. “And the rent is always too high for me. All of this has affected my health – I’ve got depression, I don’t have any stability or security.”

Spain has seen an average rise in rental costs of 84% over the last 10 years, according to property outlet Idealista.

In the centre of the southern city of Málaga, the increase has been 113 %, and, in Marbella – just under 150%.

Such numbers have made housing Spaniards’ biggest concern.

A recent study by the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) showed how the broader Spanish population, like the protesters, want to see action taken against those perceived to be powerful movers in the housing market.

Some 72% wanted higher taxes introduced for those with 10 or more properties; 76% wanted limits on short-term tourist accommodation; and 40% supported the expropriation of empty homes.

However, Jorge Galindo, director at the Esade centre for economic policy, says that available data makes it difficult to know exactly how many Spanish properties are owned by so-called “vulture funds” and being used for speculation.

He points to Bank of Spain figures from 2024 showing that only 8% of properties for rent are owned by companies.

Galindo says he concludes from the data available that there is not a notable accumulation of property to rent among a small number of owners in Spain.

“When it comes to explaining the rise in rentals, that is not the big cause,” he says. “What explains it is the shortage of supply compared to demand over recent years.”

The Bank of Spain appears to agree, and has estimated that the country has a housing shortfall of around 750,000 homes.

The institution’s deputy governor, Soledad Núñez, warned in September that by 2028 that could rise to one million.

There are 3.8 million empty properties in Spain, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), but a large number of those are in depopulated rural areas and therefore have little relevance to the current crisis, which is most acute in urban hubs.

Other explanations for this high number include properties awaiting renovation, or legal disputes between family members who have inherited them.

Demographic changes play a major part in the imbalance between supply and demand.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3j4790elkx7o

The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on December 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.

The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, the Pentagon said Thursday, a stunning revelation about plans for the first military execution in more than 65 years after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had described it as being “public.”

The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on December 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.

Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, said, “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.” Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

The revelation from Hegseth about the public nature of the execution — let alone one as violent as a firing squad — has raised further questions about how the death penalty is carried out in the US, especially after the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee.

Hasan could choose to resist execution and file a habeas petition — a legal request to review the legality of a detention — in civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution, experts said.

“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law.

Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and law professor at Fordham University, said livestreaming an execution could make the process “much more transparent” and inform the public about all that capital punishment entails. Those are benefits that she said would be useful at a time when Pike’s botched execution has raised fresh questions about the manner by which criminal defendants are put to death for their crimes.

“I think it could possibly be a good idea because it would be transparent and the public would be fully aware that it’s happening,” she said.

When many states have had difficulty carrying out lethal injections due to difficulty accessing drugs or finding medical professionals willing to participate in executions, firing squads are coming to be seen as a less inhumane alternative, said Brenner Fissell, a professor at Villanova Law and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

“Firing squads can be a quicker, cleaner, more precise way to execute a prisoner,” he said. “I don’t think that’s what’s motivating this. There’s a perceived masculinity and military-ness to firing squads that is part of the aura Hegseth is trying to emphasize — the ‘lethality culture.'”

Elisabeth Semel, co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, said Hegseth’s announcement raises a host of legal and public policy questions, including concerns for the dignity of the defendant, who will be eligible to view the execution and what the Trump administration has in mind in opting for an unusual spectacle.

Though there has been long-running discussion about the idea of televising an execution, “I don’t recall a situation in which it was instituted by the government. I think that also raises serious questions about what is the motivation of the government,” she said.

“This is a president who’s about spectacle and that’s, I think, precisely the message that he intends to deliver,” Semel said, adding that she was skeptical that the administration had given second thought to the legal and social questions being presented by the decision.

Trump, who approved Hasan’s execution, has previously been critical of public executions in Iran, at times using the possibility of protesters being killed by the Iranian government as a possible rationale for military action that preceded his ultimate choice to attack Iran on Feb. 28.

“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping,” Trump told reporters on Jan. 14. “It’s stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.”

In his State of the Union address just days before launching the Iran war, Trump reiterated, “We stopped them from hanging a lot of them with the threat of serious violence.”

The White House on Thursday referred questions about the plans for the livestreamed execution to the Pentagon.

Hegseth was asked Wednesday if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration. The Pentagon chief replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on Dec. 3.”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building on Nov. 5, 2009, where soldiers were waiting in long lines to receive immunizations and medical clearance for deployment. He shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He also shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.

Hasan said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defense during his 2013 trial. Hasan was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back by law enforcement, and he now uses a wheelchair.

Hasan could seek a lengthy delay of his execution, though given his behavior at trial, he may not want to.

After firing his lawyers and representing himself, Hasan began his portion of the trial by telling jurors he was the gunman. He said little else over the next three weeks, which convinced his court-appointed standby lawyers that Hasan’s only goal was to get a death sentence.

The military called nearly 90 witnesses, but Hasan rested his case without calling a single person to testify in his defense and made no closing argument. Yet he leaked documents during the trial to journalists that revealed him telling military mental health workers that he could ” still be a martyr ” if executed.

Attorney John Galligan, a former military judge who had represented Hasan in several civil matters following his criminal trial, spoke with Hasan on Wednesday but is barred from offering much detail about that conversation. He is not representing Hasan in his criminal case but said he’s worried about his physical health under the plan laid out by officials, and that Hasan has not yet had access to legal counsel.

Galligan said that according to Hasan, the commandant of the facility brought a chaplain but no attorney from either the Trial Defense Service or from his civilian defense when he was notified that Trump had signed off on his execution. Galligan called that a breach of Army regulations.

A spokeswoman for the Army said Thursday that multiple attempts were made to contact Trial Defense Service attorneys, saying they made every reasonable effort and adhered to policy.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/execution-of-fort-hood-shooter-nidal-malik-hasan-will-be-livestreamed-pentagon-12159304?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The US said the individuals and companies would be blocked from carrying out transactions involving the targeted firms.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Mumbai-based companies and five Indian nationals over alleged involvement in the trade of Iranian petroleum products, as Washington steps up pressure on Tehran’s oil revenue network.

The US State Department said that the measures targeted SSPL Solutions Private Limited and Samudra Marine Services Private Limited for allegedly facilitating the import of petroleum products from Iran.

Five Indians named in US sanctions

Two people linked to SSPL Solutions, Dhwani Vora and Nisarg Vora, and three associated with Samudra Marine Services — Ketan Kochikar, Bhupendrasingh Sahu and Harishyam Hariharan Chundakattil — were also sanctioned.

The US said the individuals and companies would be blocked from carrying out transactions involving the targeted firms.

The measures form part of Washington’s wider campaign against Iran, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast”.

The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two missiles heading towards Riyadh. The kingdom’s civil defence agency later said falling debris damaged the two civilian sites.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday said that debris from the interception of missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthis damaged a kindergarten and a medical complex in Riyadh, as the Iran-backed group launched a fresh wave of attacks on the Saudi capital.

The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two missiles heading towards Riyadh. The kingdom’s civil defence agency later said falling debris damaged the two civilian sites. It did not report casualties or give details of the extent of the damage.

Fresh attacks target Riyadh

The Houthis claimed three separate attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, also said missiles were fired at an airport in Najran and an airbase in Khamis Mushait.

The group has increasingly targeted Saudi Arabia since fighting in Yemen intensified in July. It has threatened to strike key infrastructure and disrupt Saudi airspace.

Sources briefed on the situation gave differing accounts of damage at Riyadh airport, with one saying a plane suffered severe damage and another reporting that three aircraft were hit. The claims could not be independently verified.

Several flights at the airport were delayed or cancelled, while passengers were advised to check with airlines before travelling.

Residents told to take precautions

Explosions were heard across Riyadh after the missile interceptions. Some diplomats were instructed to remain inside their embassies, while several international schools took extra safety measures.

One school reportedly moved children to a basement after the attacks. A parent told AFP that her daughter had called her, saying she was “completely distraught”.

The United States urged its citizens in Saudi Arabia to exercise heightened vigilance following the attacks.

The Houthis have also threatened Saudi oil facilities, warning workers to leave them. The latest escalation comes days after an attack on a major refinery south of Riyadh.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/saudi-says-debris-from-houthis-missile-interception-hits-riyadh-kindergarten-medical-complex-ws-l-10373602.html

Eleven years after Pakistan’s parliament voted to keep the country out of a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in 2015, Islamabad has agreed to rapidly ‌deploy more forces to Saudi Arabia without a parliamentary vote, highlighting the military’s grip on foreign policy under Field Marshal Asim Munir.
On Monday, a defence pact Pakistan signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey in August was invoked for the first time, as the kingdom faces escalating attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.

Constitutional changes last year had put Munir in command of all three services until 2030, with lifetime rank as field ​marshal and immunity from criminal prosecution.
Analysts say the deployment signals the growing power of the military at home, where jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party ​is marching on Islamabad, accusing the army of dominating politics – an accusation the army denies.
“There were times in the past when Pakistan’s parliament ⁠would vote not to send troops, and the military would abide by that decision. But it’s a different era now,” said Michael Kugelman, a resident senior fellow for ​South Asia at the Atlantic Council.

Pakistan’s information ministry said the alliance “has gone through all necessary government procedures” but did not say whether the cabinet or parliament was involved, calling ​details of the deployment “a matter of operational confidentiality.”
It’s not clear if Pakistani troops will take part in operations against the Houthis, who are backed by Iran. Pakistan is actively engaged with Tehran in its role as a mediator in the US-led war on Iran, but if Islamabad gets involved in directly fighting the Houthis, that could rupture relations.
The Houthis declared a ban on Saudi shipping in July ​and have since struck tankers and oil facilities. Last week, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said the militant group had hit a power station in Medina that supplies ​electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque – a claim the Houthis denied.

After an emergency meeting in Riyadh that Munir attended with Saudi and Turkish counterparts, the three countries condemned attempted attacks on Mecca and ‌Medina and ⁠said they would “provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment” in line with each country’s “national legislation”.
They gave no troop numbers, missions, command arrangements, costs or duration.
In 2015, when Saudi Arabia asked for Pakistani troops, warplanes and ships for its Yemen campaign, the then-Pakistan government put the request to parliament, which unanimously resolved to stay neutral while pledging to defend the kingdom’s territory and holy sites.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/munirs-military-takes-gulf-role-pakistans-parliament-is-not-involved-2026-10-08/

Schools in several Malaysian states as well as its federal and administrative capitals will be closed ​on Friday, the education ministry said, after smoky ‌haze caused by forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia pushed air pollution to unhealthy levels.

• The areas affected include the states of Johor, Malacca, Negeri ​Sembilan and Selangor on the Malaysian peninsular, as ​well as the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur and its ⁠administrative centre Putrajaya, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said in ​a Facebook post late Thursday.
• Schools will also be closed in ​the Rompin district of Pahang state, she said.
• “I have asked all state education departments and district education offices to continue to monitor the ​haze situation and take immediate action if the situation ​requires it,” she said.
• Malaysia’s Air Pollutant Index classifies air quality as “unhealthy” from ‌101 ⁠to 200, “very unhealthy” from 201 to 300, and “hazardous” above 300. On Friday morning, 37 areas recorded unhealthy API levels, according to government data.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/malaysia-closes-schools-several-states-territories-due-haze-2026-10-09/

Top Russian and US officials, including US Special Envoy Jared Kushner, have held talks about bringing a US investor into the Nord Stream pipelines that delivered gas to Germany before Russia invaded Ukraine, five people with knowledge ​of the situation said.
The discussions included Kirill Dmitriev, a close adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, the people said.

Kushner, who has been ‌trying to broker a truce between Russia and Ukraine, views doing business as central to restoring peace. Such a deal would enable US investors to profit from energy flows to Europe once the war ends.
Dmitriev and Kushner have met in Moscow and New York in recent weeks. While it was unclear to what degree they discussed Nord Stream on those occasions, the topic remains on the agenda, two of the people told Reuters.
“Any deals will have to be negotiated by Russia with DFC (US International Development Finance Corporation) and Treasury and must ​benefit United States taxpayers and companies,” a White House official said, when asked about the pipeline discussions.

There had been “no Nord Stream discussions recently”, the official told Reuters.
Dmitriev, who has campaigned for a resumption of ​Russian gas sales to Germany, met last month with US Energy and Treasury Department representatives to discuss potential US-Russia energy initiatives. A representative for Dmitriev declined to comment.
It remains ⁠unclear how interested Washington is in pursuing the restarting of Russian gas flows to Germany, which is Europe’s biggest energy consumer.
A US official said that given the obstacles, a deal is unlikely in the medium term. The ​Nord Stream gas pipelines are sanctioned by the US and the EU, making any restart illegal.
Trump could waive or soften US sanctions, but if Democrats win control of Congress in next month’s midterm elections, this would become harder.

Germany ​and other European countries, which are spending billions of euros rebuilding their military to defend themselves from Russia, would strongly resist reopening Nord Stream.
A spokeswoman for Germany’s economy and energy ministry said Nord Stream and Russian gas were sanctioned in Europe and that Germany had found alternatives. She said any reopening of the pipelines required government approval and this was not desired.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany bought more than half of its gas from Russia through the two Nord Stream pipelines. They were mothballed ​after Moscow throttled supply to Europe and were blown up in a series of underwater explosions in September 2022.

NORD STREAM OWNERSHIP HURDLES

Talks between Moscow and Washington are taking place against a backdrop of deep European mistrust of ​Russia’s motives.

Earlier this year, the heads of five European spy agencies told Reuters that Russia did not want to end the war quickly and was using US talks to push for business deals instead.
Relations between Russia and Germany, which is among the ‌biggest providers of ⁠military support to Ukraine, have hit a low ebb, as officials in Berlin have accused Russia of mounting a systematic campaign of hybrid attacks.
Some German lawmakers say that business deals would bolster Moscow as it pursues war with Ukraine.
“This threatens to be a dirty deal that will cost Europe dearly,” said Michael Kellner, a lawmaker who was in charge of German energy policy in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion.
“Americans and Russians will share the profits,” he said.
While Germany’s coalition government is opposed to restarting the pipeline, Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s most popular political party, wants to do so.
Dmitriev will meet the AfD leadership early next year to discuss selling Russian gas again.
But selling ownership of the ​company that controls the Nord Stream gas pipelines to ​a US investor or restarting Russian gas faces ⁠hurdles.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-russia-explore-gas-sale-europe-amid-ukraine-war-say-sources-2026-10-08/

French teenagers blockaded some high schools and marched ​through cities on Thursday in the latest wave of nationwide protests about conditions in the country’s schools, and some of the demonstrations were marred by ‌violent unrest.
The Interior Ministry said 71,500 people participated in the day’s demonstrations, of which 24,500 took part in the main Paris protest centred around the Bastille square.

The Paris protest was mostly peaceful, although there were occasional clashes between small groups of demonstrators and the police during the evening.
Elsewhere, arsonists attacked a Bordeaux police station, a school in Saint-Etienne was ransacked and a teacher in Toulouse was hit by a ​demonstrator, said the Interior Ministry.
In Marseille, police said a teacher at Victor Hugo High School was attacked during the latest protests and has filed a criminal complaint ​over the incident.

The protest movement, now into its third week, has exposed deep tensions in France between popular demands for investments in deteriorating ⁠public services and a cash-strapped government under pressure from bond markets to reduce its debt and deficit.

Protesters say they are demonstrating to demand more teachers and better facilities, arguing school buildings ​are often dilapidated, with overcrowded classrooms that are often freezing in winter and boiling in summer.
Critics say the movement has been infiltrated by violent far-left and anarchist elements.
High-school teacher Diane ​Di Sciullo joined students in Marseille, saying all they were asking for was a decent education in decent conditions. She denounced overcrowding, saying this year she had 37 students in her class.
“At the start of every lesson, I have to ask them to check the neighbouring classrooms for spare chairs and desks so they can actually study,” she said.
Di Sciullo, 28, was carrying a placard that read, “I’m a teacher and ​my students help me catch cockroaches in class.”

MINISTER PROMISES URGENT ACTION

Education Minister Edouard Geffray told TF1 TV that extra ​teachers would be drafted in to plug gaps in schools which do not have enough teachers, while heavy school timetables will also be reviewed.
It is not uncommon for French teenagers to have lessons from 8 ‌a.m. to ⁠6 p.m., as well as large amounts of homework.
Geffray also said he was working on potential improvements to Parcoursup, the national online portal for applying to university, which has been widely criticised as confusing and stressful for applicants.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu pledged late on Wednesday that the government would present “concrete, quick and fully funded responses” to the protests by late October, without offering specifics.
Student protest leaders said that was not good enough and called for further marches next Tuesday. There are also calls circulating online for a day of protests on October 17.
“Our ​demands must be heard. Yesterday, Mr Lecornu ​gave us a lot of hot air,” ⁠said Ryad Rani, leader of one of the student unions.
“The mobilisation will continue, we’re not backing down on anything.”
A prominent complaint featured on banners and placards was that the police response to the wave of protests has been too heavy-handed. “Too young to be listened to, old ​enough to be tear-gassed” was one example.
There have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries since the movement started. On ​Wednesday, the government suspended the ⁠use of stun grenades in the policing of the protests after one teenager’s hand was blown off.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-school-blockades-persist-after-pms-unspecified-promises-2026-10-08/

The southern Ohio community made famous by Vice President JD Vance’s childhood memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” has been rapidly colonized by thousands of migrants from Uzbekistan who run shady, accident-prone trucking operations with glaring red flags for safety violations, The Post discovered.

Locals say the sudden invasion has rattled the quaint, conservative community. One local school district is now 12% non-English speaking students, with most from Central Asia. A sprawling, multi-million dollar mosque also is under construction in tiny Maineville, Ohio.

Dozens of Uzbek-owned commercial trucking companies in Butler and Warren counties operate out of shared residential addresses, log millions of impossible annual mileage and claim to own thousands of phantom big rigs. And they’re exploiting New York’s leftist laws to get away with it.

One company, Badri B LLC, reported on federal Department of Transportation (DOT) paperwork to own 23,001 trucks — all operating out of a single apartment in Loveland, Ohio.

“It’s bad. I first noticed this stuff around 2020, 2021 but it started getting really bad a year or so ago,” one local resident told The Post.

“When [a trucking company] has too many violations, and they can’t get any more loads because they’re flagged as an unsafe carrier, they will just open a new company so they can keep going,” the concerned citizen claimed.

Maineville — just 25 miles from Vance’s hometown of Middletown — became an overnight freight hub with 267 active commercial trucking companies registered in the village of just 1,500 residents.

Twenty-two residential addresses in Maineville hold two or more trucking companies registered. Industry experts said that’s a red flag for so-called “chameleon companies,” truckers who easily escape their accident-prone, violation-riddled driving record by simply registering a new company through the DOT, usually under the same address and phone number.

Nearby in West Chester, Ohio, one address is home to a whopping sixteen companies. Another West Chester company run out of a single apartment unit, Shod Express LLC, claimed 41 million miles in 2025 across 52 drivers according to DOT records.

That’s a physical impossibility working out to around 854,000 miles per driver that year. A real hard-running solo year is closer to 110,000 miles, industry experts said.

Phoenix Cargo in nearby Circleville claimed nearly 80 million miles in 2026 across 395 trucks on federal reporting documents — another physical impossibility.

“I’ve never seen it this bad or this blatant. We get videos all the time from drivers at truck stops filming somebody literally tearing off the [vehicle identification] numbers on the side of their truck and putting a new one on,” Tom Balzer, president of the Ohio Trucking Association, a nonprofit trade group, told The Post.

“There’s an impact there. There’s a direct correlation between non-domiciled CDL holders and accidents that they see a significantly higher amount of accidents than those that aren’t.”

Balzer said one reason to inflate mileage or number of trucks is to make a company look safer that it really is as they compete for loads.

“The obvious impact is the detriment to the industry’s safety record. Everyone who’s a legitimate trucking company in this country wants our industry to be as safe as possible,” he said.

In late August, the Trump administration launched a major joint effort through the DOT and Homeland Security targeting non-citizen truckers, also known as non-domiciled CDLs, who are unqualified to drive big rigs.

Officials announced they shut down 270 CDL (short for Commercial Driver’s License) schools for safety violations, lack of facilities, and failing English proficiency requirements.

Federal officials say at least 30 people were killed in crashes involving non-domiciled truckers in 2025.

At 1 a.m. on July 5, Uzbeki trucker Bekhzod Asrarov of Maineville smashed his big rig into a Honda Accord on Interstate 71 near Columbus, killing 21-year-old Toby Forsythe, an economics major and men’s soccer goalie at UMass Lowell.

According to court documents Asrarov, 42, was unable to communicate in English and faces charges of tampering with evidence after cops said he attempted to hide his dash cam. Asrarov came into the US in 2024 under President Joe Biden’s diversity visa lottery and held an Ohio CDL. He has yet to enter a plea.

In February, just over the Indiana state line from Butler County, illegal immigrant Bekzhan Beishekeev of neighboring Kyrgyzstan plowed into a van carrying 15 Amish construction workers, killing four. Beishekeev, 30, obtained his CDL from Pennsylvania, often cited as another oasis for issuing licenses to illegals, and is currently facing multiple felony charges.

Last year, Uzbek national Bekhzod Rakhmatov, 30, also of Maineville, was indicted in a human smuggling scheme that brought aliens to the US-Mexico border. According to feds, Rakhmatov arranged international transit and border entry and faces up to 10 years in prison. A source told The Post Rakhmatov was allegedly paid up to $20,000 per illegal he helped smuggle into the country.

None of those men has yet entered a plea and none of the trucking companies named responded to requests for comment from The Post.

One creeped-out local who spoke to The Post claimed men sit in their big rigs outside a gym and a popular second-hand clothing shop eyeing young girls who go in and out — and have even solicited some for sex.

The town was shocked following the August conviction of 44-year-old Uzbek trucker Shakrat Abshukurov of Maineville, who spoke no English, after he was found guilty of kidnapping and raping a 13-year-old girl in 2019.

Locals described semis plowing through yards and knocking down mailboxes. They said noise and pollution from the 200 16-wheelers parked at rental lot on Grandin Road became such a nuisance the local township halted a planned expansion.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/us-news/muslim-migrants-running-shady-trucking-companies-in-ohio/

NASHVILLE — Christa Pike asked “where am I?” when she woke up from a botched execution attempt, which left her suffering from a blood clot in her arm, pneumonia and not being able to eat, her lawyer said.

Pike, 50, was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years on September 30 — but instead became the first prisoner ever to survive a lethal injection in the US.

Her first words when she woke up on Tuesday were “Where am I and who are you?” before asking about her victim Colleen Slemmer’s family, her attorney, Randy Spivey, told a press conference Wednesday.

Pike was sentenced to death for brutally torturing and killing her 19-year-old classmate Slemmer in a jealous rage in Jan. 1995, when she was 18.

She was rushed to hospital after receiving two doses of lethal injection drug pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville last week and was initially said to be unconscious and in a critical condition.

“Christa has a long road to recovery,” Spivey said. “She has a blood clot in one of her arms, she has pneumonia. She is not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten.”

Spivey said that Pike also suffered “extraordinary” swelling to her hands, adding that they “looked like if you were to blow up a surgical glove.”

The lawyer revealed that on Monday night her legal team had been told Pike was brain dead and life support would be removed the following day.

“But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking,” he said.

“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning.”

Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist who has advised Pike’s lawyers, earlier told the BBC that Pike “has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt.”

Zivot added that Pike could recall her name, is able to communicate in a “basic way” and made an incorrect guess at the date, believing that it was still September.

Spivey spoke outside Davidson County Chancery Court after Pike’s legal team appeared to argue for an emergency motion requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence related to the bungled execution.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/us-news/christa-pikes-first-words-after-waking-from-botched-execution-lawyer-lists-her-health-issues/

The “Cornell 7” Jane Doe has been barraged with death threats since going public with her gang rape allegations — including texts and phone calls vowing to “shoot … different people in your family” if she doesn’t drop her lawsuit, The Post has learned.

“Would you like to see [redacted]’s brains infront of [redacted]?” read one message sent to Doe’s phone and containing specific names and addresses.

“If so, don’t withdraw the case,” the message, obtained by The Post, continued. “If you care about your family [redacted] withdraw the case.”

That sender claimed to be related to Jonathan Newell — one of the seven Cornell Chi Phi brothers Doe named in her September lawsuit — and accused her of spreading lies about “something he didn’t do.”

There was no indication the creep is actually related to Newell — he confusingly referred to the expelled Cornell student as both his “brother” and “cousin” across various messages.

The sickening threats also included a three-minute phone call where the same person coolly named Doe, addresses and people she knew while threatening harm.

“Yoooo. Yo,” that chilling phone call started. “To be honest, man, I’m probably just gonna like pull up to your house and like shoot … different people in your family. I don’t really care anymore. Now you’re pissing me off by ignoring me.”

“Like, why would you lie, like, on my brother Jonathan’s name, bro?” it continued. “Why would you, like, accuse my innocent brother, Jonathan. That’s f–ked up, dude? My brother Jonathan, man. And you accused him of something he didn’t do. Innocent, innocent guy.”

The creepiness ramped up from there.

“I can hear you, I can hear your breathing,” the menace said. “Instead of speaking up, you’re just sitting there quiet. Why can’t you just have a normal human conversation?”

“If you want to keep ignoring me bro, like, I can’t guarantee you’ll be safe, brother, seriously. I’m being very honest with you. Hey, dude.”

The call finally ends with a “Hellooo?” and threat to “beat the f–k out of” and “do stuff to” someone Doe knew.

The same caller similarly menaced various other people in Doe’s orbit — and the messages were so hair-raising that she reported it to police, who were dispatched to her home to investigate.

Doe’s attorney, Thomas Giuffra, said those were just two of the numerous threats she’s received since her lawsuit against the Chi Phi brothers, sparking nationwide controversy about police, prosecutors and the Ivy League school’s handling of her bombshell accusations.

“Do people not have common decency anymore? It’s cowardly that these people cannot have civilized discourse,” Giuffra said. “We have courts and judges for a reason — so we can resolve disputes civilly, without threats to go to someone’s home and murder their family.”

“It’s time to lower the temperature because people are acting dangerously,” he added.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/us-news/cornell-7-jane-doe-harassed-with-death-threats-cant-guarantee-youll-be-safe/

We came, we saw, we spilled tea.

Page Six’s second-annual “Virtual Reali-Tea” Awards, sponsored by Tri-State Cadillac, CoverGirl, Philo and Kahlúa, took over Edison Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night, bringing together some of the most iconic reality stars for a fabulous night of food, drinks and iconic moments in the making.

Hosted by “VRT” stars Danny Murphy and Evan Real, the fan-voted celebration kicked off with a star-studded red carpet and cocktail hour, with more than 60 of TV’s finest from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” “Summer House,” “The Real Housewives,” “Selling Sunset” and more showing off their glitzy outfits for cameras and chatting with a slew of reporters along the way.

The ceremony opened with “Musician of the Year” nominee Scheana Shay bringing a “Vanderpump Rules” classic to the stage with an unforgettable performance of “Good as Gold.”

“Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Whitney Rose presented the first award of the night, revealing “Next Gen NYC” fan-favorite Ariana Biermann as this year’s “Breakout Star.”

“Summer House” veteran Kyle Cooke was named “Hot-Tea of the Year,” while “RHOSLC” star Meredith Marks won “Style Icon of the Year” and “Real Housewives of New Jersey” trio Teresa Giudice, Melissa Gorga and Dolores Catania took home the award for “Best Return to Screen.”

Giudice joked she had a speech prepared, but had “too much to drink.” After Catania and Gorga spoke, Giudice said they “love, love, love” Murphy and Real.

While Ciara Miller was busy dancing her heart out to “Mariah Carey Night” on “Dancing with the Stars,” Murphy and Real were there to accept the award for “Best Reunion Performance” on her behalf.

And the “Summer House” love didn’t stop there, because Lindsay Hubbard and her daughter, Gemma, won “Best Dynamic Duo.”

As guests sipped their espresso martinis, the official cocktail of the 2026 VRT Awards, Murphy and Real kept the energy high throughout the show, mingling with the starry crowd and stopping to spill the tea with glamorous guests including Hilaria Baldwin, as well as Cooke.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/10/06/entertainment/page-sixs-2026-vrt-awards-brings-bevy-of-reality-stars-under-one-roof/

A death row inmate was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday evening in Texas, the first execution in the US since the failed attempt to put Christa Pike to death last week using the same method.

Lawyers for 46-year-old Jamaal Howard had asked a judge to pause the execution in light of Pike’s botched injections last week, according to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

But courts denied their requests, and he received a fatal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 20:03 local time.

Howard was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2000 murder of a convenience store clerk during a robbery he committed.

His lawyers had argued that because Texas planned to inject Howard with the same drug – pentobarbital – that was used on Pike, he faced the same risks. They also alleged that Texas’ supply of the drug had become degraded, as Pike’s lawyers have similarly argued.

A court twice denied their appeals and the US Supreme Court also turned down the appeal late Wednesday.

“Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps; a stay would keep that from happening,” Howard’s attorneys had argued, CBS reported.

Howard’s attorneys also asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, to delay the execution by 30 days so they could seek additional information about the drug used in the execution. The governor did not grant the delay.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4g1j2z5zvzo

Federal prosecutors are expected to bring additional charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, the BBC’s US media partner CBS has reported.

The new charges accuse them of playing a role in the torture of Americans who were held in Venezuelan prisons, according to CBS.

US forces seized Maduro and Flores from their compound in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in a dramatic, night-time raid on 3 January, and brought them to New York to face charges for alleged weapon and drug offences, which they deny.

The BBC has contacted Maduro’s lawyer for comment as well as the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan ​which brought the charges.

Additional people may be charged for their role in torturing more than a dozen Americans who were wrongfully detained by the Venezuelan government under Maduro, CBS reports.

Maduro’s attorney, Barry Pollack, told CBS that he was not provided notice about any additional charges.

Flores, who is facing drug trafficking and weapons charges, is scheduled to appear in federal court for a bond hearing on Thursday in New York.

The trial for both Maduro and Flores is set to begin in June 2027.

The US has accused Maduro of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

He and 14 others were first indicted in 2020, during President Trump’s first term.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx62y37r1p8eo

A HEROIC 6-year-old boy made a desperate attempt to protect his young sister after they were viciously attacked by their mother who allegedly stabbed them 50 times.

Jan Marie Mull, 59, recalled the horrifying feeling that overcame her when she learned that her grandson, Dawson, and his 3-year-old sister, Hazel, were rushed to the hospital with multiple stab wounds.

Dawson and Hazel were stabbed 50 times combined after their mother Taylor Gosnell attacked them with a kitchen knife in their South Carolina home on September 26, according to police.

“I couldn’t breathe. Honest to God, I could not breathe. I was freaking floored,” Mull told The U.S. Sun.

The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said little Dawson and Hazel suffered severe cuts down to the bone.

Deputies uncovered the bloody scene at Gosnell’s home, about 35 miles east of Greenville, after responding to a welfare check.

When authorities arrived, they found the home in disarray, including smashed television sets and shattered mirrors.

There, deputies located the siblings, alone and suffering from multiple cuts and stabs.

Mull said doctors have told her that Dawson is facing the likelihood of amputation.

“The medicine keeps him knocked out. They are looking at amputation,” the grandmother added.

Gosnell, 35, returned to the home while authorities were investigating the scene and began exhibiting strange behavior, including speaking rapidly and appearing distressed.

Officials transported Gosnell to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, but before she arrived she allegedly tried to flee from the ambulance and had to be restrained to a stretcher.

Gosnell was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after being medically cleared.

Mull, whose son Blake, who died in 2020, is Dawson’s dad, believes her grandson suffered the worst of the attack because he was attempting to save his sister.

“The only thing I can visualize why Dawson had more injuries than Hazel was Dawson was trying to protect Hazel,” Mull said.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17110655/heroic-boy-tried-saving-sister-mom-stabbed-them/

MELANIA Trump’s team has taken a swipe at Tom Cruise after the Hollywood superstar suffered a brutal box-office disappointment with his latest movie.

A senior adviser to the First Lady gloated that her own documentary had beaten Cruise’s Digger on one key measure as the $125million-plus movie struggled to attract audiences.

The unusual comparison emerged on Tuesday after Digger opened in 3,321 theaters across North America and brought in just $8 million over its first weekend.

Marc Beckman, a senior adviser to Melania, seized on the poor showing to promote her movie, which hit theaters earlier this year.

“MELANIA, The Film // By The Numbers,” Beckman wrote on X.

“On a per-theater basis, MELANIA outperformed Tom Cruise’s DIGGER by approximately 67%, despite opening in roughly half as many theaters.”

He added, “Digger played in 1,543 more theaters than MELANIA.”

Beckman claimed Melania outperformed Digger by around 67 percent on a per-theater basis, despite Cruise’s film opening in 1,543 more theaters.

He said Melania made $7.16 million from 1,778 theaters during its opening weekend.

But the films are vastly different projects and their financial pictures are more complicated than the comparison suggests.

Melania eventually grossed about $16.7 million worldwide during its theatrical run.

Amazon MGM reportedly paid $40 million for the rights to the documentary and spent another roughly $35 million promoting it.

Digger, meanwhile, is only days into its theatrical run.

The dark comedy earned another $12 million overseas during its opening weekend, taking its initial worldwide haul to $20 million.

Cruise, 64, plays wealthy oil tycoon Digger Rockwell in the satire from Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu.

The character finds himself confronting an environmental catastrophe that he helped create.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17112937/melania-trump-advisor-takes-stab-at-tom-cruise-digger/

HEALTH chiefs are demanding answers from Russia after reports of a second plague victim – fuelling growing fears of an outbreak.

Panic broke out last week after a scientist in Russia died after reportedly being exposed to the plague.

Hundreds are in quarantine, hospitals have been shut down and public events were cancelled in the Eastern European country.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced last night it was probing reports of a second case.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the global health body has sought answers from Russia following “reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause”.

It comes after unverified reports from Russian media claimed a second person had died of the plague in Russia’s Irkutsk region.

The US embassy in Russia has now warned Americans about the threat of plague and urged them to leave the territory “immediately”.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he had a call scheduled with Russian leader Vladimir Putin “very soon”.

Trump said he was involved in “very deep discussions” and would be able to offer more details “probably tomorrow”.

It comes amid reports that the US government is growing increasingly frustrated by Moscow’s failure to disclose more details on the researchers death.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned the information from Russia was “still quite limited”.

“Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know”, he added.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed it has “officially requested additional information from the Russian government.”

Fears of a plague outbreak ignited last week when Daria Shipilova, 28, died after being exposed to what some outlets reported to be the plague.

She reportedly told medical staff she had accidentally broken a test tube holding live bacteria at Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute.

The scientist then became ill while on an expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, near Russia‘s eastern border with Mongolia.

But Russian health authorities initially failed to confirm Daria’s death, sparking fears of a cover-up.

Russian officials said they have found no evidence her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with, but media reports suggest she may have died of pneumonic plague.

They also claimed a probe found no accidents involving dangerous pathogens and a broken test-tube at the high-security laboratory.

The country’s consumer welfare service said the “sanitary-epidemiological situation” in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov was “stable”.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared Tuesday it is seeking further information on the Russian case.

But the risk to the wider UK population is considered to be “very low”, UKHSA added.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17108411/plague-mystery-chiefs-demand-answers-russia-trump-putin/

Bangladesh is seeing a sharp rise in dengue cases, with all four virus serotypes circulating as authorities consider vaccine trials and strengthen hospitals and public awareness efforts.

Bangladesh is battling its worst dengue outbreak. According to health ministry data, more than 90,350 people have been hospitalised with dengue and 281 have died since the beginning of the year.

According to Reuters, “As the outbreak has intensified, in October alone, 10,736 people have been hospitalised and 36 people have died in a country whose healthcare system is also under severe pressure from a measles outbreak that has killed more than 1,100 children.”

Bangladesh is considering carrying out clinical trials of a vaccine against dengue fever after thousands of patients have been hospitalised with the disease and hundreds have died.

The 18-year-old had been under investigation for nearly two years, trading messages with a confidential informant, before agents sold him the rifle and ammunition and arrested him on the spot, they said.

FBI agents thwarted a terror attack by a teenager on the Mall of America after monitoring him for nearly two years and ultimately supplying him with the AK-47 he planned to use, authorities said Wednesday.

The 18-year-old had been on the FBI’s radar since December 2024, when he began trading messages with a confidential informant. A criminal complaint says he initially expressed an interest in traveling to Somalia to fight for al-Shabab militants. As his plans to instead attack the mall solidified, the complaint says, agents sold him the gun and ammunition on Tuesday and arrested him on the spot.

“This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched,” US Attorney Daniel Rosen said. Agents “were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people.”

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Tuesday in a public park in Richfield, several miles northwest of the Mall of America, after he paid $600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of the Islamic State group for the rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition, the agency said.

Mohamud appeared in a yellow jail uniform for his initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in St Paul. He told the judge he did not have a job, own a house or a car, or have any money in the bank. He was represented by Siri Carlson McDowell, a federal public defender. Carlson McDowell and relatives of Mohamud declined to comment after the hearing.

Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born US citizen of Somali descent.

According to an FBI agent’s sworn complaint, Mohamud repeatedly affirmed in chat messages to the informant that he intended to attack and kill non-Muslims at the mall on October 24, the date of a scheduled arts celebration by the Hmong community, Minnesota’s largest Asian ethnic group.

When the informant asked if he was serious about committing the attack, Mohamud replied, “yes i am 100% sure,” the complaint said, and added: “I would have backed out by now if I wasn’t sure.”

The agent wrote that Mohamud’s messages expressed admiration for recent terror attacks as well as an interest in traveling to fight in Somalia, ultimately for the Islamic State group. He later decided he couldn’t afford to travel there and would attack the mall instead, the complaint said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/undercover-fbi-employee-sold-teen-rifle-for-600-then-arrested-him-12153413?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Three people have been killed in attacks on Saudi airports, the country’s civil aviation authorities said on ​Wednesday, as fighting intensified in Yemen between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces.
One person was killed and eight wounded in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in the ‌Saudi capital Riyadh, and two were killed and 28 wounded in an attack on facilities at Abha airport, it said in a statement.

One of the attacks was on Wednesday and the other on Tuesday, the civil aviation authorities said, without saying which attack had occurred on which day.
A Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis vowed retaliation, saying the attacks “will not go unpunished”. In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the coalition said it had attacked more than 80 Houthi military sites across the governorates of Saada, Hodeidah, Jawf and ​Marib.
The Saudi airport attacks were among a series of strikes targeting aviation infrastructure on Wednesday.
The Houthis attacked Aden’s international airport with ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones earlier on Wednesday, the country’s Transport Ministry said.

One ​missile landed near the runway minutes before a flight from Cairo was due to land, the ministry said. The airport is the main international gateway for parts ⁠of Yemen outside Houthi control.
Battles in Yemen have focused in recent days on areas around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a shipping route that has become more crucial for energy exports since the conflict between the US and Iran ​restricted trade through the Strait of Hormuz.
This week, Yemeni government forces with Saudi-led coalition air support launched a counteroffensive to recapture strategic territory near the strait and around the town of Mocha that the Houthis had captured in September, ​but it is unclear if their advance will hold.
The fighting, a spillover from the wider US-Iran conflict, has revived a complex 12-year war in Yemen that led to one of the worst humanitarian crises globally and fragmented the Arab world’s most impoverished country. The number of people displaced since the latest round of fighting began has risen to more than 200,000, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

“People are running for their lives and finding nowhere safe to go,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope, who called for ​more funding amid rising needs for food and shelter. Both sides allege that hundreds of people have been killed in fighting, without providing details. The UN says three in four families are going hungry in parts of ​Yemen.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted infrastructure including airports, oil refineries and pipelines in Saudi Arabia, a US ally.

On Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile north of the Saudi capital Riyadh. It said it ‌was tracking ⁠the launch platform over Houthi-controlled Sanaa and would destroy it, but gave no details of casualties or damage.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement that the group had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with several drones.

BATTLES OVER THE STRAIT

Any Houthi control of the strait could threaten shipping or global oil flows, and Saudi Arabia has been seeking international assistance to repel the Houthis. Turkey is sending mainly defensive and technical support, two officials said on Wednesday, after the NATO member and Pakistan pledged to implement a collective defence commitment under their newly formed alliance.
Syria is carefully considering providing military assistance to ally Saudi Arabia amid the escalating war against the Houthis, a US ​official and a Syrian military official briefed on the ​matter said.
Options being considered include defensive aid to ⁠protect the kingdom from attacks, or deployment of forces in an offensive capacity to help Saudi-backed Yemeni troops fight the Houthis, the officials said.
The US official said Saudi Arabia had requested that Syria deploy forces to fight the Houthis.
In response to a request for comment from the Syrian foreign ministry, a Syrian diplomat said Syria stood ​firmly with Saudi Arabia in the face of Houthi attacks but that the government’s primary focus was on domestic priorities such as recovery from the country’s civil ​war.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/houthis-launch-missiles-yemens-aden-airport-fighting-intensifies-2026-10-07/

Hezbollah has received $200 million from Iran to help Lebanese displaced by this year’s war with ​Israel, two people with direct knowledge of the transfer said, in what would be the first significant aid from the group to supporters who bore the brunt of the ‌conflict.
The US disputed the claim. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement that the money “is not there,” accusing Hezbollah of “trying to save face with fake stories about cash influxes from Iran.”

A Treasury spokesperson said Iran was “running out of money and ways to move money” and that Tehran “does not have money to fund its campaign of terror.”
Hezbollah received the cash last month despite a tightening US economic chokehold on Iran and increasing difficulties in getting funds to Tehran’s Lebanese ally, said the people.
Intermediaries ​who moved the money charged a 20% fee, reflecting the risks of dealing with the group, they said. One said this was four times the normal fee.
Asked for comment, a Hezbollah official ​said an amount had been secured and a plan for distributing it would be announced in the coming days, without elaborating on the source of the ⁠funds.

The Iranian foreign ministry, Iran’s permanent mission in Geneva, and the Lebanese government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Lebanon uprooted hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah’s Shi’ite Muslim constituents after the ​group entered the regional war in support of Iran on March 2.
But those displaced have so far received little to no assistance from Hezbollah, an armed group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 which has ​suffered heavy Israeli blows in two wars since 2024 and is designated a terrorist group by Washington.
The State Department’s Pigott said Hezbollah had caused misery for Lebanese and had itself been decimated, while its backer Tehran was suffering under a US blockade of oil exports. “The United States will continue to strangle Hezballah’s finances through sanctions while supporting the ability of Lebanon’s legitimate government to rebuild the South,” Pigott said.

AIDING 50,000 FAMILIES

Hezbollah would use the funds to pay an initial $3,000 per family, and ​priority would go to those whose villages have been destroyed or are inaccessible due to Israeli occupation, the sources said. These number around 50,000 families, one of the sources said.
Iran has maintained financial support to ​Hezbollah through years of crippling US sanctions: it transferred $1 billion to the group in the first 10 months of 2025, according to the US Treasury Department.
Tehran has never acknowledged financing Hezbollah. Iran’s policy of funding regional proxies has stirred ‌domestic protester anger ⁠against the clerical rulers in the past and could prove particularly sensitive at a time of worsening hardship in Iran.
Iran had promised Hezbollah more funding after Tehran signed an interim deal with Washington in June that allowed Iran to sell its oil, Reuters reported at the time. That agreement collapsed in July.

Washington has since intensified economic pressure on Iran, tightening sanctions and imposing a naval blockade to block Iranian oil exports.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a speech last month that the group would soon contribute to a project aimed at housing thousands of people displaced by the war, using “available resources and donations”, without elaborating.
Hezbollah’s ability to fund local services and ​provide post-conflict aid has helped shore up its ​support in the past. Following a war with ⁠Israel in 2006, the group immediately handed out large cash payments to those impacted and moved swiftly to help rebuild Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold.
But this time there has been little sign of reconstruction. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said last month that the total reconstruction costs from the two wars since 2024 could ​exceed $27 billion.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanons-hezbollah-gets-200-million-iran-help-displaced-sources-say-2026-10-07/

Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told a US audience on Wednesday of China’s “sustained” pressure in the form of activities like military patrols that stop short of open ​conflict but are aimed at altering the security environment.
Tsai is making her first ‌trip to the United States since leaving office two years ago, for a speech at a defence forum at Stanford University. Washington is Taipei’s most important international backer, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ​ties.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has to deal with a “particularly ​immediate” security challenge, she said, according to a transcript of the speech ⁠provided by her office.
“We face daily cyberattacks, cognitive warfare, information manipulation, economic coercion, and ​attempts to compromise our critical infrastructure,” Tsai said.
“Chinese military aircraft and vessels also operate around ​Taiwan on a regular basis, while coast guard and other activities have become increasingly common around our waters.”
Such “grey zone” activity is intended to impose costs, test Taiwan’s responses and gradually alter the security environment ​around Taiwan, while avoiding the consequences of an open confrontation, she added.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/former-taiwan-president-tsai-tells-us-audience-sustained-chinese-pressure-2026-10-08/

A New Jersey insurance executive fatally shot his wife and daughter before turning the gun on himself inside of their mansion, according to county officials.

David Grodnick, 61, his wife Lora Grodnick, 62, and daughter, Sloane Grodnick, 24, were each found with gunshot wounds to the head in the Montgomery Township home on Oct. 2, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.

Investigators determined Lora and Sloane’s deaths to be homicides and David’s a suicide.

It was not immediately clear how long the three had been dead.

Cops were first called to a home on Wild Azalea Lane at about 2:59 p.m. on Oct. 1, after receiving a request for a welfare check on the residents, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Officers were unable to locate the occupants and an investigation began into their whereabouts.

They gained entry to the home just before 6 p.m. the next day and discovered the three bodies.

Lora and Sloane were found in separate bedrooms and David was found elsewhere in the home with a gun still in his hand, prosecutors said.

All three were declared dead at the home, which is valued by Zillow at $1.75 million, by medical personnel from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Somerset.

“The investigation, which remains ongoing, has yielded that the homicide deaths of both Lora and Sloane Grodnick were an isolated incident and there are no threats to the public from this tragic occurrence,” Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said in Tuesday’s release.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/06/us-news/nj-dad-kills-wife-daughter-before-shooting-himself-in-the-head/

“Saved by the Bell” star Dennis Haskins’ cause of death has been revealed.

His death certificate, obtained by TMZ on Tuesday, confirmed that the actor died from Parkinson’s disease.

Other significant conditions listed in his death certificate include irritable bowel syndrome, depression, hypertension and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

The document also confirmed that he died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.

The actor, best known for portraying Principal Richard Belding on the beloved sitcom, died on Sept. 27 at the age of 75.

His death was confirmed by a longtime friend and caretaker and reported by WTVC, a news outlet in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“It’s a tragic loss. Everyone loved Mr. Belding, and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more. He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED, his fans,” the actor’s agent, Jay Schachter, told the Hollywood Reporter in a statement.

“He always had time for them, no matter what. He was my client and dear friend for over 20 years, and I will miss him terribly. I’m heartbroken.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/10/06/celebrity-news/dennis-haskins-cause-of-death-revealed-after-saved-by-the-bell-star-dies-at-75/

NEWLY-RELEASED audio has allegedly caught one of the Cornell frat brothers accused of gang raping a woman in a lie about the harrowing Snapchat messages tied to the case.

A 20-year-old woman identified as Jane Doe alleged seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity sexually assaulted her for several hours in 2024.

The former Cornell student alleged in a civil lawsuit that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted after she went to a frat house on the Ithaca, New York, campus while heavily intoxicated on the night of October 19, 2024.

Doe said she had about 10 standard drinks before she arrived, and alleged she was taken to an upstairs room of the house where two men began engaging in sexual acts simultaneously without her consent.

She further alleged she was pressured into taking ketamine, and that a message was sent in a Chi Phi Snapchat group chat suggesting a woman was available for sex at the frat house.

She then alleged multiple men came into the room and sexually assaulted her until nearly 6am.

There have been no criminal charges filed in the case, and several of the men named in the civil suit have denied the allegations against them.

In a phone call recording obtained by ABC News, Doe called one of the men named in the suit, saying she was “trying to piece everything together” from the night of October 19, 2024 as she was “deeply, deeply intoxicated.”

Doe told Winston Lee, a sophomore at Cornell at the time, that she was “completely and totally intoxicated and then given multiple sedatives.”

“And then I was surrounded by upwards of eight to ten men … This is classified as a gang rape,” she continued, saying she also said “yes” to taking ketamine at one point.

Lee then asked Doe what her purpose was for calling him.

“I was blacked out for half of it … how did all these people get in there?” she asked.

Lee did not mention in the call that he responded in the Snapchat group chat where one of his frat brother said there was “free p***y” in the alumni room of the frat house, according to ABC News.

“CHI PHIII,” Lee allegedly responded, per a photo of the group chat shared in the civil lawsuit filing.

“There was nothing saying that like, um, anything was happening in that room or anything…” he told Doe on the phone call.

Lee also told Doe in the phone call, “I’m so sorry about all like the backlash you’re getting from this … I feel so bad for you, dude.

“I actually, right afterwards they told me not to message you because they thought you were going through a lot, so, I constructed this like letter to send to you.”

Doe’s lawsuit alleged Lee snorted ketamine off her body and forced her to perform oral sex.

After the Ivy League University conducted a review of Doe’s allegations, Lee was given a two-year suspension and was ordered not to contact her.

He was given several semesters of disciplinary probation that would apply once he returned, ordered to complete work involving sexual harassment education and required to write a reflection paper.

Lee has not responded to the allegations in the recent civil filing, but said when questioned by university officials weeks after the alleged incident that Doe did not seem overly intoxicated.

“They weren’t slurring their speech. They seem perfectly normal,” Lee said, according to the New York Times.

Lee also claimed Doe initiated sexual activity without asking after he snorted ketamine off her body, the outlet reported.

“I kind of took a step back because I didn’t want to engage in anything like sex,” he reportedly said.

“I thought it wasn’t the time for that.”

Lee said he asked later that night for Doe’s consent before taking part in a threesome, and recalled telling her, “If you’re uncomfortable with any of this or you won’t want to do this, that’s perfectly fine. We can call it a night.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17106236/cornell-frat-bro-call-jane-doe-snapchat-messages-audio/

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is making his way through the US ahead of the midterm elections – but will he visit your area?

The high-stakes midterm elections will decide which party gets control on Capitol Hill, leaving Trump ready to rally as the winners will help shape the final two years of his presidency.

Trump is expected to travel to at least 10 states in the final four weeks of the midterm campaigns, a senior White House official and source with direct knowledge of the president’s travel plans told Politico.

His midterm blitz will include some traditional Senate battlegrounds, including Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina.

The president will also make his way to red states he won in the 2024 election, such as Ohio, Iowa, Kansas and Texas – where Trump-backed candidate Ken Paxton is running for Senate.

He is also expected to go to Alaska, where Vice President JD Vance just visited on Monday ahead of the midterms.

Trump is also expected to make stops in Pennsylvania and Montana, where competitive races for seats in the House are taking place.

“Worst-case scenario is if you don’t hit a place where it needs to be shored up, and three weeks down the line, you’re just scrambling to travel,” said the senior White House official granted anonymity by Politico.

His travel itinerary includes a two-week plan to take a big swing from Washington to Montana, then to Alaska and Las Vegas.

From Vegas, the president will travel to Arizona and then Texas before he heads back to the White House.

Trump is expected to hit Ohio, Georgia and Texas twice, giving Americans an extra chance to see him,

He will be in San Antonio on Wednesday for a rally, the same day Michigan Republicans expected to see Trump for a visit, however, the trip did not come to fruition.

There is, however, one battleground state that the Republican president has no plans to visit: Maine.

In Maine, GOP Senator Susan Collins is fighting against Democrat Troy Jackson for a seat.

Collins is the only incumbent running in a state where former Vice President Kamala Harris secured victory in 2024.

The two sources told Politico that the list of states is subject to change.

“It’s dependent on how some of the polling moves the next couple of weeks. We’re always flexible with our movements,” the White House official explained.

Trump already spent the weekend rallying with Republicans, making stops in Alabama on Friday night before heading to Ohio on Saturday and Nebraska on Monday.

While in Nebraska, Trump touched on the war with Iran, saying there is “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”

“They can take out a city, let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego,” he remarked as the crowd cheered. “This is a very small price to pay.”

“You must vote Republican,” the president told the fired-up crowd at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center, according to local outlet KOLN.

He also repeated his claim that he will offer $5,000, the so-called Trump Dividend, to US citizens if Republicans secure victory in the midterms.

Trump also brought out Governor Jim Pillen, Senator Pete Ricketts and Representatives Adrian Smith and Mike Flood as he urged rallygoers to vote.

“These are really outstanding people, and you really have to re-elect both of them,” he said.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17107347/donald-trump-midterm-rally-locations-texas-ohio-michigan/

SHE is the baby-faced scientist blamed for potentially unleashing the deadly pneumonic plague.

Russian authorities claim laboratory assistant Daria Shipilova allowed the infection to escape after dropping a test tube during research into the deadly disease. But now pals have hinted at a cover-up.

The Kremlin insists Daria died from an ‘unidentified pneumonia’ rather than the Black Death version.

As world leaders anxiously wait to see if the infection will make its way across the globe the Russian blame game has begun – with the young scientist in the firing line.

Friends have poured scorn on the idea 28-year-old Daria was responsible for a lab accident and it’s since emerged she was part of a research mission to Mongolia where she studied plague-infested squirrels.

Friends say that Daria would have been covered top to toe in protective gear at the Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, making it almost impossible for her to catch the disease there. One even claimed the test tubes are made of unbreakable plastic.

One university classmate, Valentina, who once worked at the lab, said: “We are all in shock, especially over the accusations that Daria broke a test tube and kept quiet.

“You don’t understand just how prestigious it is working at the institute.

“Daria was very intelligent if they accepted her into the laboratory – and she was responsible. The institute is excellent and they follow the rules strictly.

“I personally only undertook practical training there and had a different level of clearance — in the safe zone.

“But even we trainees in the safe zone were given mandatory plague vaccinations.

“Everything was very strict, all according to the rules for working with pathogenicity group one. In our zone there weren’t even any glass test tubes — only plastic. So all these accusations against Daria are simply shocking to us.”

Daria is said to have worked closely with a second employee at the lab who, mysteriously, has shown no sign of illness – adding weight to the theory she was infected in the field.

Daria, who graduated in 2022 after six years of study at Irkutsk State Medical University, died three days after being hooked up to a hospital ventilator after falling sick at work.

Official Russian state-run media claim she broke a test tube on September 25 allowing the disease to break free. She was admitted to a hospital in Siberia, which is now on lockdown, and died on October 2.

Around 200 people Daria came into contact with have been heavily quarantined while 60 institute staff have been told to stay home and five hospitals are said to be under guard.

Videos have also circulated on Russian social media of scientists walking around in protective gear in Shelekhov, a satellite town 12 miles away from Irkutsk.

More than 2,000 at the Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter works in the town have been ordered to wear masks amid fears the airborne virus will spread.

Terrified local residents are said to be scrambling for antibiotics which slash the chance of certain death to 17percent.

Within hours of Daria’s death, the country’s chief doctor Anna Popova rushed to the state for an emergency meeting with the local governor.

The world now holds its breath to see if the plague will spread – although the sheer remoteness of Siberia lies in favour of containment.

Daria’s friends have stopped short of accusing Russia of staging a cover-up akin to that of China during the covid outbreak – but it’s rare that anyone opposes Vladimir Putin’s state for fear of imprisonment.

Chinese officials claimed covid, which killed around 232,000 Brits, came from a wet market in Wuhan but many now believe it most likely originated from a leak in a nearby laboratory where scientists studied bats.

According to Daria’s former classmates and colleagues, security at the research centre where she works is so tight that employees wear full hazmat suits and access to labs looking at pathogens are restricted.

One said: “Those workers even had a completely separate entrance and did not cross paths with us; beyond the safe zone everyone wears full protective equipment – a special suit and mask.

“Personal belongings and phones are not allowed.

“I don’t know what would have to happen for infection to even be possible — a micro-tear in a glove combined with a breach of the rules, perhaps bringing a hand close to the face? I don’t know, it seems unlikely.

“And it would be even more unlikely for her to remain silent for so long, knowing that every second without antibiotics worsens the condition.

“It would not have been in her interests to hide it. But the death of an undiagnosed patient who happened to work at an anti-plague institute — that creates fertile ground for all sorts of ‘theories’.”

It’s not known exactly what Daria’s duties were in the days before she became sick but according to Russia’s REN TV, she was researching how the body’s immune system responds to the plague.

She helped produce a Government paper on anti-plague drugs presented at the All-Russian Congress on Infectious Diseases in Moscow.

According to Ostorozhno media, which covers stories downplayed by state-backed outlets, Daria also took part in dry-runs of outbreak emergencies as part of an international team.

Initial reports said the researcher was admitted to hospital with pneumonic plague after returning from Thailand – a seven-hour flight from Irkutsk.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17105794/is-this-the-true-source-of-russian-plague-outbreak/

US death row inmate Christa Pike is “conscious and speaking” after surviving a failed execution attempt in Tennessee last week, her lawyers say.

Pike, 50, continues to receive critical medical care while “handcuffed and shackled to the bed” in hospital, her lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Pike, who was sentenced to death after murdering Colleen Slemmer with her then-boyfriend in 1995, survived two failed lethal injections last Wednesday in Tennessee.

She was taken to hospital, where she remained unconscious for days as medical staff cleared her body of the injected chemical. Experts and her legal team say her apparent recovery is unprecedented.

Pike is believed to be the only person to survive a lethal injection.

Her lawyers said her prognosis remained unclear, but that “at a minimum, we expect a long recovery”.

Deborah Denno, a criminologist and professor at Fordham Law School, said she was “absolutely astonished” that Pike was conscious and speaking.

There had been seven other cases where prisoners survived executions but in those cases, executioners were not able to inject anything into the inmates’ veins, Denno told the BBC.

Pike “is the only person for whom some kind of toxin has been injected”, she said.

“They did everything they were supposed to do as part of the execution process, and it simply didn’t work,” Denno said. “This has never happened before.”

Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, a local journalist who witnessed the attempted execution said that he, too, did not know of “an exact precedent”.

Steven Hale, a journalist for the Nashville Banner, said the case raised many questions, including “what must this be like for the victim’s family, who for 30 years has been told we are gonna give you justice and justice is us executing Christa Pike”.

Authorities have not yet said whether they will try again to execute Pike. They have also not offered an explanation for what went wrong after twice injecting her with the chemical pentobarbital.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions for the rest of the year – and the head of prisons in the state said over the weekend that he planned to resign.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for troubled teens.

Shipp was 17 years old at the time, meaning that he was spared the death penalty for his part in the attack because he was not yet legally an adult at the time. He remains in prison.

Pike’s lawyers are scheduled to appear in court in Nashville on Wednesday. They also plan to hold a news conference outside the court.

In their latest update, they repeated their call for Lee to use his powers to commute Pike’s sentence to the lower punishment of life in prison without parole.

Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike’s defence team, said on Tuesday that the likelihood of recovering from lethal injection was low.

“Most people who get lethal injection die from it,” he told the BBC. “In fact, pretty well everyone, except Christa. So, the fact that she survived it… was unusual.”

But there remains a lot of uncertainty and many unknowns, he said, including how much of the pentobarbital got into her system, what her blood levels were after the injection and what her recovery will look like.

“I would not, in any way, say at this point that all the big risks are behind her,” he noted.

Zivot had previously said the two doses of pentobarbital she received last week would have been enough that, had it entered her bloodstream in normal circulation, “she would have surely died”.

Instead, Zivot said a possible explanation is that instead of entering Pike’s bloodstream, the pentobarbital was more likely to have spread across the tissue under her skin.

Pike’s lawyers previously warned that her medical history and anatomy – including thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition) and small veins – meant there was a risk she would experience “unnecessary” pain and suffering during a lethal injection.

They said on Tuesday that she has endured “severe damage” to her arms.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8kgezxn54qko

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged Russia to release more information about the death of a lab worker at a plague research centre in Siberia.

The incident has sparked a flurry of speculation about the circumstances in which the 28-year-old woman died.

Russian officials have said they are still investigating the cause of the death but those who came into contact with the victim all tested negative to pneumonic plague.

“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio told reporters. “We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour.”

Reports first emerged on Friday of almost 200 people being placed under observation in Siberia’s Irkutsk region following the death.

The lab worker, named in Russian media as Darya Shipilova, had reportedly fallen ill a couple of days earlier.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that she had become ill after breaking a test tube containing the pathogen or following a field trip to a region where plague occurs naturally among wild rodents.

But Russian officials have played down those reports. The country’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said the woman had died of “pneumonia of an undetermined etiology”.

In a statement read out by World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier on Tuesday, Russia – which has a duty under global health rules to report outbreaks to the WHO – said: “No case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk.”

The statement added: “All of the patients’ contacts have been reportedly been identified and are being monitored for illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness.”

On Tuesday, the ongoing speculation sparked a back and forth between Russia and the United States, with questions about a possible spread outside of Russia.

Speaking during a trip to Iceland, Marco Rubio said the US had “measures” available to help Russia if the situation turned out to be more serious than claimed.

Rospotrebnadzor hit back with an offer of help to the the United States. “The Russian Federation is ready to assist the US in combating infectious disease outbreaks,” it said in a statement.

Rubio’s comments were echoed by US President Donald Trump, who said he was looking “very strongly” at the case, saying.

According to the Washington Post, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state department, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response are working on the US response.

‘Disease not detected’

Asked about the death following Rubio’s remarks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cited the findings by Rospotrebnadzor.

Asked about the offer of help from the United States, he said it was a “good thing when mutual assistance is offered”.

Also on Tuesday, Rospotrebnadzor issued a statement aimed at quelling speculation in a document circulating online about special anti-plague measures allegedly put in place.

“We wish to clarify that the document and information in question do not originate from official sources and are untrue,” it said on Telegram.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmd7qn8x359no

At the Pashupatinath temple, on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Madan Lal Lawat joined other families in honouring loved ones who were lost when a deadly flood tore through the China-Nepal border last month.

In Hindu tradition, when a body cannot be recovered, a symbolic effigy is made from sacred “kusha” grass to represent the dead, allowing relatives to perform last rites.

With more than 5,000 people still missing and the government ending rescue operations, this is the only way people like Lawat can honour the dead.

Five of his relatives – including his brother – were caught in the water’s onslaught and are still missing. Lawat survived because he was driving his bus outside his village, Betrawati.

The last Lawat heard from survivors is that his brother Mangal died while going door-to-door, trying to warn others to leave.

“I don’t know how to start over. Police say they’re still searching for the bodies, but I’m not sure they’ll ever be found,” Lawat says.

He has little doubt they are dead.

But legally, their fate is far more complicated. In Nepal, a missing person is only presumed dead after 12 years.

Section 40 of Nepal’s Civil Code does allow for some exceptions, but it does not have a provision for disasters like the flood witnessed last month.

Families like Lawat’s have told the BBC they are struggling to obtain death certificates, affecting everything from accessing flood compensation to the transfer of properties and even inheritance.

Relatives can receive up to 25,000 rupees (£122; $162) for funeral costs, in addition to about 200,000 rupees (£981; $1,302) in bereavement compensation for the first relative who died, and 100,000 rupees (£491; $651) for each additional death.

But this is only possible once they submit a death certificate. So as families try to rebuild their lives, many are now caught in an administrative nightmare.

“In view of the current disaster, the law is outdated,” says constitutional law expert, Bipin Adhikari.

He explains the law was meant to account for people who travelled abroad and weren’t heard from for years. “But technology has advanced now, it isn’t as difficult to send or receive information,” he argues.

For Lawat, the legal minefield has made an already devastating loss even harder to navigate.

When he tried to obtain a death certificate last week, officials at the local municipality office turned him away. “They said they’re still discussing the death certificate issue. We aren’t sure what to do now. There’s so much uncertainty,” he tells us.

Even when bodies are recovered, identifying their identities is a slow and challenging task. More than 1,400 bodies have been recovered so far, and Nepal has little experience in processing DNA at such scale. In some cases, authorities have taken DNA samples, then buried the bodies with markers in the ground, should families claim them.

Given the scale of damage and loss, families say compensation is desperately needed.

Nepal’s latest assessment counts 7,570 private buildings damaged or destroyed, home to nearly 33,000 people based on census data.

The BBC visited Lawat’s village Betrawati just days after the disaster, once the roads to the district of Rasuwa had been cleared. For days, this area had been cut off from the capital Kathmandu, and struggling with a shortage of basic supplies including petrol.

The damage in the village was staggering. The ground was nothing but hardened mud and silt. Footage of the flood showed it had swallowed most of the village in just minutes. There was no sign of its bustling market, the local Uttargaya School was in ruins, the houses swept away, and school buses were turned over.

Betrawati straddles flood-devastated Rasuwa and Nuwakot, and is part of the Bidur municipality, where the government estimates more than 3,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed. It’s the largest amount of any municipality.

Local governments are now urging the prime minister’s office to figure out a way to resolve the death confirmation issue.

“Everything is on hold,” Bidur’s Mayor, Rajan Shrestha, told the BBC.

He said it could take up to 12 years for relatives to access the funds they are entitled to.

For one of South Asia’s smallest economies, finding money for compensation is a challenge, and the sums on offer are small when compared with the scale of the losses.

The government puts damage to personal belongings alone at £123 million ($165 million) across more than 8,300 households.

This implies losses of about £14,800 ($20,000) on average per household, though this figure is only based on census data and modelling, and doesn’t represent the exact cost per family.

The financial toll makes the death certificates vital for families trying to recover from the disaster.

Shrestha is calling on the federal government to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Until then, he says his hands are tied.

“We understand the emotional pain for families who have already performed funeral rituals, but officials must work within legal boundaries to avoid future liabilities.”

The government has told the BBC it is trying to find a solution.

In a statement, the prime minister’s office said it was “aware of the difficulties” the law may cause families in “exceptional circumstances, including disasters”. The home ministry said the government was taking the issue seriously and was ready to amend the law, if required.

The legal hurdles families are facing comes as Nepal faces a steep reconstruction bill, which the government says could cost up to £3.6bn ($4.8bn).

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck054zm1701qo

Russia’s Transport Ministry said the Liberian-flagged tanker was attacked in the Black Sea and that crude oil was burning on the water.

A huge fire broke out on an oil tanker off Russia’s southern coast on Tuesday after the vessel was reportedly hit by Ukrainian naval drones, sending a towering column of black smoke over parts of the resort city of Sochi.

Russia’s Transport Ministry said the Liberian-flagged tanker was attacked in the Black Sea and that crude oil was burning on the water.

The blaze was too intense for firefighters to tackle immediately, but all 23 crew members, who were Indian nationals, were rescued, the ministry said.

Videos and images from Sochi showed bright flames burning offshore as thick black smoke rose into the sky. Authorities moved to restrict access to beaches and parts of the coastline as a precaution.

A large fire is burning on the water off Sochi tonight, with footage showing a long line of flame and a massive black smoke column visible across the city — consistent with burning oil from a tanker.

Ukrainian-aligned accounts claim the tanker was hit.

Russian sources say only that a vessel near the port is on fire with the cause unknown.

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 6, 2026

Beaches Closed, Residents Told To Stay Indoors

Dmitry Plishkin, head of the Sirius federal territory, confirmed the tanker fire and announced the temporary closure of local beaches.

“A tanker caught fire in the Black Sea. To ensure the safety of people, the beaches of Sirius will be temporarily closed. The state of water and air is constantly monitored,” Plishkin said, adding that authorities were working with Russia’s Hydrometeorological Service.

Residents were also advised to remain indoors and keep their windows closed while the authorities monitored the situation.

The attack comes as Russia and Ukraine continue to target energy facilities and commercial shipping linked to the war in and around the Black Sea.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/towering-black-smoke-over-russia-coast-after-ukraine-hits-tanker-all-23-indian-crew-rescued-ws-l-10370389.html

Vance said the US was still open to a deal but would seek concrete action from Tehran rather than promises about future nuclear limits.

US Vice President JD Vance has told Reuters that Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its nuclear enrichment capacity for Washington to agree to an end to the seven-month war between the two countries.

In an exclusive interview, Vance said the US was still open to a deal but would seek concrete action from Tehran rather than promises about future nuclear limits.

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel?” Vance said. “If you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue.”

“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity,” he added.

US Seeks Concrete Nuclear Concessions

Iran and the US have exchanged proposals in recent weeks aimed at ending the conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global energy shipments.

US President Donald Trump has rejected Tehran’s latest proposal and warned that military operations could intensify after the November midterm elections.

Vance, who has played a central role in efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict, said Washington would not accept verbal assurances alone.

“We’re not going to trade words for actions,” he said.

The war has disrupted energy markets and increased pressure on the Trump administration as higher fuel prices become a political issue ahead of the US midterms.

Vance Questions Iran’s Decision-Making

Vance also said Washington remained uncertain about who ultimately makes key decisions in Tehran.

The US has been negotiating with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, but Vance questioned how much authority they have within Iran’s political system.

“One of the things we picked up on is it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” he said.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/jd-vance-says-iran-must-cut-nuclear-enrichment-to-end-war-ws-l-10370391.html

Meanwhile, Russia reported intercepting numerous Ukrainian drones, indicating escalating tensions in the ongoing conflict

A Ukrainian drone attack on Tuesday set fire to a Liberian-flagged oil tanker carrying 23 Indian crew members off Russia’s Black Sea coast, Russian authorities have said. All 23 people aboard the tanker, the Aframax Rio, were later rescued and no injuries were reported, according to Russia’s transport ministry.

The ministry said the tanker was attacked by “naval drones” on Tuesday, causing a fire near the Russian resort city of Sochi. Crude oil was reported to have caught fire and was burning openly on the Black Sea.

Firefighters were initially unable to tackle the blaze because of its intensity. The transport ministry said emergency crews had sufficient resources to fight the fire once the flames became less intense.

The Houthis condemned the footage as evidence of war crimes, while the Yemeni military emphasized ethical treatment of prisoners

Videos posted by Yemeni government forces appear to show armoured vehicles driving over opposing fighters as government forces recaptured areas around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The footage, verified by Reuters, offers a glimpse of the fighting near the strait, where Iran-backed Houthi forces had captured territory last month.

The Houthi advance had raised concerns in global oil markets and contributed to higher petrol and diesel prices.

Fighting continued on Tuesday as Saudi-backed government forces sought to consolidate gains made in a counter-attack the previous day.

Yemeni military sources said government forces were besieging Houthi fighters at a military camp near Bab el-Mandeb and advancing into hills to the east.

The videos, filmed from inside the armoured vehicles, show them striking fighters as they move along the sandy shore.

Some of those hit appear to be armed, while others are seen walking or running. Others appear unarmed and are shown sitting, lying or crouching on the ground without attempting to move away as the vehicles approach.

In one sequence, a vehicle hits an unarmed man who is running, as well as another man who is crouching on the ground. The vehicle then turns back and drives over two men who have their hands raised and appear to be unarmed.

Gunfire can be heard throughout the footage. At one point, a bullet appears to strike and crack the vehicle’s windscreen.

The Houthis condemned the footage as evidence of war crimes, saying it showed “the true nature of the Saudi regime and the forces it has mobilised from extremist factions”.

The Homeland Shield Forces, another significant part of the government military coalition, did not comment directly on the videos. It issued a directive on Tuesday calling on troops to treat prisoners well and follow religious, ethical and legal standards.

Rights groups have previously accused the Houthis of war crimes, including attacks on civilians by snipers and shelling, the seizure of aid, mistreatment of prisoners and the use of child soldiers. The Houthis have denied the allegations.

Gottheimer, the Democratic Congressman from New Jersey, in his resolution also commended the heroic actions of the off-duty pilots, cabin crew, and passengers who secured the flight deck and brought the aircraft safely down.

US Congressman Josh Gottheimer introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives honouring Indian pilot Smit Machchhar for showing extraordinary courage in protecting every passenger aboard the flydubai flight 1073.

Gottheimer, the Democratic Congressman from New Jersey, in his resolution also commended the heroic actions of the off-duty pilots, cabin crew, and passengers who secured the flight deck and brought the aircraft safely down.

The resolution, introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday, condemns the attack on flydubai Flight 1073 as an act of terrorism and as an attack on the safety of international civil aviation.

It also calls for a full and expeditious investigation by the Governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and for the United States and Israel to be kept fully informed.

Captain Machchhar foiled an alleged attempt by the co-pilot to crash an Israel-bound flight. He was attacked and seriously injured by his co-pilot in the cockpit of flydubai flight FZ1073 on Wednesday while the aircraft was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

An Omani citizen, Hamam al-Hammami, has been identified as the flydubai co-pilot who attacked Machchhar and allegedly attempted to take control of the flight, according to reports published by multiple news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and CNN.

Al-Hammami was previously barred from flying in Oman over concerns about his radical ideological views, the reports said, quoting people familiar with the matter.

He attacked Machchhar with a crash axe, typically kept in the cockpit for use in emergencies, seriously injuring him. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/resolution-honouring-captain-smit-machchhar-introduced-in-us-house-of-representatives-12148296?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Demonstrations swept across France on Tuesday as teachers and parents took to the streets with high school pupils on the biggest day of what Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu described as the most ​violent student demonstrations in decades.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent groups on the fringes of marches in Paris, Strasbourg, Rennes and Toulouse, among other cities. The ‌marches drew more than 250,000 people in dozens of cities, the interior ministry said, though organisers said 450,000 had participated.

The protests, in which a teenager lost a hand on Monday, were the latest manifestation of public anger in a country where support for populist parties on the far right and far left has surged ahead of a presidential election in the spring.
The government is under pressure to tame public debt amid weak growth, and has struggled with basic tasks such as passing a budget since President Emmanuel ​Macron’s allies lost their majority in a 2024 parliamentary vote.
Lecornu told lawmakers at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had so far been injured in clashes, “the heaviest toll in decades paid by ​the school system”. His office said more than 700 police officers were also hurt.

Macron has convened Lecornu and other senior ministers at an emergency meeting on Tuesday, broadcaster ⁠BFM reported.
US President Donald Trump said the protests were evidence of “out of control” migration in France. “This isn’t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country,” he posted on Truth Social.
The ​students’ demands do not concern religion or immigration, but focus instead on understaffing and lack of funding. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party has not linked the protests to France’s migration policy. Lecornu’s office did not respond ​to a request for comment.
In Marseille and Nantes, protesters held up handmade signs bearing phrases such as “The state has killed national education”. In Toulouse, parents linked arms at the front of a march through the city.

Paris police said clashes in the capital resulted from some 300 people, most hooded or masked, facing off against security forces, and that the protest generally unfolded without major incident elsewhere. Several storefronts were damaged.
The Interior Ministry said 488 people had been arrested and 48 security personnel were injured on Tuesday.

MAINTENANCE ​COMPLAINTS

The student protests began in September in the deprived suburbs of Paris before spreading nationwide.
Students complain about schools facing basic maintenance problems, from water leaks to rat infestations.

“There is such a gap between the elites and us,” ​said Hugo Vetzel, a recent high-school graduate in Strasbourg.
The High School Students Union said more than half of France’s high schools were blockaded or had closed for the day. Some local education authorities have tried to move classes online.
Rights groups, ‌students and parent ⁠groups have accused authorities of using disproportionate force against minors. The government says the protest movement has been hijacked by outsiders and in some places deteriorated into urban violence.
More than 1,800 people are being prosecuted for unspecified crimes, including 1,483 minors, the justice ministry said on Monday.
“They want to divide the young people into good and bad protesters,” said Omar Slaouti, a high-school teacher in Argenteuil, a northwestern suburb of Paris. “If there were no trash cans on fire, the government would not have stepped back and become aware of the issues at stake.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/france-braces-day-school-blockades-street-protests-2026-10-06/

President Donald Trump suggested to a crowd of his supporters in Nebraska that ​Iran could “take out” a major US city like Los Angeles or San Diego, drawing a swift rebuke from California’s Democratic leaders and some fellow Republicans.
Trump, speaking at a political ‌rally in the state’s farm belt on Monday, discussed American wartime economic sacrifices and said he was determined to “see a tremendous victory, because it verifies all the things we did.”

“And again, remember, with the war, it’s just artificial, it’s a little bit high, it’s a small price to pay,” he told the crowd in Grand Island, Nebraska, apparently referring to rising prices of fuel, fertilizer and other products attributed to energy market disruptions from the war.
“It’s a small price to ​pay for keeping the world safe, for keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego. This is a ​very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon,” he said.
“It’s essentially almost over with,” Trump went on. “But it’s going to ⁠end very soon, and it’s going to end one way or the other.”

On Tuesday, the White House dismissed criticism of the remark. “The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality. ​He was clearly stating US cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung said in a social media post. “America is safer because of ​the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.”
Trump has shrugged off cost-of-living concerns stemming from the Iran conflict before, and he previously downplayed his concerns about the potential for Iran or its allies to launch an attack on US soil.

EARLY VOTING UNDERWAY IN CALIFORNIA

The comment in rural Nebraska, a state Trump won with more than 55% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, targeted Democratic-run cities in California, a solidly Democratic ​state the president often criticizes.

Monday’s comments prompted a backlash from California officials.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, denounced the Republican president as “deranged and dangerous.”
“After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald ​Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego,” he wrote on X.
Newsom, who has positioned himself as a major political foil to Trump and is seen as a potential 2028 presidential ‌candidate, juxtaposed a ⁠video clip of Trump in Nebraska with mention of the president’s previous rhetoric to justify deploying US military troops to Los Angeles and other cities to fight crime and enforce immigration.
California’s early voting for the November midterm elections started on Monday. The president’s Republican Party has hoped to win more races in the state in recent years, including this year’s gubernatorial election.

Newsom championed the redrawing of California’s congressional map last year to favor Democrats in this year’s election after Trump pushed for conservative-led Texas to redraw its map to boost Republicans.
One of the Republicans running in a competitive race in a redrawn California district near ​San Diego, Jim Desmond, distanced himself from Trump’s remarks.
“I ​vehemently disagree with President Trump’s comments. America ⁠must stand up to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,” he wrote on X. “No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage.”
US Representative Kevin Kiley, an independent ​who caucuses with Republicans and is running for re-election in a competitive race in northern California, said in a statement that Trump’s comment was “unhelpful.”
Los ​Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a ⁠Democrat, said in a statement that Trump’s comment “could potentially compromise our safety.”
Appearing on MS Now on Tuesday, Bass disputed Cheung’s assertion that Trump’s comments were being misinterpreted by a “freaked out” media.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-governor-condemns-trumps-let-em-take-los-angeles-comments-2026-10-06/

North Korea criticised the United States over its arms sales and military support for ‌Taiwan, accusing Washington of fuelling tensions in the Taiwan Strait, state media KCNA said on Wednesday.
A KCNA commentary citing North Korean international affairs analyst Kim Myong Chol said US policy on Taiwan was undermining peace and stability in the region.

The commentary condemned the appearance of US-sold ​fighter aircraft in Taiwan, saying the US “should think twice whether it is ready to stand in frontal confrontation ​with the powerful national power of the People’s Republic of China for the security of ⁠Taiwan and whether it can cope with its consequences.”

The first two of a batch of 66 new F-16V Block ​70 fighter jets ordered in 2019 arrived in Taiwan last week, as Taiwan faces a rising military threat from Beijing.
In their Pyongyang ​summit in June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping he would fully support the “One China” principle, which Beijing views as meaning that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country, regardless of changes in the international situation.
The meeting also included ​a cautiously worded reference to defence links, with Xi saying both sides would enhance exchanges in diplomacy, law enforcement, ​military affairs and other fields, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

China claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and describes it as the “core of ‌core ⁠issues” when it comes to Beijing’s relations with other countries, demanding no form of official engagement between Taiwanese and foreign leaders. Taiwan’s government says Beijing has no right to claim the island or try to represent it on the international stage.
China, a treaty ally of North Korea’s, has also repeatedly demanded Washington ends arms sales to Taiwan. The United States is ​bound by law to provide ​Taiwan with the means ⁠to defend itself, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/north-korea-warns-us-over-taiwan-while-kim-pledges-support-russia-2026-10-06/

Light attack aircraft and military vehicles have arrived at the new China-Laos joint training facility announced last Tuesday, according to ​satellite images reviewed by Reuters.
The images, taken by commercial satellite provider Vantor, show what security analysts believe are eight K-8 light attack jets ‌and more than two dozen support vehicles on a runway that is still being built — China’s latest expansion of its overseas military presence.

Taken on September 30, the day after China’s defence ministry announced it had set up the facility at Ban Keun outside the capital Vientiane, the images also show extensive construction work around the runway.
The swift development of the new facility is being closely watched ​by regional military attaches and security scholars, some of whom say its construction potentially marks China’s first fully fledged overseas military base in Southeast Asia.
Despite more ​than 20 years of intense military modernisation, China is widely perceived to lack a strong network of overseas facilities ⁠beyond the South China Sea, port access in Ream, Cambodia and a logistics base in Djibouti.

Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, ​said the selection of Ban Keun for a facility that the People’s Liberation Army could access “is likely more about a target of opportunity than filling an obvious ​operational need.”
“Laos does have some geostrategic value as an accessible foothold in mainland Southeast Asia, given its shared border with China and infrastructure links, including (its) railway,” Vandenbrink said.
The Chinese defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The Lao embassy in Bangkok and the Lao foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

COVERT US AIRFIELD DURING VIETNAM ​WAR

Singapore-based security analysts Collin Koh and Alexander Neill, as well as Vantor specialists, said the planes appeared to be Hongdu JL-8 aircraft, which both the ​Chinese and Lao air forces operate.

Also known as the K-8, the two-seater aircraft is extensively used for training as well as having light attack capabilities. It was jointly developed by ‌China and ⁠Pakistan and is exported to other militaries.
Laos currently has four of the planes, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual assessment of the world’s militaries. Koh, a scholar at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, described the Laotian planes as being of “questionable serviceability”.
As construction continues, diplomats and analysts are keeping watch for any sign of air defences, ammunition and fuel storage as well as surveillance facilities — all of which could point to the base serving broader ​military functions beyond training.
Neill said while the ​airfield looked relatively short and innocuous ⁠at present, it could in future serve larger aircraft, including signals intelligence and electronic-surveillance planes to extend China’s reach into Southeast Asia.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/attack-aircraft-military-vehicles-visible-new-china-laos-base-satellite-images-2026-10-06/

When US doctor Patrick LaRochelle realized in May that he’d been exposed to Ebola in a mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, he expected to be rushed home for treatment.
That’s what happened to him during a previous outbreak in 2018. And this time, at least three of the 13 state-of-the-art US biocontainment centers had agreed to treat him and his infected US colleague Peter Stafford.
Then the plan changed.
According to a senior administration official, once the White House heard US citizens had been exposed to the deadly virus in Congo, it delivered a clear directive: None would be coming home for treatment.
The decision to pull down the shutters flew in the face of years of investment and preparation and set the tone for a US Ebola response focused more on border controls than fighting the disease, according to more than 50 people including current and former senior administration officials, US doctors and nurses, people involved in this outbreak and previous ones, as well as public health and legal experts.

President Donald Trump’s administration instead set up a 50-bed Ebola quarantine camp for US citizens on an air force base in Kenya and doubled-down on its closed-doors policy in July with a “do-not-board” order blocking citizens from taking US-bound flights if they had been anywhere in Congo within 21 days.
The fallout from the administration’s America First closed-borders philosophy is now playing out in an Ebola outbreak that’s spreading at the fastest rate ever and has killed more than 4,000 people.
The threat of offshore treatment for exposed citizens and the 21-day policy have dramatically slowed the flow of American medical volunteers, increasing the strain on local doctors and weakening the overall response, 19 of the people said.

Trump’s shutdown of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and withdrawal from the WHO also left a hole in the supply chain for medicines and equipment and disrupted medical work in a country almost six times the size of California.
Medical missionary LaRochelle was transported to an isolation unit in Prague in the Czech Republic. He didn’t contract the disease. Stafford went to Germany for treatment, and recovered. Both doctors said they were grateful for the US government’s help and praised their care, but were sad they weren’t flown home.

“It seems like so much is motivated by fear and by the optics, rather than a true understanding of medical risk,” LaRochelle told Reuters.
“It felt like decisions were patched together and reactive,” said the 46-year-old doctor, who has lived in Congo for 11 years with his wife, a family nurse practitioner, and their three children. “It makes me sad that we’re at that point, and there are times that I feel angry.”
Stafford said his evacuation was delayed several times for logistical reasons and when he heard he was going to Germany, he assumed it would be to a US military hospital. Instead, he went to Berlin’s Charite hospital.

“I was disappointed and certainly sad that my home country was kind of rejecting us,” Stafford told Reuters. “I would have loved to get treated in the US.”

LEGENDARY soap opera actor Kelker-Kelly suffered cardiac arrest and was found in bed on the night of his shocking death, chilling 911 dispatch audio has revealed.

Kelker-Kelly, who starred in nearly 600 episodes of Days of Our Lives, died on Saturday at home in Missouri from natural causes, a medical examiner’s office spokesperson told The U.S. Sun.

He suffered “cardiac arrest” and was “not breathing,” the dispatcher relays to first responders in the audio.

Minutes later, the dispatcher says the 911 caller was “unable to move [the] patient from bed,” and “CPR is in progress.”

Kelker-Kelly was suffering from chest pains before his death around 8 pm, TMZ reported.

No toxicology testing was ordered, because there was no suspicion that drugs or alcohol were involved, the medical examiner official told The U.S. Sun.

TMZ reported police were called to the home to help an “unconscious man who was not breathing.”

Sadly, first responders’ life-saving measures were unsuccessful.

Kelker-Kelly was a massive star in the soap world before retreating from the spotlight in the early 2000s.

He played Bo Brady in nearly 600 episodes of Days until he left the show in 1995.

In addition to his Days role, he starred on General Hospital and Another World.

He last appeared on TV in 2014, when he made a cameo as his character Stavros Cassadine on General Hospital.

In addition to being an actor, he was also a pilot, according to IMDB.

On Days, he was married to Lisa Rinna‘s character Billie Reed in a tumultuous romance.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tv/17101715/robert-kelker-kelly-911-call-audio-cardiac-arrest/

FEARS Russia’s suspected plague outbreak could “quickly spread” beyond its borders are mounting as experts warn the UK should be on high alert.

Lab worker Daria Shipilova, 28, mysteriously died after falling desperately ill in Shelekhov, Siberia from suspected pneumonic plague.

Russian media reports claim Daria smashed a glass test tube containing deadly bacteria while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute.

Russian officials deny any such accident occurred and insist she instead developed “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.

But the huge containment operation and hospital lockdown in the days after her death has spread alarm far beyond Siberia.

Dr Andrew Weber, who has been inside anti-plague laboratories across the former Soviet Union, said UK health chiefs should consider screening passengers while the Kremlin remains tight-lipped over exactly what killed Daria.

Dr Weber, who worked in the US Department of Defence, told The Sun: “If I were a public health authority in London, I would be monitoring flights and passengers coming from the region and screening them at the airport.”

Kyrgyzstan – a neighbouring country – has tightened sanitary controls at its border checkpoints following reports of the suspected plague case.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have also announced preventive measures, while Mongolia already has heightened precautions in its regions bordering Russia.

The White House is watching developments too, saying the Trump administration “is aware of the outbreak, is monitoring it, and is evaluating possible courses of action.”

Quarantine measures in place in several hospitals in eastern Russia amid uncertainty over death of Darya Shipilova

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio said: “We’re watching and monitoring it closely.”

Weber warned the stakes would be far higher if Daria was infected with pneumonic plague – the dangerous lung form of the disease which can pass between humans.

“If it’s pneumonic plague, which spreads through the air, it could spread pretty quickly,” he said.

The highly dangerous lung form of the disease is caused by the same bacterium responsible for the medieval Black Death.

Irkutsk’s remote Siberian location and restrictions on flights out of Russia could help contain any potential outbreak.

But Weber warned there is another route stretching thousands of miles across the country.

The Trans-Siberian Railway passes directly through Irkutsk – potentially allowing an infected traveller to reach a major city before boarding an international flight.

The precautions inside Russia have nevertheless raised questions over why authorities have imposed such a severe clampdown while insisting there is no plague outbreak.

Reports say 189 people have been isolated or placed under observation – 114 in one hospital, 63 in another and 12 at the anti-plague institute.

More than 60 of Daria’s colleagues have also reportedly been locked inside the institute for days.

Some were allegedly forced to sleep on floors and chairs despite none initially testing positive for plague.

At least five hospitals have reportedly faced restrictions, while public events and university classes have been disrupted.

Workers at the giant Irkutsk Aluminium Plant in Shelekhov have also been ordered to wear masks.

Three-week restrictions were reportedly imposed at a children’s hospital and at least one maternity hospital.

One patient at City Clinical Hospital No.1 said: “We are under full quarantine. None of our relatives are being allowed in. We are not being allowed out.”

Weber said Russia has a long history of using drastic quarantine measures to crush potential outbreaks.

“In typical Soviet-style fashion, they are very good at quarantine,” he said.

“They isolate people in hospitals to make sure whatever caused her death doesn’t spread further.”

He added: “Because they are an authoritarian state, their ability to quarantine is much better than in the democratic world.”

But Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor insists extensive testing found no evidence Shipilova was infected by microorganisms linked to her work.

A biological-safety commission also claimed it found no accident involving dangerous pathogens at the institute.

Officials insist the epidemiological situation remains “stable”.

Despite those assurances, almost 200 people who had contact with Shipilova have been placed under observation.

The Kremlin’s handling of the mystery has only fuelled suspicion among locals.

Weber said: “The lack of information is very disturbing.

He added: “Putin is a habitual liar and they cover up things that make them look bad. So it wouldn’t surprise me that this is sort of normal procedure…”

Simon Clarke, head of biomedical studies at Reading University told The Sun: “They cover it up because they’re embarrassed.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17098582/nations-tighten-borders-plague-fears-sweep-russia/

The daughter of “American Idol” alum and ex-church pastor Caleb Flynn blasted her dad for sinning “big time” by having an affair with a “dirty girl” before killing her mother – as his other daughter vowed to never visit him in prison.

The 40-year-old father of two sobbed and sweat profusely as blistering statements from his daughters, Ava and Alyssa, were read in court before he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting his wife and their mother, Ashley.

“Mommy was the perfect person, the absolutely perfect person,” Ava, 10, said, according to a statement read in court by the girls’ uncle, Matthew Keyt. “What did she ever do to make you hate her so much? … She was my best friend and then you chose to kill the only mother I ever had.”

Ava also blasted her dad for having an affair with Aleigha Botner, an intern at the Ohio church where Flynn was a music pastor.

“How could you cheat on her and go to that awful girl Aleigha? I never liked her,” the daughter said.

“You and Aleigha sinned big time but you still have a chance to tell God that you are sorry,” Ava said.

Flynn’s other daughter laid into her dad, saying it was “sad that you can’t love anyone but yourself,” according to the statement read in court by her grandmother.

“You have already caused so much pain to your family and the world. The least you could do is tell everyone that you did it,” read Alyssa’s statement.

“By the way, I don’t plan on coming to see you,” the 12-year-old daughter said, apparently referring to his soon-to-be new permanent digs at a state prison.

The girls were 9 and 11 when Flynn killed Ashley at their Tipp City home on Feb. 16. He then staged the scene to make it appear as though an intruder carried out the murder, prosecutors claimed.

The girls are now being cared for by Ashley’s sister and brother-in-law, Kayla and Matthew Keyt.

The Keyts told the judge Monday about how the girls regularly cry as they struggle to come to terms with what happened to them.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/05/us-news/caleb-flynns-young-daughters-skewer-killer-dad-vow-to-never-visit-him-in-prison-as-scathing-statement-is-read-at-sentencing/

More American’s are losing the keys to their houses.

Foreclosures are climbing across the US, with the number of homes repossessed by lenders surging 42% from a year ago as more struggling homeowners reach the end of the foreclosure process.

Lenders repossessed 5,794 properties through completed foreclosures in August, up 22% from July and a 42% from August 2025, according to a new report from real estate data firm ATTOM.

Overall, 40,277 US properties received some form of foreclosure filing — including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — during the month. That was up just 1% from July but 13% from a year earlier, continuing a months-long trend of foreclosure activity running above 2025 levels.

Florida recorded the largest number of foreclosure starts, at 3,189, followed closely by Texas with 3,126 and California with 2,565. Illinois and Georgia rounded out the top five.

The growing number of homes making it all the way through the foreclosure pipeline was particularly pronounced in Texas.

The Lone Star State recorded 1,835 completed foreclosures in August — more than three times California’s 589. North Carolina followed with 356, Arizona with 296 and Alabama with 286.

Texas cities also dominated the list of major metropolitan areas with the most bank repossessions.

Houston led the country with 448 completed foreclosures, followed by Dallas with 402 and San Antonio with 256. Phoenix recorded 186, while Baltimore had 167.

Where foreclosure rates are worst

South Carolina had the highest foreclosure rate in the country in August, with one in every 1,547 housing units receiving a filing.

Nevada followed at one in every 1,920 homes, while Florida ranked third at one in every 2,397.

Texas, at one in every 2,445 housing units, and Maryland, at one in every 2,530, rounded out the five states with the highest foreclosure rates.

Nationwide, one in every 3,569 housing units received a foreclosure filing during August.

New York fared better overall, ranking 29th among states, with 1,604 properties receiving foreclosure filings — or one in every 5,352 housing units, according to ATTOM’s state-by-state breakdown.

Within the Empire State, Cortland, Greene, Orange and Tioga counties had the highest foreclosure rates.

The distress was particularly concentrated in parts of the Southeast.

Among metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 residents, Columbia, SC, posted the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, with one in every 1,232 housing units receiving a filing.

Punta Gorda, Fla., came next at one in every 1,249, followed by Spartanburg, SC, at one in every 1,262; Fayetteville, NC, at one in every 1,458; and Charleston, SC, at one in every 1,501.

Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, told The Post the increase partly reflects the housing market returning to more normal foreclosure levels after several unusually quiet years — but mounting costs are also squeezing some homeowners.

“Homeowners are navigating a range of financial pressures, including higher insurance costs, borrowing costs and everyday living expenses, which could be adding strain to some household budgets,” Barber said.

“Even with those pressures, overall foreclosure activity remains below pre-pandemic norms, so we are not seeing signs of broad-based distress in the housing market.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/10/05/real-estate/banks-seize-42-more-homes-as-americans-fall-behind-on-mortgages/

A year ago, Bari Weiss barreled into CBS News full of ideas and unwilling to listen to anyone who doubted her vision.

But what’s excruciating for staffers at the Tiffany Network is that — 12 months in, with a ratings disaster on her hands and the previously unshakable faith of her boss beginning to fray — Weiss still won’t hear anyone out.

“She doesn’t hear anybody. If you don’t agree with what she’s saying or doing, it doesn’t matter. She pretends to hear ideas, but she really doesn’t listen to anyone,” a source told Page Six.

Weiss’ first year has been marred by controversy, with one dubious decision following another.

She kicked off her reign shaping up its “Evening News” lineup by pulling Tony Dokoupil from “CBS Mornings” to helm the broadcast.

The switch saw an immediate decline in viewership and subsequent humiliating headlines for her new star anchor.

But the biggest head-scratcher came when she completely overhauled the nation’s most iconic newsmagazine “60 Minutes” — only to result in yet more embarrassing headlines and yet more viewers reaching for the remote.

“No one can say, ‘That’s a bad idea.’ She looks at you like, ‘You don’t agree with what I’m saying,’ but there isn’t anybody who gets through to her,” the insider said.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/10/05/society/infuriated-cbs-staff-still-cant-get-through-to-bari-weiss-after-scandals-and-ratings-collapse/