Category: World

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the OpenAI agent gained unauthorised access to the medical statistics portal of Medicare, Australia’s ​universal health insurance programme, while conducting research on public medical spending.
“Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the … network. Nonetheless, this situation ​is obviously unacceptable,” Albanese told reporters on Wednesday in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly.
Investigations continue ⁠and Australia has voiced its “extreme concern about this incident” to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Albanese said, adding that he was deeply disappointed by the company’s delay in ​notifying the government. “It took until September 10 before there was any notification at all,” Albanese said, adding that the investigation would also examine why government systems had failed ​to detect the breach in the first place.

He also warned that three other government health-related websites may have been impacted by the OpenAI agent’s activity, but did not confirm that had occurred.
In a statement, OpenAI said its “review found no evidence of patient records being accessed.”
It added that it “identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services as our models attempted to look up ​answers … our models took actions we did not intend.”
The AI agent breach adds to tensions between Australia and the largest US-owned technology companies. Canberra has already ​drawn criticism from social media firms and Washington after introducing a world-first ban on social media for children under 16 and new rules that force tech firms to let users switch off algorithm-driven ‌content on ⁠their feeds.
The Australian government has set up a task force to investigate the breach and check whether existing network security is adequate for preventing similar incidents.

‘AI MODELS ATTEMPTED TO LOOK UP ANSWERS’
The breach was announced the same day the world’s leading AI companies warned the United Nations Security Council of the risks AI posed to humanity, appealing for governments to work together to manage the increasingly powerful technology.
Australia has faced a series of hacking attempts on corporations and government-linked firms over the past four years.
Defence ​Minister Richard Marles said the Medicare portal ​that was breached did not contain ⁠individual medical claims, benefit payments, personal banking details, or patient medical histories of Australia’s 27 million people.
Instead, the website holds only aggregated data on healthcare use across the country, he said. However Australia considered the breach serious.
“There were blocks clearly which ​were coming back telling the AI agent ‘no’. The AI agent found a way around those blocks – didn’t accept no for ​an answer,” Albanese told ⁠reporters.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-pm-albanese-says-openai-breached-medicare-sydney-morning-herald-2026-09-23/

US President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington on Wednesday for a three-day visit that will test relations between the superpowers as tensions simmer over trade, ​technology, Taiwan and Iran.
Xi’s first trip to the US in nearly three years was not expected to deliver major breakthroughs, but Washington and Beijing could extend their 11-month ‌trade truce.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said they had reached a deal on an extension, as Trump greeted Xi personally at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after his arrival, underscoring the visit’s importance.

China’s embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.
At the arrival ceremony, the leaders and their wives shook hands, spoke for a few minutes and stood for pictures as a military band played, cannons blasted and a B-1 military bomber flew overhead.
The welcome marked the first time in 11 ​years that a US president has greeted a foreign leader at Joint Base Andrews, according to C-SPAN, which tracks presidential events. The last such reception was for Pope Francis in ​2015 during Barack Obama’s presidency.
“China and the United States should be partners, not rivals,” Xi said in a written statement released by the Chinese embassy ⁠that made no reference to a trade deal.

POSITIVE SIGNALS ON TRADE
A trade deal, even a limited one, could soothe global markets shaken by a 2025 tariff war that led to triple-digit levies between ​the world’s two biggest economies. Bessent told Fox News’ “Special Report” that the deal would extend the truce through January 10. It had been set to expire on November 10.
Deep differences remain. The two countries are ​at odds on issues including export controls on rare-earth minerals and computer chips, China’s ties with Iran and US support for Taiwan.
The meeting comes at a difficult moment for Trump, who faces public discontent with his war on Iran. Xi, while also facing challenges at home, arrives in a seemingly stronger position, with his country’s trade engine roaring. Some Republicans regard Beijing as an existential threat and are wary of Trump’s friendly outreach to China’s ruling Communist Party.

People familiar with ​the plans said Xi was likely to raise Beijing’s claim to Taiwan, a topic Washington would prefer to avoid, while Trump was likely to maintain firm export controls over Xi’s objections. It was unclear whether Beijing would help Trump break a stalemate ​in the conflict with Iran.

But talks set for Thursday could nonetheless yield deals to lower tariffs in specific sectors, cooperate on drug trafficking and expand military-to-military dialogue. Trump is expected to seek the release of some Americans ‌and others ⁠detained in China, according to the people.
The two countries could also agree to talk more on AI, where they are in fierce competition despite growing dangers.
The leaders themselves may not feel they need to compromise, analysts said.
“The president very much believes that over time the US economy is going to grow, the US will get stronger,” said Edgard Kagan, a former White House official now with Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think when Xi Jinping sits down with Donald Trump, he very much believes the US is in hurtling decline, and that time is on China’s side.”
STATE DINNER WITH AI CHIEFS
Additional fanfare ​during the trip is due to include a ​state dinner with tech luminaries, a White House ⁠military ceremony and a visit to the National Archives where the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution are housed.
The state dinner on Thursday is expected to bring together chiefs of companies important in both markets like Apple’s (AAPL.O), opens new tab Tim Cook, Nvidia’s (NVDA.O), opens new tab Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Despite their deep disagreements, both countries pressed ahead with ​the summit, which, analysts said, seeks to project stability between the world’s biggest factory and its biggest consumer.
As in their prior two meetings since ​2025, the leaders are planning ⁠a highly scripted spectacle. Instead of a joint press conference at the end, the countries are expected to issue dueling announcements highlighting what each side hopes to convey to domestic audiences.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-plans-grand-spectacle-potentially-tense-xi-talks-2026-09-23/

The count covers the whole strike group, not just the carrier. Cao wrote that it includes the Lincoln’s crew, the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escort destroyers and all aviation squadrons on board.

Eight members of a US Navy carrier strike group attempted suicide while it took part in combat operations against Iran, according to a letter from the Navy’s top civilian leader. The number had not been made public before.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao shared the figure in written answers to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She had asked about the morale and mental health of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew. The letter is dated Tuesday, and CNN obtained a copy.

The count covers the whole strike group, not just the carrier. Cao wrote that it includes the Lincoln’s crew, the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escort destroyers and all aviation squadrons on board. He also wrote that no service members died by suicide during the deployment.

Iran President Pezeshkian accused the US of disregarding international law and said Iran must remain powerful enough to deter any threats.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country and its people have been “victims of terrorism” in a speech at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

He accused the US of not respecting international law and said Iran must be powerful enough to deter threats. Pezeshkian also warned US President Donald Trump that Iran would never “bend the knee” and would not surrender to pressure.

“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.”

“Iran must be powerful to avoid being threatened,” Pezeshkian said, adding that Tehran does not seek to use its power for hegemony.

He said Iran’s defence capabilities are built to ensure that any attack on Iranian cities does not go unanswered.

Pezeshkian also said Iran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz to be used for “aggression”.

Pezeshkian recalls Minab school attack from UN stage

Pezeshkian arrived at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly carrying a photograph of the victims of the Minab school attack, which he held up from the podium during his address to world leaders.

“I come from an Iran in which our esteemed Supreme Leader was assassinated without any legal framework or reason. I come from an Iran where, in truth, they bombed a school,” Pezeshkian said.

Pezeshkian added that Iran would not surrender in its war with the US, but said Tehran remained committed to diplomacy as a means of seeking an end to the conflict.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/iran-victim-of-us-terrorism-says-pezeshkian-at-unga-vows-to-block-strait-of-hormuz-aggression-101790173467501.html

Anthropic said Claude analyzed large DNA databases and found an unusual system built around a reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme that copies RNA into DNA.

Anthropic on Wednesday said its Claude model helped discover a novel enzyme system with properties reminiscent of mechanisms in gene-editing technology CRISPR, marking the first result from the AI startup’s biology research efforts.

The finding comes days after Reuters reported Anthropic had quietly established a wet lab in the San Francisco Bay Area, as the company expands its ambitions in life sciences and drug-related research beyond purely computer-based work.

Anthropic said Claude analyzed large DNA databases and found an unusual system built around a reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme that copies RNA into DNA.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/anthropic-says-claude-ai-helped-discover-novel-enzyme-system-12089389?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Despite consensus among tech leaders on the need for AI guardrails, global powers remain sharply divided on how to oversee the technology

In an unprecedented briefing at the United Nations Security Council in New York, top executives from leading artificial intelligence firms warned world leaders that rapidly advancing AI technology could pose an existential threat to all humanity if left unchecked. Addressing the 15-member council during the annual UN General Assembly gathering, industry leaders called for urgent global safeguards to prevent systems from slipping beyond human control.

The landmark session saw Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei warn that, if managed poorly, AI could become a risk to humanity as a whole. Echoing these concerns, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman cautioned that the world risks losing control of its future to autonomous algorithms, emphasising that critical decisions regarding AI governance must be shaped through democratic processes rather than inside technology laboratories alone.

Runaway Algorithms and Autonomous Risks

The briefing underscored growing anxiety among computer scientists and international diplomats that increasingly capable AI models could soon self-improve, operate autonomously, and threaten global security. AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the UN Independent International Scientific Panel, told the council that the dangers are real and imminent.

He warned that member states face a severe, unprecedented threat that no single nation can contain alone, highlighting risks ranging from automated cyber warfare to algorithms interacting unpredictably to trigger unintended military conflict. UN Secretary-General António Guterres reinforced these warnings, reiterating calls for strict guardrails and a global ban on lethal autonomous weapons operating without human oversight.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/ai-leaders-issue-chilling-warning-at-un-humanity-is-at-risk-ws-bkrt-10349613.html

A MYSTERIOUS man found dead in an Idaho church 44 years ago has been identified and linked to an infamous cold case that left seven people poisoned to death.

The man in the church has been named as Californian chemist Dr. Mathew Francis Betkouski, and cops think he has a connection to the unsolved Chicago Tylenol Murders in September 1982.

He committed suicide in December of that year, using cyanide poisoning and was carrying 19 $100 bills, but investigators found no identification.

Betkouski, who had suffered from mental health issues, left behind a suicide note signed “William Toomey,” but authorities later determined that the name was fictitious.

Despite decades of investigation, his true identity remained a mystery, earning him the nickname “Unknown Wanderer.”

He was eventually cremated and buried in Eagle, Idaho.

But Ada police announced in a press conference that they had started looking to connect Betkouski to the Tylenol Murders cold case in Chicago which left seven people dead in 24 hours.

The victims, ranging in age from 12 to 35, died after taking Extra Strength Tylenol capsules that had been contaminated with cyanide.

Cops were keen to stress “we are not naming him as a suspect” and will continue to look for leads.

But forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz, who initially worked on the case with the FBI, said: “Law enforcement are being careful about naming him as a suspect but I am not bound by same rules.

“I tried to show he was a viable suspect and a large audience of forensic psychologists agreed.

“Some were skeptical but believed he was a viable suspect, a few thought he was the killer.

“Criminal profilers at FBI academy agreed he was a suspect. They thought we had solved the most important unsolved crime of my lifetime.

“Polls of each audience showed overwhelming agreement that the wanderer was a viable suspect for the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders, and many were as convinced we had solved the crime.

“I was around at the beginning of this and now in 2026, I am here to see the very likely closure.”

Authorities were led to Betkouski, who was believed to be between 35 and 45-years-old and lived across five states during his life, after finding some keys on his person which originated from Jacksonville, Florida where he was working and had rented an apartment.

From there, a brother who was living in the Los Angeles area was found.

He still had Betkouski’s possessions which included photos, letters, ID, a map of Chicago and a small bottle of cyanide.

Although the formula was not consistent with the medication used in the Tylenol murders, writings suggested he was interested in the area.

Photos showed he did visit Chicago, but in December 1981 – nine months before the killings.

It remains unclear if he returned or not.

The Tylenol deaths occurred just over two months before Betkouski was found dead in Boise.

He had been fired from his job as a chemist and cold case detective Tim Cooper told a press conference that he had been taking home materials from the lab and was terminated.

“He was conducting experiments in his garden,” Cooper revealed, while also stressing Betkouski’s mental health issues.

A head injury which required surgery left him reportedly paranoid, which sparked irrational fears of a tracking device being inserted into his brain by medics.

The poisonings in Chicago remain unsolved and led to major changes in the packaging of over-the-counter medications.

Investigators concluded the poison had not originated there, leading to the theory that someone had removed, refilled and resealed individual capsules before returning them to store shelves.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17048428/unknown-wanderer-mathew-francis-betkouski-tylenol-murders/

DOLLY Parton’s nephew threatened to “destroy her entire brand” in shocking texts exposed by the late icon’s manager.

In a trove of messages and emails obtained by The U.S. Sun, Dolly’s nephew and longtime head of security, Bryan Seaver, sent a flurry of messages to her manager, Danny Nozell, before and after her death on August 25 after a brief battle with cancer.

The texts have been revealed as part of a lawsuit filed by Nozell against Seaver alleging that he threatened various Dolly business entities just before and after his iconic aunt died unless his demands were met.

Nozell claimed her nephew’s threats were aimed at causing “fear and chaos to extort money for his personal gain.”

He claimed that he has been tasked with running Dolly‘s businesses through She’s Alive LLC, which was created “through her trust and estate plan,” to “protect her professional property and business interests.”

Seaver, whom Nozell fired from his security role this week, texted the manager that was ready to “destroy the entire brand if you don’t get these [REDACTED] out of our bit,” he wrote, adding, “I’ll earn you more money by virtue of their exit,” he wrote.

Seaver then said to Nozell, “I am your ally. This is a long game you need to start doing on them. The Dollywood brand is dying.”

Dolly’s Dollywood theme park is worth an astounding $300 million, of which she had a 50% stake in.

In another text to Nozell, Seaver threatened to “set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships.”

Seaver bragged in another text that, as he was the one to announce Dolly’s passing on her social media, he was “the face of the biggest social media post in human history.”

Seaver also said he “just sold $29 million dollars worth of ammo to Haiti,” to which Nozell saw as a statement to “magnify fear and demonstrate that Mr. Seaver could combine public notoriety with his means and stated willingness to inflict serious commercial damage.”

According to the complaint filed on Tuesday, Dolly’s manager claimed Seaver “has individually, and through his associates, made repeated, written threats to Ms. Parton’s staff, partners, legal and business advisors, and others.”

“These were not ordinary workplace disputes or heated words; they were deliberate threats from a self-proclaimed heavily armed, former security operative with a military-contractor background,” Nozell claimed in the complaint.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/17049232/dolly-parton-nephew-bryan-threat-destroy-brand-texts/

US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has announced a Gaza recovery plan worth $2.45bn (£1.85bn) during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The funding will be spread across 66 programmes over six months, and directed at housing, diesel generation and waste removal, among other needs.

But the board admitted substantial donations were still needed, with $18bn pledged but only $280m handed over so far. The board estimates full recovery and reconstruction will require about $71.4bn over the next decade.

Jared Kushner, Gaza Executive Board member and Trump’s son-in-law, conceded the project faced “different delays on different things, for whatever reason”.

“The goal of today was really just to show you that we’re really fully committed to doing it,” he told the meeting of board members and stakeholders.

He was joined in New York by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who said the group had made “real progress” over the past year.

“All of the hostages are home. There is a ceasefire, imperfect as it may be, but it still exists. Humanitarian efforts have achieved historic results, with billions of dollars donated and pledged to meet urgent needs and support the long work of recovery,” Witkoff added.

In addition to fundraising, the plan faces significant challenges including how to ensure security for those operating in Gaza, overhaul internal governance and find consensus between Israeli and Palestinians officials.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a separate press conference on Wednesday that “a number of countries have stepped forward and pledged financial assistance” and the board was “looking for more that will participate in that”.

Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli-American Board of Peace member, told the BBC’s Newshour programme what the next steps were likely to be.

“Because it’s a war zone, you need to remove unexploded ordnance. And then there are still hundreds of kilometres of tunnels underneath Gaza which need to be destroyed as well.

“Once that’s all done, Gazans can get to rebuilding again: whether it’s housing, or better sanitation, or other things,” Eisenberg said.

In August, a senior official on the Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, criticised Israel’s continuing air strikes on Gaza, as well as the actions of Hamas.

In August, Mladenov warned that a collapse of last October’s ceasefire would be “a point of no return” for the region.

At least 1,381 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire began, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have been killed in combat since the ceasefire and one contractor was killed in an “operational accident”.

The Board of Peace was created as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, which he unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September last year.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwlyke0mm0x3o

“Two more civilians died last night,” says Halia, before her phone connection cuts off.

She is trapped in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which she says is “constantly shelled” and cut off from food and water.

Three days later she tells me the two who were killed were a husband and wife. She knew them well.

They were bringing home a bag of food from the closest neighbouring town of Radensk, 23km (14 miles) away, but were unable to get home before a curfew imposed by Russian occupation authorities.

They were then killed by a drone. Four separate sources have confirmed the deaths of two civilians carrying food on 20 September.

Halia does not want to share their names for fear she might be identified. Her name has been changed to protect her safety.

Hers is just one of the many harrowing accounts the BBC has heard from residents in the front-line city in southern Kherson in recent days.

Occupied by Russia since 2022, Oleshky is trapped between the Dnipro River, which separates it from Ukrainian positions, and Russian forces.

It is also one of the cities where thousands of people lost their homes after the collapse of Nova Khakova Dam in 2023, flooding buildings up to their rooftops. Ukraine and Nato accused Russia of blowing up the dam, while Russia blamed Ukraine.

Oleshky was home to 24,000 people before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Now the Ukrainian government estimates that some 6,000 people remain in the city and its surrounding areas, including 200 children.

Residents say children remaining in wider Oleshky are suffering from malnutrition, a lack of medical services, and are “degrading” without access to education.

Many have also told the BBC independently there is only one hospital partially operational, opening a few days a week to perform critical amputations.

Ukraine has attempted to deliver supplies to the area but has not had success in recent months.

Earlier this week the Kremlin acknowledged that Oleshky faced “a critical situation” and “problems with supplies of food and medicine”, but added that “Russia’s military was working to resolve them” and blamed Kyiv.

The local population is living under a “full blockade” by Russian forces, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Sybiha called on the international community to pressure Russia into allowing humanitarian aid into the city.

Inside Oleshky, Halia faces a daily struggle to survive.

“There is no food here in the city,” she says, adding that the last food delivery was back in May.

“I eat once a day, a dinner only,” she says. “I make some plain bread, sometimes I can have it with a tomato, or with some honey, and a tea. That’s it.”

Many residents have turned to cooking garden weeds as they have run out of the vegetables they managed to grow over the summer, she explains.

Which weeds are safe to eat and how to boil them has become a topic of discussion on local Telegram messaging chats, along with calls between residents to sell, swap or share pieces of food.

No shops are open any more in Oleshky, with residents unable to source either clothes or hygiene products. The city has had no electricity, gas or water since the Kakhovka dam was attacked three years ago.

While some residents have risked travelling on foot along mined roads out of the city in search of supplies, it is now deemed too much of a danger.

Working out how many people have been killed in Oleshky is difficult.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has recorded reports this year of at least 29 civilians killed and 54 injured in Oleshky and Hola Prystan – about 24km to the east.

Local volunteers estimate that number could be significantly higher.

Ksenia Arkhipova has been counting the dead since she managed to escape Oleshky in summer 2022 – a few months after it was taken by the Russian army.

She is a volunteer who is involved in attempts to deliver food and medicine and facilitating evacuations to Oleshky. Locals trust her with their sensitive personal information.

“I’ve been putting together a spreadsheet of all those who died as soon as I find out about it, with their names and dates of birth – I’ve got around 1,200 people now,” she says. “Sometimes I don’t have time to update it, as the list grows one or two people longer every day: someone was killed by a drone, someone else stepped on the landmine.”

While the BBC cannot independently verify these figures, one local resident has given her personal account of losing her loved ones.

Both her parents were killed in Oleshky this summer, said Tetiana – also not her real name. She confirmed their identities to the BBC with their dates of birth and photos, but asked not to have them published for her own safety.

“They were shot inside their home. Russian soldiers came there and wanted to take it,” she said.

Burying the bodies of people killed in Oleshky has been restricted by Russian occupation authorities, residents say. This has made counting the dead even harder.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c60qxywdx4vvo

Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber’s longtime friends George and Amal Clooney dropped everything to be there for their friends after the death of their son Presley.

The Oscar winner and his wife were photographed arriving at the Los Angeles home of Crawford and Gerber’s daughter, Kaia, on Tuesday, just two days after Presley died at age 27.

“It was less about talking and more about just listening, comforting Cindy and Rande and being there for them,” a source exclusively told Page Six.

“There really aren’t any words that can make something like this better. They just wanted to be there for their friends and let them talk about whatever they needed to,” the source added.

The insider told Page Six that the Clooneys have also sent meals to the family and are helping in whatever ways they can as Crawford, 60, and Gerber, 64, mourn their only son.

“They’ve all been incredibly close for decades, and George is committed to being there for Cindy and Rande, not just right now but in the months and years ahead,” the source said.

“George and Amal are absolutely beside themselves with grief,” the insider told us. “George is completely shattered by Presley’s death. He’s known him his entire life, and he never imagined things would ever get to this point.”

“He always saw Cindy and Rande as having this beautiful family, and he can’t begin to imagine what they’re going through right now,” the source added.

Reps for the Clooneys, Crawford and Gerber did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

Clooney and Gerber’s friendship dates back to the 1990s, long before they became business partners and co-founded Casamigos tequila with Mike Meldman in 2013.

Their families have remained close over the years, with George reportedly becoming known as “Uncle George” to Presley and Kaia.

According to the Daily Mail, the “Ocean’s Eleven” star maintained a particularly close bond with Presley and spent hours talking with him as he struggled with addiction.

The outlet reported George also sent the young model encouraging notes, reminding him that he was there for him during difficult periods.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/09/23/celebrity-news/how-george-clooney-is-supporting-cindy-crawford-rande-gerber-after-son-presleys-death/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations on Wednesday that the Ukraine War — and all current wars must end — before artificial intelligence is deployed to the battlefield to make life-and-death decisions.

Speaking before the UN General Assembly in New York, Zelensky warned that the time would soon come when AI dictates how wars are conducted as smarter and smarter weapons are made at a quickening pace.

“We need to slow it down before we reach the next stage, because as early as next year, there is already a real possibility that AI, not only people, will begin to decide what happens on the battlefield, and we need peace before we reach that point,” he said.

“If you listen to some of the biggest believers in the development of AI, they say today AI still remains mostly digital, but one day AI will move from the digital world to shaping atoms.

“And when that happens, we had better be at peace,” he added.

Fears of AI being deployed on the battlefield were sparked last month after a Russian drone guided by AI killed three Ukrainians, including a 19-year-old university student.

The Ukraine war has highlighted the speed at which new technology can be developed and deployed in war, with drones becoming the standout method to conduct warfare.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/23/world-news/current-wars-must-end-before-ai-hits-the-battlefield-zelensky-says/

Barrett Walsh – the 2-year-old allegedly killed by his Lindsay Clancy-obsessed mother – was remembered as a “rambunctious” tot who loved playing games with his siblings, according to his heartbreaking obituary.

Walsh – affectionately known as “Bear” – was found dead on Sept. 1 after his mom, Corie Walsh, allegedly hanged him from the rafters in the basement of the family’s Illinois home.

The tragic toddler “will always be remembered as a joyful, funny, entertaining, rambunctious 2-year-old who loved singing and dancing to Super Simple Songs and Miss Rachel,” his recently published obituary reads.

He also enjoyed “learning his colors with Pingfong and Hogi, kicking a soccer ball with his friends and counting out loud to 5 Little Duckies.”

Little Barrett was a “cherished little brother” to Grady and Anna and a “caring big brother” to a baby boy.

He was an active kid who already had a positive outlook on life, his obit says.

“He loved animals, bedtime stories, doing the good-bye dance with joyous perfection, feeding Oscar too many treats and really enjoyed playing his favorite game Ready, Set, Go with Grady and Anna.”

Corie Walsh, 40, was charged with first-degree murder after Barret’s two older siblings found him with a rope around his neck in the basement of their home in Frankfort, according to court docs obtained by The Post.

A frantic neighbor called 911 and tried fruitlessly to perform CPR on the youngster, who didn’t have a pulse and was cold to the touch. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/23/us-news/barrett-walsh-2-year-old-allegedly-killed-by-lindsay-clancy-obsessed-mom-corie-walsh-remembered-as-a-rambunctious-tot-in-heartbreaking-obit/

Trump linked the push for alternative energy routes to attacks on commercial shipping and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), saying the Middle East needs to move energy infrastructure away from routes vulnerable to disruption by Iran.

Speaking at a meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council and Arab leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Trump linked the push for alternative energy routes to attacks on commercial shipping and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran’s terrorist attacks on commercial shipping in neighboring countries have shown the need to shift Middle East energy infrastructure away from the Iranian checkpoints,” Trump said.

“That’s why my administration strongly supports the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and other places in the form of getting oil out, whether it’s pipelines or anything else,” he added.

The remarks come as the Iran war continues to disrupt energy and shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy chokepoint. Around 20 million barrels of oil per day passed through the strait in 2025, while LNG flows through the route accounted for almost 20% of global LNG trade.

Hormuz Disruption Drives Search For Alternatives

The conflict, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has severely disrupted shipping through the strait. Vessel traffic has fallen sharply, forcing Gulf producers and global buyers to look for alternative routes for transporting oil and gas.

The disruption has also increased concerns over global energy supplies and prices, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining one of the world’s most important routes for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

Trump said the region was now close to overcoming challenges that had affected it for decades.

“Together, we’re on the verge of overcoming challenges that have plagued this region for decades,” he said.

What Is IMEC?

Unveiled at the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, IMEC is a multi-modal connectivity project linking Asia, the Middle East and Europe through two corridors.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/shift-energy-infrastructure-away-from-iran-trump-backs-india-middle-east-europe-corridor-ws-l-10347209.html

Trouble is a brewin’ at this watering hole.

A Massachusetts lesbian bar descended into a catty culture war and faces a potentially business-ending boycott from sudden enemies who flipped out when the owners lifted a longstanding mask mandate — for just one night a week.

Greenfield’s Last Ditch Bar scrapped Saturday mask requirements on Aug. 31 in a bid to boost business — but the move completely backfired, sparking uproar from members of the small city’s queer community.

Some critics dramatically likened the decision to a “mass disabling event,” a “eugenicist” attack and a host of other hot-button terms that escalated to threats of violence.

“I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists [sic],” one commenter wrote on the western Massachusetts bar’s post announcing the change, the Boston Globe reported.

“People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience,” wrote another, while a third said, “Just say you’re being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with.”

And that was all because masks were made “optional” just once a week.

Last Ditch, which opened in 2025, still requires masks all other days even as Greenfield hasn’t reported a COVID case in months.

The business soon found its divey barroom bare on what used to be busy nights, as irate customers banded together to boycott.

Sales had already been slumping due to the bar’s floundering business model that includes rules like, “Nobody will be barred from entry due to lack of funds,” and “Poor and unhoused people are welcome in the space.”

The mask mandate was another rule, as Last Ditch vowed ableism — infringements on disabled patrons enjoying the venue — was strictly barred.

That meant the face coverings were required to protect anyone who was immunocompromised. It remains unclear how anyone was expected to drink while masked.

The bar’s three owners — one a drag performer using it/its pronouns, another now in clown school — began to slip behind on their bills and couldn’t pay themselves or even their staff.

So the trio decided to lift the mask mandate on Saturdays to try to boost revenue and keep the lights on, the Globe reported.

“It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional,” Last Ditch merrily wrote in the August Instagram post that blew its world apart.

Management first tried to apologize for its supposedly flippant post, writing “We are sorry for our passive and dismissive tone of our change to the norms and schedule impacting the most intersectional of us.”

But that only fanned the flames — because Last Ditch’s post failed to include written “alt text” describing the written message for visually impaired people.

“This is not an accessible post,” somebody commented. “It indicates the lack of care or interest in Disability intersectionality.”

Desperate, Last Ditch tried to address the controversy in its monthly community meeting on Sept. 11.

But the event was immediately hijacked by the outraged masses who joined by Zoom and began filling the chat with hysterical comments, each read aloud for the in-person group to hear.

Then things were really set off when one woman attending in-person, a therapist, said she wished everybody could be there so they could talk together.

“It’s messed up that the mediator is dismissing those attending virtually. That’s not accessibility,” somebody wrote, while others claimed it was “wildly unsafe” to have a licensed therapist who they claimed could use her power to force them into mental hospitals against their will.

“A lot of people are calling for an acknowledgment of harm and I’m hearing a WHITE therapist … center[ing] the feelings of a majority white and white adjacent staff,” another offered.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/22/us-news/massachusetts-lesbian-bar-nearly-bullied-out-of-town-after-lifting-mask-mandate-for-one-night/

Thousands of anti-regime protesters gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on Tuesday to demand an end to Iran’s execution of political prisoners and to establish a free democracy in the country.

The demonstration, led by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), called for world leaders at the UN General Assembly to act and force the Islamic republic to end the latest surge in executions, with at least 100 political prisoners currently on death row.

Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, slammed the presence of Iranian leaders, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, at the UN meeting as she and rallygoers called for an end to the current regime.

“As long as this regime remains in power, repression, executions, terrorism, and warmongering will continue,” Rajavi said in a video call-in. “The solution is regime change by the Iranian people and their organized Resistance.”

Iran has undergone an execution spree since its brutal crackdown on protesters in January, with at least 56 people hung on national security-related charges since March 19, according to the UN.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned last month that more than 100 people were facing death sentences under the regime.

Among those recently sentenced to death was Leila Abolhasani, 43, a mother of two who only filmed a retail store burning during the January protests.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a former Trump adviser, also condemned the arrival of Iran’s delegation in New York, claiming the country has never been right since the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini.

“The people of Iran are his greatest victims, denied political rights to choose their own government, denied the human rights of freedom of speech and association, and even the right to dress as they so choose, manipulated and exploited by a cynical regime controlled by a military autocracy that is corrupting and stealing the wealth of the people of Iran,” Kellogg said.

Iranian activist Zahra Amanpour echoed the need to forego the Islamic republic and the monarchy of the past, calling for democracy to take root in the country to ensure the freedom for all Iranians.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/22/world-news/protesters-gather-outside-un-to-demand-an-end-to-iranian-regime-political-executions/

UKRAINE has unleashed a wave of lethal tactics as it faces Russia on the battlefield, with Vladimir Putin’s troops suffering unprecedented losses.

The desperate tyrant has held onto power through “sham” elections – used as evidence of public support to continue his meat grinder war.

But as Russian commanders call up 800,000 additional troops, Ukraine has developed a series of lethal tactics to meet them on the front line.

In the latest edition of Battle Plans Exposed, former intelligence officer Philip Ingram breaks down the astonishing Ukrainian operations crippling Russia.

From the collapse of Moscow’s Donetsk strategy to Kyiv’s defensive buildup along the Belarus border and deep-strike drone campaign, Ingram reveals how Kyiv‘s resilience could shift victory in their favour.

Ingram said: “Ukraine has developed an unseen level of lethality in combat.

“There are reports of a 60 per cent fatality rate on the Russian side.

“A new call up or draft escalation in late autumn seems likely, but Russia’s capability to train, equip, feed, mobilise and integrate a new wave of recruits is under question on the ground.”

Kyiv is rapidly developing long-range and ballistic missiles to overwhelm Russia’s air defences with unrelenting attacks.

Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces unleashed the largest attack on Moscow since the start of war on Sunday – on the final day of Russia’s election.

Russian officials were left reeling after 450 drones swarmed the capital followed by a volley of state-of-the-art missiles.

The strikes left two dead, with gaping craters in apartment blocks and huge plumes of smoke filling the sky.

Ingram said: “What we’re seeing here is a devastating long range strike campaign catching the Russian Aerospace Forces entirely off guard.”

Just last week Ukrainian long range drones hit Russia’s military airfield at Rostov on Don and an oil refinery in Yaroslavl.

The blitz sparked a series of explosions which left an An-12 aircraft, two An-26s and three left 12 transport plane and three military helicopters completely destroyed.

Ingram said: “Kyiv is systematically wiping out Moscow’s air defence radar and aviation assets across the southern theatre before they can even get off the ground.

“This is crippling Putin’s logistics and creating vital breathing room for his frontline troops.”

He also said Ukraine were using SAS-style strikes to hit Russian airpower.

Ingram said: “What we’re witnessing is a 21st century evolution of David Stirling’s SAS airfield raids in North Africa back in 1942, a handful of men in armed jeeps wrecking hundreds of axis planes on the tarmac, forcing Rommel to pull vital troops off the frontline to guard his rear airfields.

“Ukraine is doing exactly the same thing today, not with jeeps but with long range strike drones by crushing Russian transport planes and fighters on the ground.”

For more than a year, Moscow’s strategic goal in Donetsk has been to surround the fortress belt.

This is the chain of heavily fortified cities including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Zhukovsky and Kostiantynivka.

Unable to break through directly, Russian generals planned a massive pincer movement to bypass the cities – swinging round from the south down through the Lyman Salient.

“That plan has completely collapsed”, Ingram said.

As part of what it calls Operation Vivaldi, Ukraine cut Russian supply lines, blew up fuel depots and pushed Moscow’s logistics back across the border into the Voronezh Oblast.

Ingram explained: “This isn’t just a minor tactical win. It’s a strategic wrecking ball.

“Ukraine has completely severed the northern pincer of that grand encirclement plan.

“Russian commanders are still throwing meat wave attacks at the fortress belt from the south.

“But without that northern arm to close the trap, Moscow simply burning through men and armor for no strategic gain.”

He also said Ukraine were taking down Russian drones by using interceptors.

Describing dramatic footage of a UAV take-down, he said: “A high speed interceptor drone locks on and detonates right alongside it, triggering a violent mid-air explosion.

“This… is how Ukraine is preserving its multi-million dollar Western missile stockpiles, whilst neutralising Moscow’s relentless aerial swarms.”

Russia has suffered catastrophic losses in its bid to capture territory whilst trying to keep pressure on the rest of the front line.

Ingram said: “It’s costing Russians over 1200 troops a day. And we’ve seen on some days 2000 troops a day.

“That’s 35,000 to 42,000 troops each month.”

A Putin burns through his army, Russian generals have reportedly asked for an additional 800,000 troops.

But even at the lowest rate of fatalities on the front line, this new call up will be taken out within two years.

Ingram said: “Putin has put a timeline of the whole of the Donetsk Oblast being captured by the 31st of December, 2026. It’s not going to happen.

“And when the Ukrainians hold him back for that one more cycle, what he’s going to do after that is anybody’s guess.”

The cornered despot is also relying on Trojan horse-style tactics to save its crumbling war machine, Ingram said.

He detailed one example where a Russian supply vehicle was painted as a civilian car in a desperate bid to have it blend in with its surroundings.

Moscow is also hiding its critical vessels thousands of kilometres away from the frontline – proving that no target is safe from Ukraine’s cutting-edge UAVs.

Ingram showed how Russia warships were being protected with drone netting as far as the Caspian Sea by Dagestan – roughly 1,000km away from Ukraine.

Meanwhile the Ukrainian military is expanding its defensive networks.

Zelensky’s troops have cut vast swathes of forest to constructing multi-layered fortification lines to blunt armoured assaults and covert infiltration forces.

Ingram said: “There is no immediate threat of a Russian ground invasion towards Kyiv or western Ukraine from the north right now.

“What we’re seeing is classic forward planning by Kyiv.”

Ingram also showed how local defiance in Ukraine was still resisting Russian oppression.

In one clip, an elderly Ukrainian woman was seen disarming a Russian drone with her bare hands by casually removing its fiber optic cable.

Ingram said: “While it shows breathtaking individual defiance, it also reveals a fascinating technical detail – Russia is increasingly relying on tethered fiber optic guided drones to beat Ukrainian signal jamming.”

As part of Operation Vivaldi, Ukraine is also airlifting so-called kamikaze ground robots and dropping them behind enemy lines on the battlefield for the first time.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17043153/ukraine-stop-putin-masterplan-tyrant-burns-men/

FROM kamikaze robots behind enemy lines to Pelican missiles, Ukraine’s lethal new arsenal is striking the heart of Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Kyiv is rapidly developing long-range and ballistic missiles to overwhelm Russia’s air defences with unrelenting attacks – with Moscow rocked by a massive drone onslaught just days ago.

Almost five years after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s deep strikes inside Russia could force the tyrant’s hand, experts say.

Justin Bronk, an expert in air power and military technology at RUSI, told The Sun: “Putin can choose to end the war at any point.

“He will do so if he perceives the risk of doubling down on more aggression.

“For Ukrainians this is an existential non-discretionary war of national survival.”

Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces unleashed the largest attack on Moscow since the start of war on Sunday – on the final day of Russia’s election.

Russian officials were left reeling after 450 drones swarmed the capital followed by a volley of state-of-the-art missiles.

The strikes left two dead, with gaping craters in apartment blocks and huge plumes of smoke filling the sky.

Zelensky confirmed Kyiv had hit a “key” Russian oil facility and a logistics site in the region – which supplies more than a third of Moscow’s fuel as well as aviation fuel for the military.

Ukraine’s defence minister said attacking such facilities “directly undermines the enemy’s ability to continue its war of aggression and supply its military formations”.

Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin accused Ukraine of trying to “disrupt” the country’s parliamentary elections.

The tyrant’s party is set for a convincing win in what has been widely described as a “sham” election – used by Putin as evidence of public support for his war policies.

Fears have been rising that the results will be falsified – used by Putin as evidence of widespread public support for his war policies.

Justin said: “It represents a successful, politically poignant strike by the Ukrainians at the heart of the Russian government’s seat of power.

“It’s about cost and political damage to the image of control that Putin wants to portray to ordinary Russians and particularly to Russian elites.”

Zelensky revealed the operation involved an FP-7 ground-launched ballistic missile – Pelican.

Designed and built in Ukraine by defence start-up Fire Point, the missile boasts a maximum range of 124 miles with a 150kg payload and accuracy of 13 metres.

Sunday marked the first official confirmation that the weapon has been used in combat after it finished testing earlier this month.

Justin said: “Ballistic missiles travel much much faster on a high ballistic trajectory.

“They will come down very, very quickly and from a high angle, which makes them almost impossible to intercept.”

Speed also has a direct correlation with range, so the bigger the missile is built the faster and further it will go.

Before the launch, Ukraine relied on its allies for replacement ballistic missiles like the US-made ATACMS.

Meanwhile, the longer-ranged FP-9 missiles were currently undergoing flight tests in Ukraine.

Justin said: “The FP7 and short-to-medium range missile like the FP9 that they’re working on will significantly cut down the number of Russian systems that can intercept them once they’re working.

“They will force the Russians to use more of their stock of larger, longer-ranged surface-to-air missile interceptors.

“And if they can do that cheaply, then that will be a significant draw on Russian defense capability and ultimately economy,.”

Sunday’s blitz also included “the FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen”, Zelensky added.

The Flamingo, first launched in August 2025, can hit targets more than 3,000km away with a menacing 1,000kg warhead.

It has a six-metre wingspan and reaches speeds of up to 900km/h before decimating its targets.

Compared to a Western-made cruise missile, it’s much cheaper and much bigger.

Justin said: “The Ukrainians have ended up concentrating on the long- range strike campaign, which is causing politically visible constant effect.

“Lots of fire and smoke around major Russian areas from warehouses, oil and gas refineries, and causing economic problems in Russia in order to increase the political pressure on the regime.”

Ukraine also has an enormous variety of one-way attack drones that have relentlessly attacked Russia’s front lines and deep into Moscow.

Justin said: “They’re cheap enough that you can launch them by the hundreds.

“That means Russian air defenses have to deal with hundreds of slow, low flying targets that are moving at lots of different speeds, flight altitudes, with different radar cross-sections.

“The vast majority of them are shot down by Russian air defences but it uses up a lot of air defence capacity for the Russians to deal with.”

The potential targets in the cross hairs of Ukraine’s growing arsenal of drones and ballistic missiles is now “huge”.

Justin said: “You’re looking at Ukrainian UAVs and cruise missiles that can go 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 kilometres.

“The potential number of targets that can be reached within the expanse of Russia, even with convoluted routing to avoid defence concentrations, is huge.”

But it is not only Ukraine’s long-range campaign causing havoc for Putin.

UAVs launched from the frontlines have been used to destroy Russian vehicles supplying the Kremlin’s troops.

Justin said: “That is having significantly more effect, especially in the south, over the last six months than it would have had previously.

“Russia’s ground-based air defence is much less dense than it used to be because they’ve had to disperse a lot of it back into Russia to defend against the long-range strike campaign.”

As part of what it calls Operation Vivaldi, Ukraine is also airlifting so-called kamikaze ground robots and dropping them behind enemy lines on the battlefield for the first time.

Robots are sent ahead of infantry to harass Russian forces from behind – controlled by pilots hidden in bunkers tens of kilometers away.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17039801/ukraine-strikes-moscow-putin-hand/

THE attorney of the holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy’s bombshell murder trial has slammed the probe into his personal life launched by the mom of three’s lawyer.

Clancy’s defense attorney filed a motion on Monday asking the judge to review an alleged domestic violence incident from 2021 involving juror Michael P. Desronvil.

Desronvil was the sole juror who found would not find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity after she strangled her three children to death in January 2023, leading her case to end in a mistrial after five weeks of testimony and one week of deliberations.

Reports surfaced about Desronvil’s background after the mistrial was declared, alleging he was involved in a domestic violence incident with his then-wife in 2021, which prompted Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington to launch a probe.

Reddington asked Judge William Sullivan to review the allegations and to look into Desronvil’s cellphone use during the trial, according to the New Haven Register.

Sullivan has agreed to reviewing different questionnaires that jurors completed before the trial was started to see if there were any lies on the forms.

Edward Andrew Paltzik, Desronvil’s attorney, issued a statement on Tuesday slamming “The Looney Tunes motion filed yesterday by Kevin ‘Shooter McGavin’ Reddington.”

Paltzik said the investigation is “not just an attack on Michael for being the courageous lone holdout juror.

“Reddington’s motion is actually a full-frontal attack on the U.S. Constitution.

“Because if the new normal is that jurors are going to face brutal reprisals for disagreeing with a defense attorney, you can kiss the Sixth Amendment goodbye.”

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, such as right to a public trial, the right to a lawyer and the right to an impartial jury.

“If we follow his destructive proposal to its logical conclusion, we’re going to have an endless cycle of prosecutors investigating holdouts who oppose ‘guilty’ and defense attorneys investigating holdouts who oppose ‘not guilty,’” Paltzik claimed.

“Kevin Reddington’s disgusting motion to investigate Michael is worthy of nothing but universal condemnation.

“This is certainly not the final word from us on this subject, but merely our first words. It’s all going to backfire spectacularly on sore loser Reddington.”

Paltzik has alleged his client has faced “death threats, doxxing, and harassment” since Clancy’s mistrial on September 4.

During the trial, Reddington argued Clancy was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three children to death in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023.

The veteran attorney asked jurors to find Clancy not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility, also known as an insanity defense.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17043587/lindsay-clancy-holdout-juror-attorney-slams-investigation-phone-records/

Sri Lanka’s High Court has given long jail sentences to 15 men charged with plotting the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed 270 people and injured more than 500.

Those found guilty include Naufer Moulavi, who prosecutors said masterminded the suicide bombings. Nine other men were acquitted.

The co-ordinated blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels were the deadliest in Sri Lanka since the end of its civil war in 2009. Forty-five foreigners were among the dead.

All the bombers who carried out the attacks died in the blasts. Investigators have previously blamed the bombings on Islamist extremists, and the 25 men indicted were from Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority. One died in custody.

The 15 defendants on Tuesday were each given prison terms ranging from 200 to 260 years.

The court in the capital Colombo also ordered the confiscation of their all movable and immovable assets.

The accused, who had been charged with more than 23,000 offences, were handcuffed in pairs and brought to the court in two prison buses.

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans, many of whom were children.

They included celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter, an entire young family of five, at least eight members of staff from the hotels targeted and five members of the same family from the western Sri Lankan city of Negombo.

The foreigners who died included 11 Indians, eight Britons and five Americans.

Among the dead there were also citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

Three of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen’s children died in the attack on the Shangri-La hotel, while the family had been holidaying there.

‘Intelligence lapse’
In the wake of the attacks, Sri Lankan authorities pointed to a “major intelligence lapse”. Its parliament heard that a tip-off from India about the attacks was not properly shared with the authorities.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered former president Maithripala Sirisena to pay millions in compensation to the victims of the bombings, after finding him responsible for national security failures that led to the attacks.

Last month, two former senior officials were sentenced to death for criminal negligence that led to the bombings. Death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison in Sri Lanka due to a decades-old moratorium on executions.

For years, Sri Lankans have held regular demonstrations demanding justice for the victims of the Easter attacks.

The verdict comes as a separate investigation into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is under way. Sallay is accused of orchestrating the bombings with Islamist extremists.

The allegations echo those aired in a 2023 documentary by British broadcaster Channel 4, which heard whistleblower testimony claiming the attacks were allowed to happen to boost the popularity of the Rajapaksa family, which long dominated Sri Lankan politics.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqy7z275yx65o

The US Supreme Court has refused to intervene in a custody dispute involving a surrogate who refused an abortion request from the parents who hired her to have their baby.

Justice Elena Kagan declined an emergency appeal filed by McKenna West asking the court to halt a previous ruling granting parental rights to the California couple.

The parents had asked West to abort the pregnancy after a scan at 20 weeks showed the foetus had a severe heart defect. West instead went to Texas where nearly all abortions are illegal and gave birth to the child.

The court’s decision leaves in place an earlier order that granted custody to the parents.

The BBC has contacted lawyers for both parties for comment.

West has been seeking custody over the baby, which was born last month with hypoplastic left heart syndrome – a defect where the left side of the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body.

The condition often requires multiple surgeries, which are not a cure. Infants with the condition can have lifelong complications, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

West – who has been supported by several Republican officials – travelled to Texas, where the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened in the case and won an emergency court order requiring that the boy receive medical care in the state. He had surgery soon after birth.

West said she denied the parents’, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, requests to have the abortion after learning of treatment options and wanting to keep “this precious baby”, according to the Supreme Court filing.

West argued that the biological parents should not have custody because she worried they would not give the boy the necessary medical care since they sought to abort the child after learning of the life-threatening condition.

In a previous court hearing, Gilkar said the baby – whom they named Rumi – was “our child” and “the love of our lives”, according to the Associated Press. They said West travelled to Texas without telling them and blocked their access to medical information.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqzez9r9x022o

The meeting was the first direct US-Iran contact at this level in about three months. The previous face-to-face discussions took place in June.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi held talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

The three-hour discussions came after US President Donald Trump, in his UNGA speech, said he was weighing whether to pursue a deal with Iran to end the ongoing war or “annihilate them.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the UNGA on Wednesday.

Araghchi, Witkoff meet through mediators
The Tuesday discussions saw Araghchi representing Tehran, while Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Kushner joined for Washington. Qatar was among the mediators facilitating communication between the two sides, Iranian foreign ministry said.

Witkoff said the mediators shuttled between the US and Iranian delegations during the day before the discussions were completed.

“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?… Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”

In a statement on Tuesday, Iran’s Armed Forces dismissed Trump’s comments at the UN as “propaganda”, saying their response is “full readiness to inflict more severe, crushing, and unpredictable blows on the aggressors.”
But away from the fiery ​rhetoric, discussions continued to try to end the nearly seven-month conflict that began with joint US-Israeli strikes and has since killed thousands, driven up oil prices and drawn in neighboring ​countries.
US envoy Steve Witkoff in a post on X said that the United States and Iran engaged in lengthy talks on Tuesday on the sidelines of ⁠the UN General Assembly through mediators “who shuttled between the two sides throughout the day”.

The mediators will continue their work, Witkoff added, saying that he hoped Tuesday’s discussions would “prove constructive and promising.”
Trump also met the ​leaders of Middle Eastern countries who are keen to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war, but are wary of giving ​their longstanding rival Iran too much power.
Many also host huge US military bases that have come under repeated Iranian attack throughout the war.
“We think that the situation with Iran could end right after the (November 3) midterm elections, maybe before. I don’t know. You never know,” Trump said as he met the leaders.
The diplomatic maneuvering comes as Trump faces pressure on multiple fronts — rising energy costs at home, a widening regional conflict abroad, and the midterms six weeks away that ​could reshape his political standing. Whether talks produce a deal or the war escalates further carries consequences for global oil markets, Gulf security and millions of Iranians.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi met with Prime ​Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani of Qatar, which has spent months trying to de-escalate the conflict, the Qatari state news agency reported.

A senior Iranian official said Tehran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within days if ‌the US ⁠eased military pressure and lifted its blockade on Iranian ports.
The senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had conveyed its latest proposal to Washington through mediators last week and could reopen the strait to Gulf shipping within seven days if its demands were met.
In a reminder of Iran’s firm position so far, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who headed Iran’s negotiating team at previous talks, said Iran would never surrender: “Trump must understand that he cannot impose his power on the Iranian people and its armed forces.”
WIDENING REGIONAL CONFLICT
On the table at the Gulf states’ meeting with Trump is a Qatari proposal for a common security framework ​involving Iran and the Arab Gulf states, regional sources ​said. One source said Iran was reviewing ⁠the proposal.
Al Thani has said any such arrangement would need to provide security guarantees for the Gulf states and expand economic interdependence with Iran.
Saudi Arabia, the largest of the Gulf states, has been drawn deeper into the war this month as Iran-aligned Houthi fighters have advanced in Yemen, routing forces of the ​Saudi-backed government and threatening Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea.
The US, which bombed the Houthis for two months last year, has so far rebuffed ​repeated pleas from Saudi Arabia’s ⁠Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to rejoin the fight. The New York Times reported that Trump called off US strikes against the Houthis on Sunday at the last minute.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/tehran-hints-hormuz-talks-with-us-leaders-gather-un-2026-09-22/

China’s Xi Jinping is expected to press US President Donald Trump to halt Taiwan arms ​sales under a 1982 joint statement during a visit to Washington this week, which he could do at the US National Archives, sources briefed on the matter said.
China regularly ‌describes the issue of Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory, as its most sensitive and important diplomatic issue and has repeatedly called for arms sales to stop.

The US is bound by law to provide democratically-governed Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Three sources familiar with discussions between the US and China ahead of Xi going to Washington this week for a summit with Trump told Reuters that China is ​likely to bring up its interpretation of the third of the three “joint communiques” between the two countries, signed in 1982.
Under that, the US said that it intends to gradually reduce its arms ​sales to Taiwan and does not seek long-term weapons sales to Taipei.

However, in an accompanying memo, then-US President Ronald Reagan said US willingness to reduce arms sales ⁠is “conditioned absolutely upon the continued commitment of China to the peaceful solution” of differences with Taiwan.
China has sharply stepped up its military activities around Taiwan over the past five years, including staging war games with ​live missile tests. Its armed forces operate around Taiwan on an almost daily basis.
China’s foreign ministry said that the government “resolutely opposes” US arms sales to Taiwan and that abiding by the three communiques and previous US ​promises on the Taiwan issue was a “necessary precondition” for the stable, healthy development of ties.
Xi arrives in Washington on Wednesday, with formal talks talking place on Thursday and the archives visit on Friday.

A White House official said that Trump has said he will make a determination on the new arms sales package in a fairly short time.
In his first term, Trump approved more arms sales to Taiwan than any other president in history, and in his second term, he approved more in his first ​year than all four years under President Joe Biden, the official added.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it continues to closely track developments in US-China high-level exchanges while maintaining “robust communication” with the US.
ARMS DELIVERIES
The sources, who spoke ​on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the matter, said China has also asked for the US to stop deliveries of arms already ordered by Taiwan.
Xi could “emphasize to Trump that Taiwan is the provocateur and the sole source of ‌instability in ⁠US-China relations, and that Taiwan is the one changing the status quo,” one of the sources said.

In return, China is offering help to put pressure on Iran over the war in the Middle East, the sources added.
The US follows a “one China policy” under which it officially takes no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and acknowledges, but does not endorse, Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China.
The Trump administration in December approved an $11 billion arms sales package to Taiwan, the largest ever. However, a second package, worth some $14 billion, has been on hold for months.
After a May summit in Beijing with Xi, Trump said he was holding it in abeyance and described ​it as a “very good negotiating chip”.
XI EXPECTED TO ‘LECTURE’ TRUMP ​ON TAIWAN
Under the “Six Assurances” for Taiwan, also issued ⁠in 1982 but only declassified in 2020, the US has not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, nor agreed to prior consultation with Beijing on such sales.
Senior US Republican figures have been expressing their support for Taiwan ahead of the summit.
US Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations ​subcommittee on East Asia, told an event at the Hudson Institute last week that Trump should take a firm line on Taiwan and make clear ​that US policy on Taiwan ⁠remained unchanged.
“We need to continue just to again let them know that they’re not going to be allowed to take Taiwan by force. That we are not changing our position on that. We’re continuing to support Taiwan,” he said.
In a letter to Trump on Friday, John Moolenaar, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China, wrote in a reference to Taiwan and US allies in Asia that Chinese objections to US arms sales and security cooperation ⁠should be “rejected out ​of hand.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-expected-press-trump-halt-taiwan-arms-sales-under-1982-agreement-2026-09-22/

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár said Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were united in supporting India’s bid.

India’s push for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council received backing from the four members of the Visegrád Group (V4) during their first foreign ministers’ meeting with India on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár said Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were united in supporting India’s bid.

“We all agree as V4 countries that India as a part of the Global South, upcoming superpower in the Indo-Pacific region, must be at the table as the permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Blanár said after the meeting.

‘We all agree as V4 countries that India as a part of the Global South, upcoming superpower in the Indo-Pacific region, must be at the table as the permanent member of the UN Security Council’

– Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár of Slovakia after the first V4 + India FMM #UNGA81

🇮🇳 🇸🇰 🇵🇱 🇭🇺 🇨🇿

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 21, 2026

The statement marks a clear expression of support from the four Central European countries as India continues to seek a larger role in the UN’s top decision-making body.

India, V4 agree to deepen cooperation

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called the first V4-India foreign ministers’ meeting as a “new historic occasion”.

The countries agreed to strengthen political, economic, technology, defence and people-to-people ties. They also agreed to hold annual meetings of their foreign ministers and create an annual business forum.

Jaishankar said India and the V4 countries would explore greater cooperation in technology and innovation, while also seeking to strengthen existing defence ties.

“We have a very strong history with all the V4 countries in defence. We want to refresh and take forward that record and that cooperation,” he said.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/upcoming-superpower-four-european-v4-nations-back-indias-permanent-unsc-seat-bid-ws-l-10344888.html

Trump on Monday stated Russia had “lost control” of its diesel industry because of the war and claimed several refineries had been damaged and temporarily taken offline.

US President Donald Trump on Monday renewed calls to end the Ukraine-Russia war, urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries.

In a post on Truth Social, the US President warned that the strikes are contributing to pressure on global diesel supplies and fuel prices.

Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting On Tuesday

Trump made the remarks ahead of his planned meeting with Zelenskyy in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The two leaders spoke over a phone call on Sunday, with the Ukrainian President later describing the conversation as an “important conversation” and saying their upcoming meeting “could change a lot”.

Trump on Monday stated Russia had “lost control” of its diesel industry because of the war and claimed several refineries had been damaged and temporarily taken offline.

Trump Says ‘Russia Has Lost Control’

“Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine. A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission,” Trump wrote.

China has expelled top generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli from the Communist Party and military, accusing them of disloyalty, corruption and forming factions.

China has expelled two top military leaders, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, from the Communist Party and the military, accusing them of disloyalty, corruption and other serious disciplinary violations.

The move comes days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to travel to the United States for talks with President Donald Trump and weeks before a key October Communist Party gathering on internal governance and discipline.

Cindy Crawford is trying her best to process the shocking loss of her only son, Presley Gerber.

“They were so close,” a source told Page Six exclusively. “What you saw online and in the press wasn’t just for that purpose. They were a tight-knit family and [sister] Kaia and Presley were more than just siblings. Cindy has to be beyond gutted.”

According to a second source, “Cindy is inconsolable. She’s absolutely devastated. This is every parent’s worst nightmare, and the family is still trying to process everything that happened.”

Presley died of a reported drug overdose after Santa Monica Police Department officers were dispatched to a Santa Monica, California, rehab facility on Sept. 20. Page Six’s sources claimed he had checked in for treatment the same weekend he was pronounced deceased. He was only 27.

After news of Presley’s death broke, a rep shared with Page Six that the family asked for “privacy during this very difficult and painful time.”

The male model was quite open about his struggles over the years.

In 2018, Presley was arrested for DUI after being pulled over for speeding in Beverly Hills, California. The following year, he pleaded no contest and was on probation for three years.

He also was open about his addiction to opioids and his mental health, including his battle with depression, which he called a “24-7 job.”

In March, Presley took to social media to give followers a glimpse inside his trip to Mexico to work on his sobriety. During the trip, he took ibogaine, a psychoactive substance found in the root bark of Tabernanthe iboga that has been used to help with those trying to stay sober.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/09/21/celebrity-news/cindy-crawford-beyond-gutted-over-son-presley-gerbers-tragic-death/?_gl=1*1h9sfv9*_gcl_au*MTA2NDczMTkzNS4xNzg3MTA3MTIx*_ga*MTg2NjYyMzM1MC4xNzczODEwMTg2*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*czE3OTAwNDAxMzgkbzI2OSRnMSR0MTc5MDA0MDgwNiRqNjAkbDAkaDA

Eliana Moreno, the 38-year-old aerial reporter who was killed in last week’s deadly NBC4 LA helicopter crash, died as a result of blunt force trauma, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Moreno died from injuries sustained when the NewsChopper4 helicopter crashed in Chatsworth on Sept. 15 while she and pilot George Marciniw were covering a deadly Metro bus collision for NBC4 and Telemundo 52.

The medical examiner also listed other significant conditions that may have contributed to Moreno’s death, including “thermal injuries and inhalation of products of combustion.”

Marciniw’s cause of death has not yet been made public.

The chopper crash also killed 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground when the helicopter crashed. His cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

The cause of the helicopter crash itself remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration.

“Since she was 11 years old, Eliana dreamed of becoming a news reporter. Through hard work and courage, she turned that dream into a reality,” her family wrote in a statement posted by her brother Johan Moreno last week on X.

“We find comfort in knowing that Eliana left this world doing the very thing she loved, pursuing the passion she carried with her since she was a little girl,” they added.

“We are infinitely proud of her and feel incredibly blessed to have had the privilege of loving her and calling her ours,” the family added.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/21/us-news/eliana-morenos-cause-of-death-revealed-after-nbc-helicopter-crash/

Four people have died in Japan after Typhoon Dujuan battered Tokyo and surrounding prefectures with torrential rains and destructive winds, local reports said.

The storm cut power for 50,000 people and caused the suspension of hundreds of flights. Most evacuation orders were lifted on Tueday as the storm pulled away from Japan’s eastern coast.

At the height of the storm on Monday, authorities warned of an “imminent threat to life” and urged 1.9 million people to move to shelters.

The fatalities were from landslides in Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures. Six others were reported missing, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Dujuan had sustained winds of 130km/h (80.8mph) and gusts of 194 km/h.

The typhoon is the latest in a series of storms in the Pacific, made more intense by the “super El Niño”, which has warmed the ocean, fuelling the formation of storms.

Authorities had advised the public to pay attention to weather information.

Dujuan, which is Japan’s 25th typhoon of the year, hit in the midst of a five-day holiday and forced the cancellation of several events.

Concerts scheduled for Monday at the Rock in Japan music festival were cancelled, while the Tokyo Game Show, a video game convention, also cancelled Monday’s programme.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi offered her condolences in a post on X to those who lost thier lives in the typhoon, before saying she would be continuing with her scheduled trip the United States as planned.

“With a sense of urgency, I instructed Chief Cabinet Secretary Takehara and Minister Hosono to respond with utmost preparedness,” she wrote, before saying she had boarded a flight to the US.

She will be speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, and will meet with US President Donald Trump.

The Yokosuka City Fire Department told the BBC that a woman in Kanagawa prefecture, aged in her 60s, was believed to have been buried alive after a landslide swept the house she lived in.

Following a search by rescue crews, she was found inside the home and pronounced dead, NHK reported.

Separately, Sodegaura City Fire Department in Chiba prefecture told the BBC a man in his 50s was rescued after getting trapped while working to clear debris at a landslide site.

The department said the worker fell into a bamboo thicket, along with some heavy machinery. He was then taken to hospital before his death was confirmed, according to local reports. Police are investigating the details of the incident.

Some research suggests that Japan has become more exposed to destructive storms, but climate change is not thought to be increasing the number of these storms globally, and could even make them less common in some regions.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm3wj2lexl97o

Andy Burnham has said the UK will provide “defensive air-to-air refuelling” support for Saudi Arabia, in response to attacks the country has faced from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

It is understood this is likely to begin in the coming days and will involve a single British aircraft, a Voyager, based in RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

The prime minister said it follows a request from Saudi Arabia for “military support”, which he agreed to on the advice of Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.

Government officials said the offer is “time limited” and likely, in the first instance, to last “for weeks”.

The Houthis are locked in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.

In recent days, the Houthis in Yemen say they have carried out drone and ballistic missile attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh, as well as energy sites on the country’s Red Sea coast.

Defensive support is described by UK officials as activity which could include aiding Saudi air force jets shooting down incoming Houthi missiles and drones.

The singular Voyager aircraft is part of a core fleet of nine – eight military registered and another civilian registered – on the Royal Air Force (RAF)’s books.

The RAF also has five others available for military recall if needed.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him on the way to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Burnham linked cost of living pressures to the decision.

“I go back to the point I made about cost-of-living pressures and acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region,” he said.

“Because of course Saudi Arabia has been experiencing attacks, is looking at potential further disruption, and we need to keep those pathways open, and hence our agreement to the request.”

Shipping routes through the Red Sea are a vital artery of the world economy.

The Houthis recently seized control of the strategic port city of Mokha and Perim Island, a gateway to the Red Sea – a key shipping route used by Saudi Arabia.

As “military support” goes, Britain’s offer of a single Voyager refuelling aircraft is at the lighter end of the spectrum. Some may even see this as a performative gesture to an ally in trouble.

Saudi Arabia is struggling to fend off attacks by Yemen’s Houthis who seem to have an inexhaustible supply of drones and missiles to fire at their large and vulnerable Saudi neighbour to the north.

British officials have said this offer is, as they put it, “time limited”, perhaps for just a few weeks.

But Yemen has been at war, on and off, since 2014 and this latest upsurge in fighting is made more complicated by the fact the Houthis are backed by Iran which is in its own on-off war with the US.

The risk for Britain here is limited but wars have a habit of drawing nations in with a steadily increasing involvement. That may well suit the Saudis but it is unlikely to please most people in Britain.

In a BBC interview last week, Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte hinted that European support for Saudi Arabia was also likely.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqlykpe4dk0yo

SHE has faced a tough few years, but standing centre stage in a pop-up stadium built and named in her honour, Shakira has well and truly nailed her big comeback. 

Nearly quarter of a century after her debut UK hit Whenever Wherever, she is about to embark on a sold-out residency in Madrid.

Over 21 nights, she will perform for more than 600,000 fans after pulling off one of the most impressive career revivals ever.

The concerts are the finale to her 127-date Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour — the highest-grossing Latin tour of all time, and the fifth most lucrative female tour in history.

And Shakira herself is enjoying it just as much as her rapidly- expanding fan base.

In an exclusive chat, the Colombian superstar — who, despite her age-defying looks, turns 50 in February — said: “I feel more secure and more confident than ever; so much more than when I was in my 20s, which is something I never would have believed or expected.”

She added of her pop renaissance: “I’ve never been more in love with my career, so I’m grateful to still be able to do what I do and just know that people are connecting to that.”

This year has been a game-changer for Shakira. Her World Cup anthem with Burna Boy, Dai Dai, topped charts globally and became one of the biggest hits of 2026 so far.

The video has had more than 1billion views since May, contributing to her becoming the most-watched female artist on YouTube.

The same month, she performed to over 2million people in a single night on Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro — one of the highest- attended concerts ever.

But in Dai Dai, she sings: “You’ve been this brave all along, what broke you once made you strong.”

It is a reflection of her last few years, when life was challenging.

Shakira’s 2017 album, El Dorado, was not received as well as expected, and five years later came her highly-publicised split from Spanish footballer Gerard Pique.

The couple, who never wed but have sons Milan, 13, and Sasha, 11, announced their separation after 11 years together in a public statement.

He was alleged to have moved on with another woman while they were together, although he has not spoken about the circumstances.

Things were made worse when Shakira was dragged into court by Spanish authorities over a tax dispute, in which she claimed she had not spent enough time in the country to pay the taxes they said she owed.

In 2023, she settled on one case of tax evasion, forking out €14.5million in unpaid taxes plus interest, a €7.3million fine and a €432,000 payment to waive a suspended three-year prison sentence.

At the time, things were looking bleak. But she started to turn it around, funnelling her anger into her music, which attracted a whole new generation of fans.

Then in May, a Spanish court ordered the country’s tax authority to refund €55million of taxes, ruling that the cash was improperly collected during the dispute.

Her epic, two-and-a-half hour concert tells the story of a wronged woman who comes out the other side.

At one point in the show, during song TQG,she is seen trying to reprogramme men’s behaviour.

Later, she is depicted as a lone wolf protecting her cubs, and then duets with her sons, who appear on screens for the track Acrostico.

The message is clear as she tells the crowd: “Love is beautiful. But self-love is more beautiful.”

The gig features a set of some 25 songs, more than a dozen extravagant costumes, fireworks, flamethrowers, twerking and Shakira on the drums and guitar.

It is a triumphant moment of celebration and, during her carnival-inspired, multi-coloured performance of Waka Waka (This Time For Africa), she beams from ear to ear.

Shakira hopes her concerts leave fans, especially women, optimistic about the world, as that’s certainly how she feels after the ordeal she has gone through in recent years.

She told me: “I hope women walk away feeling empowered and excited about what’s ahead of them, knowing that they are the ones who decide how to tell their story and what they want to take away from everything life throws at them.

“It’s been such a revelation to realise that the worst I ever imagined could happen . . . and that I can still find this level of happiness again.”

In Madrid, as well as the temporary stadium built in her honour, there is an entire 30-hectare village of attractions based on the Hips Don’t Lie singer.

And she’s bound to rake it in as there are high-profile sponsorships, including a museum about Shakira in partnership with Amazon.

A whole Disney area inspired by the star’s voice role in Zootropolis 2 is another key attraction, along with a library, in partnership with Penguin, promoting authors from South America.

During the residency, hotel bookings in Madrid are up 15 per cent from 2025, while Ryanair added 225,000 seats on flights to the hotspot ahead of the shows, which are generating hundreds of millions for the city’s economy.

Shakira, who has sold 100million records during her career, has now relocated from Spain to Miami with her sons to start afresh — and she is flying high.

She proved as much on the global stage when an estimated 1.5billion footie fans watched her perform at the inaugural World Cup halftime show in July.

And although she sang alongside acts including Madonna, BTS and Justin Bieber, it was Shakira who stole the spotlight.

Her success is a testament to her grit and temerity, with music insiders revealing she is hands-on with every detail of her career.

A source said: “Shakira has worked harder than anybody for this comeback — it’s taken blood, sweat and tears.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/17034889/shakira-incredible-pop-renaissance-madrid-glastonbury/

Hundreds of flights have been delayed at major airports in the US after construction workers accidentally cut a cable needed for air traffic control.

Ground stops and delays were issued on Monday afternoon for airports in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Hours later, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the cable had been repaired and airports would resume normal operations, though delays were still expected.

The major east coast disruption came ahead of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City on Tuesday, which is expected to be attended by scores of world leaders arriving into New York-area airports.

That includes UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who managed to board his flight before the delays began and arrived as planned.

The delays happened after the damaged cable impacted the Terminal Radar Approach Control system, which is used to guide planes during takeoff and landing, transport officials said.

New Jersey public transportation agency NJ Transit told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that its construction workers had accidentally severed the line and that markers had been wrongly placed at the digging site.

The BBC has reached out to NJ Transit for comment.

Duffy earlier said the damage was caused by workers from Amtrak, the US national operator of intercity railroad service, who were doing the construction work. This “caused a telecom outage” which forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground flights, Duffy posted on X.

An Amtrak spokesperson said in a statement, reported by US media, that the incident involved a NJ Transit contractor. Telecommunications company Verizon, which owns the cable, also said it was not responsible.

The severed cable was actually a backup network, and the error was only discovered after the primary circuit failed, according to the head of the FAA, Bryan Bedford.

Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey – one of the three major airports that services New York City – was the most heavily impacted by today’s air traffic control disruptions, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckvgyzzgvv4wo

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, arrived in New York to participate in the 81st United Nations General Assembly, leading a high-ranking Iranian delegation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in New York on Monday evening, local time, to attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Araghchi travelled to the United States at the head of a high-ranking Iranian delegation as Tehran prepares for a series of diplomatic engagements during the annual UN gathering.

The Iranian foreign minister was welcomed at John F. Kennedy International Airport by Gholamhossein Darzi, Iran’s permanent representative and chargé d’affaires to the United Nations.

Araghchi Holds Consultations In Doha

Before arriving in New York, Araghchi made a brief stop in Doha, where he held consultations with Qatari officials over the latest regional developments.

IRNA did not provide further details about the issues discussed during the talks. Qatar has remained an important diplomatic interlocutor in discussions involving regional developments and Iran.

Araghchi’s visit to New York comes ahead of a series of high-level meetings linked to the UN General Assembly, where world leaders and senior government officials are expected to discuss major international and regional issues.

Pezeshkian To Travel To New York

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also scheduled to travel to New York on Tuesday to attend the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.

According to IRNA, Pezeshkian is expected to address the General Assembly during the high-level session. He is also scheduled to meet and hold consultations with a number of world leaders and senior officials on the sidelines of the gathering.

The annual UN General Assembly provides member states with an opportunity to present their positions on international issues and hold bilateral and multilateral discussions.

Araghchi’s arrival marks the start of Iran’s diplomatic participation in this year’s high-level UN meetings. His presence in New York is expected to precede Pezeshkian’s arrival and address.

The Iranian delegation’s participation comes as regional developments remain a major focus of international diplomacy. However, IRNA’s report did not provide details of Araghchi’s planned meetings in New York or specify the issues he is expected to raise during the General Assembly.

S0urce: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/irans-araghchi-lands-in-new-york-ahead-of-unga-as-middle-east-conflict-rages-article-156199779

British Columbia sued OpenAI in California on Monday, saying ​a mass shooting at a school in the province could have been prevented if the company had warned local law ‌enforcement that the shooter had used ChatGPT to plan the massacre.
The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court names OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, as defendants. It is seeking damages to cover what the province has and will spend on its recovery from the February attack, as well as an order directing changes to the way ​the company handles ChatGPT conversations that could lead to violence.

Nine people, primarily children, were killed in the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, ​British Columbia. The shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, had been flagged by the company’s safety team after her conversations about ⁠gun violence, but the company did not alert police.
Altman published a letter to the community, saying he was “deeply sorry” OpenAI had not contacted law ​enforcement. He promised reforms, but never followed through, despite efforts from British Columbia’s attorney general to engage, the lawsuit says.
The school where the shooting took ​place is in the process of being demolished, and the province has been forced to absorb the costs of a replacement school, mental health care and other effects of the shooting, according to the lawsuit.

Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, called the Tumbler Ridge shooting an unspeakable tragedy.
“OpenAI remains committed to working collaboratively with government and ​law enforcement officials, and continuing to advance our ongoing safety work,” Pusateri said.
FAMILIES SUE
British Columbia’s lawsuit comes after more than 30 family members of ​victims and others impacted by the attack filed lawsuits in California federal court, accusing the company of opting out of a chance to prevent the shooting.
Van Rootselaar shot ‌her mother ⁠and stepbrother at home before killing an educational assistant and five students aged 12 to 13 at her former school on February 10, according to police. Van Rootselaar, who was 18, then died by suicide.
Van Rootselaar’s interactions with ChatGPT were first flagged by the company in June 2025. Safety team members recommended contacting the police, but Altman and other OpenAI leadership overruled them, the lawsuit says, citing OpenAI whistleblowers who spoke to the Wall Street ​Journal in the wake of the ​shooting.

The shooter’s account was deactivated, ⁠but she was able to get a new account and continue using the platform to plan her attack.
Following publication of the Wall Street Journal article, the company said the account was flagged by systems that identify “misuses of our ​models in furtherance of violent activities,” but the issues did not meet its internal criteria for reporting to ​law enforcement.
FLORIDA SUES
The ⁠lawsuit comes after a series of cases against OpenAI have been filed in US state and federal courts in recent months over claims ChatGPT facilitated violence, including lawsuits related to a mass shooting at Florida State University last year.
In June, Florida became the first state to sue OpenAI over safety risks, accusing the company of ⁠misrepresenting the ​safety of its ChatGPT platform, which the lawsuit said has harmed children by providing ​information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm and addicting young users.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/british-columbia-sues-openai-over-tumbler-ridge-school-shooting-2026-09-21/

The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had prepared to launch airstrikes on Sunday against the Houthis after fresh pleas from the Saudi crown prince. But the newspaper said Trump called off the airstrikes at the last minute, even as troops were loading bombs onto aircraft.
Reuters could not verify the Times’ report. The US military’s ​Central Command referred questions to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Rashid al-Alimi, the Riyadh-based president of Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, asked Trump by phone on Sunday for US ​military help, four sources told Reuters. Two of the people, one Yemeni and one Western, said Trump made no direct pledge of support during the call.

Riyadh was apparently struck on ⁠Saturday for the first time since the escalation began, with explosions heard and smoke visible near the airport. The Houthis said they had fired missiles at the Saudi capital; the Saudis have not commented.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Monday he ​had agreed to Saudi Arabia’s request to provide defensive air-to-air refuelling for a limited time, a move he described as helping to stabilise the wider region. Britain and Saudi Arabia have been close military allies for decades, with Britain serving as one ​of the kingdom’s largest arms suppliers.
A French diplomatic source said Paris was ready to contribute to securing Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast and the East-West pipeline corridor.
FIGHTING IN HIGHLANDS
The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s capital since 2014, seized the country’s Red Sea coast this month in an advance that routed forces of the Saudi-backed government.

Saudi Arabia has launched hundreds of strikes in recent days on the fighters’ positions in the highlands, the Houthis say.
According to the United Nations, nearly 700 people have been killed and thousands injured in the ​fighting. Nearly 130,000 Yemenis have fled homes within Yemen, and more than 3,000 have fled by boat across the Red Sea to Africa.

Five Yemeni military sources told Reuters the Houthis were now seeking to seize strategic heights, known as the ​Kahboub Mountains, in two provinces, Taiz and Lahij, which separate the Red Sea coast from the government-held south.
Fighting has centred on the outskirts of the remote mountain Al-Wazi’iyah district in Taiz province, and Ras al-Ara along the Indian Ocean coast between the Bab el-Mandeb Strait ‌at the Red ⁠Sea’s mouth and the government’s base in Aden, the sources said.
“The government forces appear to remain largely in a defensive posture following the loss of the Bab el-Mandeb area, while the Houthis are seeking to maintain the momentum of their advance, despite being exposed to intensive air strikes,” said Mohammed Al-Qadhi, a veteran Yemeni journalist now working as a political analyst.
“These mountains could become critical to determining whether the Houthis succeed in consolidating their recent territorial gains or whether government forces will be able to retain the positions necessary to mount a counteroffensive.”
SAUDI OIL EXPORTS
The surge in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis creates a dilemma for Trump, under pressure to help Saudi allies but anxious not to further expand the deeply unpopular war he launched alongside ​Israel as “Operation Epic Fury” in February against Iran.
The US bombed the Houthis for ​two months in early 2025, but Trump called off ⁠those strikes after reaching a ceasefire, and has kept out of the Yemen conflict since.
The Houthis’ Red Sea advance risks cutting off the main alternative route Saudi Arabia has used for oil exports that bypass disruption through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia has responded by increasing shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, where a small number of tankers are increasingly shuttling back and ​forth to bring out oil, charging record fees of as much as a quarter of the cargo’s value to brave the wartime risk. They then transfer the oil to ​other ships in the Indian Ocean, ⁠bound for customers in Asia or elsewhere.
Traders say Saudi Arabia has sold 60 million barrels of oil both this month and next, to be loaded from off Oman on the far side of Hormuz. Satellite data shows Saudi exports through Hormuz reaching 2.9 million barrels per day in recent days, up from just 700,000 in August.
That has helped put a cap on the global price of crude, which has retreated closer to $100 a barrel after approaching $110 last week. But consumers and industries are still paying record prices for some refined ⁠fuels, with the ​US retail price of diesel hitting another all-time high on Monday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/houthis-push-control-yemen-highlands-trump-reported-have-called-off-airstrikes-2026-09-21/

Denmark, Greenland and the United States are expected to sign their new agreement at the ​United Nations General Assembly in New York City at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) on Tuesday.
The text ​of the agreement has not been made public and the three people familiar with the deal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said its details will not be finalized until it is signed.
The governments of Denmark and Greenland did ​not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment ​on the details of the agreement, repeating an earlier statement that its signing on Tuesday would “secure and defend ‌the security ⁠of Greenland and the United States.”Denmark says the agreement puts Arctic security under the watch of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military defense alliance, rather than leaving it solely to the US and Denmark.
The deal follows months of pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has long said he ​wants the US to ​control Greenland and has ⁠at times refused to rule out military or economic force to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory. The idea has been rejected by an overwhelming ​majority of Greenlanders, polling shows.
Trump’s threats, which peaked in January, triggered a ​diplomatic crisis ⁠within NATO and pushed Denmark and Greenland into negotiations with Washington aimed at defusing the pressure.
During the Cold War, the US maintained 17 military installations and more than 10,000 personnel in Greenland. Today only Pituffik ⁠Space ​Base remains, with some 150 US military personnel.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-open-two-new-military-bases-greenland-sources-say-2026-09-21/

Emmanuel Macron said France was accelerating efforts to secure fuel and gas supplies as geopolitical instability continues to affect energy markets.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said France was taking steps to secure its energy supplies amid heightened geopolitical tensions and disruptions in global energy markets.

“These same countries have reduced their consumption to adapt. So we need to be very vigilant and we don’t want to miss anything. So we replenished our gas stocks. We are securing our supplies. For example, in diesel we consume approximately 600,000 tonnes per day, half of which we import. Well, we will secure that,” Macron said.

“And so we have nothing to fear or frighten people. We must then tell the truth about geopolitical instability and what it creates in our country and we must prepare ourselves for this. This is exactly what France is doing and what it has accelerated in recent weeks,” he added.

Macron’s remarks came as France steps up efforts to safeguard fuel and gas supplies amid disruptions to global energy markets. The French government has identified diesel, jet fuel and natural gas as key areas requiring increased attention as geopolitical tensions affect energy supplies and prices.

France has also been working to replenish its gas reserves ahead of winter. Macron has said the country is on track to meet the European target for gas storage, while stressing the need to diversify supplies and prepare for further market disruptions.

The French president has also pointed to instability around the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for global energy shipments, as one of the factors putting pressure on international oil and gas markets. France has been seeking alternative sources and routes while working with energy-producing countries to secure supplies.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/we-must-prepare-macron-says-france-securing-energy-supplies-amid-geopolitical-instability-10342877.html

Tom Brady knew in real time how worrisome Jayden Daniels’ elbow injury was.

Hours after Bears signal-caller Caleb Williams left the game against the Vikings early with a non-contact hamstring injury, Daniels suffered a painful-looking arm injury while attempting to break his own fall against the Cowboys on Sunday.

Daniels appeared to injure the same left elbow he dislocated last season, which led to him missing a healthy chunk of 2025 and recording only seven starts.

Daniels, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft — one slot after Williams — dropped back as the Commanders were in the Cowboys’ red zone and immediately fell awkwardly, prompting Brady to curse on the live Fox broadcast.

“Oh s–t,” Brady exclaimed, as did many others, in all likelihood, while watching Daniels.

Brady apologized and later added that he “was not expecting to see” that.

Warning: Adult language

Carrot Top is awake and breathing on his own following an alleged suicide attempt.

The comedian’s (real name Scott Thompson) representative, Jami Schlicher, told Page Six, “Scott remains hospitalized and under close medical care. He is now awake, breathing on his own and continuing to improve, surrounded by his family and those closest to him.

“Humor has always been such an important part of who Scott is and how he connects with people, and that remains true today as he shares moments of humor with the medical staff caring for him,” she continued.

“Many messages from fans have been shared with Scott, including stories from people about how his comedy helped them through difficult periods in their own lives. Hearing those stories and feeling that support has meant a great deal to him during his recovery,” Schlicher noted.

“Scott and his family remain deeply grateful for the extraordinary kindness and continue to ask that his privacy be respected.”

Carrot Top, 61, attempted suicide Friday in the Las Vegas area before being rushed to a local hospital, sources told TMZ.

Schlicher confirmed the comedian’s hospitalization to Page Six at the time, but did not address the circumstances that led to it.

Thompson was being extorted over a sex tape prior to the reported suicide attempt Friday, according to court documents obtained by Page Six.

Ronnie Bitman, the comedian’s attorney, claimed in a Sept. 3 filing in Broward County, Florida, that musician Brian Evans — a previous opening performer for Thompson’s long-running show at Las Vegas’ Luxor Hotel and Casino — threatened to leak an X-rated video of his client if he wasn’t paid.

“Evans demands immediate payment of significant sums and states that, absent immediate payment, a sexually explicit recording of Thompson will be filed in the public court file so that it may be obtained and disseminated by the press and other parties,” Bitman wrote, in part.

The court filing included an email from Evans to Bitman in which he requested $500,000 “in immediately available funds, in exchange for resolution of all claims against” Thompson or else he’d release the video, which was on a USB drive, in a public docket.

In the email, Evans writes, “It is not a threat. I am not offering to create coverage, stop coverage, or trade silence for money. I cannot control what outlets write after a public motion is filed. The only thing that stops coverage is if we both stop filing anything.”

“I am telling you … that I would rather resolve the claims against your client [Thompson] than continue this motion practice,” Evans added.

Evans’ email ended with a note that, should Bitman not meet his deadline, “it is not an offer your client will ever see again — not even remotely close.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2026/09/20/celebrity-news/carrot-top-awake-breathing-on-his-own-following-alleged-suicide-attempt/

Embattled German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to stay on despite exit polls in two local elections suggesting damaging defeats for his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the party was initially projected to scrape through with its worst ever election result. But a few hours later, it dipped below the 5% threshold needed to stay in parliament. Merz called it “a disaster” for his party.

Meanwhile the far-right AfD was on track to win the most votes in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but it is unlikely to govern as other parties refuse to work with it.

In Berlin, the ruling CDU was expected to be beaten by Die Linke (The Left).

Merz is under mounting pressure, with poor approval ratings and rumours he could even be replaced mid-term in a so-called chancellor swap.

Votes took place on Sunday, a fortnight after the CDU saw its vote halved as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a major victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Echoing comments he made after that defeat, Merz told reporters at the party’s Berlin headquarters on Sunday that he would forge ahead with his coalition government’s plans to push through a package of economic, tax and welfare reforms.

“The reforms have to come,” he insisted. “I am taking on this responsibility, because I want to move our country forward”.

“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness and patience,” Merz said. “I will demonstrate this as CDU party chairman and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”

“I would even go so far as to say that these reforms are the antidote to the authoritarian poison that, with the fascination of authoritarianism, is penetrating ever deeper into our society,” Merz added.

The AfD’s national co-leader Alice Weidel said: “We are the strongest force and have reached the mainstream of the population.”

Some branches of the populist AfD are classed as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence, a designation it strongly rejects.

But its anti-immigration, German-first, and Russian-friendly agenda has found fertile ground in the country’s former communist east.

As the projected results came up on the screen at the CDU’s election night gathering in Berlin, there were no cheers or celebration.

This is a party that knows it’s in trouble, and its leader quickly went on the offensive, declaring that he is going nowhere.

The sister of Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister, Imran Khan, has been arrested ahead of next week’s protests held in his support, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has said.

Aleema Khanum was detained in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday afternoon, PTI officials said, calling it an “illegal detention”. Her son is demanding her return.

The order for Khanum’s arrest, which came from Lahore’s deputy commissioner, alleged that she was mobilising Imran Khan’s supporters “through social media and public meetings”. It added that she will be detained for 30 days.

Khanum is a vocal critic of her brother’s detention, regularly speaking to his supporters and the media.

A police official confirmed Khanum’s arrest to the BBC. According to the order, she will be taken to Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

Earlier in the day, her family said they had had “no contact or news of her whereabouts”.

“We demand the government immediately disclose her whereabouts and ensure her safe return,” Khanum’s son Shahrez Khan wrote on X.

Many have linked her arrest to the protests that have been organised across the country on 27 September, when demonstrators plan to march to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The arrest order said Khanum had been mobilising people to “create law and order situations” and “raising/chanting objectionable slogans amongst the general public against the Government.”

Streets in Islamabad are already lined with shipping containers, ready to safeguard the city’s government buildings.

Local media has reported Pakistan’s interior minister as saying that the protests harm the country and that the government will do everything they can to stop them.

Khan has been detained since 2023, when he was sentenced to three years in prison for not declaring money earned from selling gifts he had received while in office.

He has faced charges in over 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts – all of which he has decried as politically motivated.

Last year, the cricket star-turned-politician was jailed for 14 years in a land corruption case – the longest sentence he has received.

While in prison, his health has being deteriorating, and last month Khan had to visit a hospital for an examination.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm36l2pye2kwo

Italy is set to implement a ban on face coverings in schools and limit the number of foreign students per class, as announced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday that the country is preparing to ban face coverings in schools and to cap the number of foreign students per class. She made the remarks at a youth event organised by her party.

“You must go to school with your face uncovered, and in Italy no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself, ” Meloni said.

Italy To Cap Foreign Students: ‘If There’s One Child…’
“A measure will soon be presented to a Cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class. It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and bans burqas and niqabs in schools,” Meloni told an annual gathering of the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party.

“If there is only one child in a class who doesn’t understand Italian, that child will likely be able to learn the language and integrate quickly with the help of classmates and teachers. However, if the number of children who don’t understand the language becomes large – or even the majority – that is no longer integration; it is neglect,” she added. Meloni did not specify what the maximum number of foreign students per class would be.

Students who are not Italian citizens account for 11.6% of those enrolled in Italian schools – nearly 12 in every 100 students – according to Fondazione ISMU, a research institution.

Italy and Migrant Crisis
Italy is among the European countries most exposed to migrant arrivals because of its central Mediterranean location, making migration a hot-button issue and a major challenge for successive governments.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/no-longer-integration-italy-to-ban-face-coverings-in-schools-cap-foreign-students-per-class-article-156192804

Iran’s security council secretary said Tehran had increased the speed of their hypersonic missiles “from Mach 6 to Mach 10”.

In a warning to the United States, Iran recently said it has developed capabilities for a “naval confrontation”, claiming American ships in the Indian Ocean would be the target if war resumes.

“If war begins again, US ships, unless they leave the Indian Ocean, will be attacked wherever they are inside the Indian Ocean. We have developed these capabilities,” Iranian security council secretary Mohsen Rezaei said, according to a post by the Iran Embassy in Hyderabad.

‘Increased speed of hypersonic missiles, developed electronic warfare systems’
Rezaei said Iran had increased the speed of their hypersonic missiles “from Mach 6 to Mach 10”. “We have also developed our electronic warfare systems, improved our air defenses, and we have other measures that we will use at the appropriate time,” the security council secretary added.

Iran said it is waiting for US President Donald Trump’s response to its seven conditions.

Iran has sent seven conditions to the United States to end the war in the Middle East, which has now escalated with hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis.

The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, on Saturday said that Tehran has conveyed its conditions for ending the war — now in its seventh month — and it is waiting for US President Donald Trump’s response.

“Seven conditions of Iran for starting any negotiation have been announced to the US government. Tehran’s message is clear and unambiguous; if Washington wants to get out of the quagmire it has created itself and not get more entangled in it, it has no choice but to accept Iran’s rights and conditions,” he posted on X early Sunday.

In an interview with Qatar’s Al Jazeera published Saturday, Rezaei said the conditions include ending the war on all fronts, releasing assets seized from Iran and ending the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

He also said Iran wants the fighting involving Yemen and Saudi Arabia to end.

“We remain in contact with the mediator Qatar, which has conveyed our conditions to Washington with the aim of ending the war. We are awaiting President [Donald] Trump’s response,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It is in Washington’s interest to accept these conditions. Trump’s threats will not achieve any results. We are prepared for a decisive war,” he added.

He also said the possibility of new US strike against Iran was “very much on the cards” based on his country’s military assessments.

He stressed that Tehran was working under a new strategy “to bring this war to an end as soon as possible”.

US-Iran War
The war in the Middle East broke out when the US and Israeli forces conducted joint strikes on Iran on February 28, killing a swath of the country’s leadership, including the then 86-year-old Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

In response, the Iranian forces attacked American and Israeli assets in the Middle East.

Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, had signed a 14-point deal to end the war on June 17. The agreement provided for an immediate cessation of military operations, including in Lebanon, and commits both countries to pursuing a final agreement within 60 days.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-iran-war-washington-ready-to-negotiate-as-tehran-sends-7-conditions-to-end-middle-east-war-to-trump-amid-saudi-houthis-attacks-12071721?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

An overnight Russian attack on the Kyiv region killed four people, including three children, Kyiv regional authorities said on ​Sunday.
Drone attacks persisted in Kyiv and the surrounding region throughout ‌the day.

In a ​phone call with a Fox News reporter, Trump said Iran’s leaders should make a deal, rot economically or be wiped out, the reporter said.
However, ​with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian expected in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly, Trump said he would ⁠be open to meeting him, the Fox reporter added.
Trump has repeatedly made vague threats of major military escalations during the conflict that began with US and Israeli ​strikes on February 28, without carrying them out.
Earlier, Iran’s military central command said any new attack would trigger sustained retaliation against US bases and interests and that ​Washington’s regional allies would be considered parties to the conflict.

The Iranian military added that it had information that an attack was being prepared, without elaborating on what that information might be.
HOUTHIS TARGET RIYADH
US Gulf allies have already been badly scarred by a war that the US and Israel launched with no warning, bringing their cities under Iranian fire and hammering their economies with the ​crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway blockaded.
On Saturday their predicament worsened further, with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group launching missile and drone strikes at the Saudi capital after having ​made sudden military gains in Yemen’s reignited civil war earlier this month.
Reuters video showed a massive plume of black smoke billowing from the area of Riyadh’s main international airport following booms ‌overnight.
The US ⁠State Department issued a security alert citing the Houthi hostilities. It said there was potential for unforeseen escalation in the Middle East, and Americans should exercise more vigilance and be aware of possible flight cancellations and airspace closures.

Saudi Arabia did not comment on the incident, though a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it had foiled other attacks on the kingdom.
Recent escalation by the Houthis has forced Riyadh into a painful dilemma: continue airstrikes on the group to stop it seizing more Yemeni ​territory or step back in the hopes ​of averting drone strikes on critical ⁠infrastructure.
ENERGY EXPORTS BLOCKADED
The Houthi gains along the coast mean the group’s forces now sit on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving them easier control over shipping travelling between the Red Sea and Asia and the ability to blockade the crucial waterway.
With Iran already ​having blockaded most shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the oil-rich Gulf’s energy exports are now almost entirely cut ​off from global markets, ⁠adding to pressure on oil prices.
A US blockade of Iranian ports is meanwhile stopping Iran from selling its own oil, contributing to major problems in the Islamic Republic’s economy.

Source:  https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-warns-against-new-escalation-by-us-allies-2026-09-20/

Houthi capture of territory near Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a major setback for Saudi Arabia in Yemen, exposing intelligence gaps and limits of Western support.

The Houthi capture of territory overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has dealt Saudi Arabia one of its biggest setbacks in Yemen in years, exposing intelligence gaps, the collapse of Saudi-backed forces and the limits of Western military support, according to a Reuters report.

The advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the capture of islands near the strategic waterway have also strengthened Iran-backed Houthi forces at a key maritime chokepoint.

Houthi Build-Up Caught Saudis ‘Off Guard’

Western, regional and Yemeni officials cited by Reuters said the setback was driven by divisions among anti-Houthi factions, a new Saudi-led command structure, limited Saudi air support and an underestimation of Houthi preparations.

One diplomat said the Houthis had quietly built a force of about 100,000 fighters. “Everyone, including the Saudis, missed this build-up and miscalculated the Houthis’ intentions,” the diplomat said.

Neil Quilliam of Chatham House described the setback as a major intelligence failure.

“They just weren’t picking up the signal. They just weren’t seeing the signs,” he said.

Yemeni political analyst Farea Al-Muslimi said: “The Saudis were caught off guard in Yemen.”

The collapse of Saudi-backed forces also left the Houthis with a large cache of US- and Saudi-supplied weapons, potentially giving the group additional military capabilities and intelligence on its opponents.

“The Yemeni government forces were like a house of cards. They didn’t resist. Completely. Completely,” said UAE-based political analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdallah.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/they-just-werent-seeing-the-signs-houthi-gains-expose-saudi-intel-failure-embolden-iran-ws-l-10335082.html

In a post on Truth Social, the 80-year-old president lashed out at critics of AI and data centres and said that he would not allow the “destruction” of the industry like liberals want.

After establishing the Space Force in 2019, US President Donald Trump is creating an “AI Force” to oversee the regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), despite a wave of calls for a slowdown in AI development. He said that he will also announce an AI “czar” in the near future.

In a post on Truth Social, the 80-year-old president lashed out at critics of AI and data centres and said that he would not allow the “destruction” of the industry like liberals want.

“I, as President of the United States, will not stand by and let this happen,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!”, he wrote on Truth Social.

In his post, Trump claimed that the destruction of AI was one of the “many hoaxes” that the Democrats have been propagating. Along with it, he named the Russia-Ukraine war and global warming as hoaxes that have been “destroying” the United States.

Earlier in the day, Trump had argued that the words “artificial intelligence” are inaccurate and ineloquent and suggested that the term be changed to either Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence or Superior Intelligence.

Anthropic CEO Calls For Slowing Development Of AI Models

Trump’s announcement comes a week after the head of AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, called for a slowdown in the pace of development of AI models and for it to be closely monitored. Amodei has been backed by his bitter rival Elon Musk, who also urged companies to test each other’s new models to fix safety issues before release.

In an online essay, Amodei wrote that the risks involved in developing AI were “serious” and that companies and governments should be given time to assess them.

This comes days after a former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon posted a series of warnings claiming that “AI could kill all humans.”

“The people actually building today’s most advanced AI believe it could wipe out humanity before the decade ends,” he said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Friday an executive order to explore the creation of a “kill switch” within advanced artificial intelligence programs, while accusing President Donald Trump of doing nothing on the issue.

“I just issued an executive order to accelerate the implementation of safety checks and advance the creation of a ‘kill switch’ within frontier AI programs,” the Democrat wrote on X.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/after-slowdown-calls-trump-says-he-will-set-up-ai-force-name-ai-czar-12070075?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The US and Denmark have announced a deal on Greenland’s security, resolving a diplomatic dispute sparked by President Donald Trump’s threats to seize it by force.

Nato said the deal would help stabilise the region, as Trump said Denmark would grant the US “permanent control over security, and all other needs” in the semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic.

The leaders of Denmark and Greenland welcomed the deal to “strengthen security”, saying it was expected to be signed next week – but did not outline its contents.

This comes after months of threats by Trump to “take” Greenland over national security concerns, citing its strategic location for defence purposes and its mineral wealth.

No text of the agreement has been released. Trump said the deal came with “no cost to the United States” and would grant it the ability “to do what is necessary” to “secure and defend the security of Greenland”, in a post on Truth Social.

He said it included a rule that no US adversary could maintain a military presence in Greenland or “make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval”.

A Nato spokesperson said the military alliance welcomed the deal, which would “help advance security, stability and cooperation in this vital region”.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was “pleased that there is a prospect of a good agreement” for all three parties, which was expected to be signed at the UN General Assembly next week.

The deal “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area” while also recognising “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination”, she said in a joint statement with Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

The agreement would still need to go through “the necessary parliamentary procedures to enter into force” once signed, the statement noted.

Nielsen said it was “gratifying that we are about to enter into an agreement that ensures and strengthens the security of Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the United States and the Western alliance”.

“The agreement recognises Greenland’s interests and our place in international co-operation. It is for the benefit of us all,” he said.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said the deal helped “to reaffirm Danish sovereignty” over the island.

“I simply note that Danish sovereignty is respected, that international law is respected, and that this is what we were asking for. So it’s a good thing,” Macron was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c63d7lexyym1o

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted lefty leaders from across the globe on Saturday to kick off a three-day summit pushing progressive agenda items like dealing with climate change.

Mamdani delivered opening remarks at the Urban 20 Summit in New York City, where he and other mayors discussed “practical solutions” to address “rising housing costs, the climate crisis and migration,” according to a propaganda press statement released by the socialist mayor’s media team.

Details of the summit were scarce and released Soviet-style.

Most of Saturday’s activities were closed to the press. Only select media – which did not include The Post – were allowed to attend the mayor’s opening remarks, and the location was not disclosed.

The mayor’s schedule noted he planned to visit an undisclosed wastewater treatment plant with Helsinki Mayor Daniel Sazanov, Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni and Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, with approved footage to be made available later in the day.

It also noted he planned to meet privately at undisclosed sites with Collboni and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema.

During his opening remarks, Mamdani welcomed leaders both foreign and domestic to the Big Apple, claiming they all share common goals, including trying to make their cities more affordable, dealing with “the growing impact of the climate crisis,” and fighting off right-wingers who make it “their mission to demonize and terrorize immigrants.”

“As we hold panels, conversations and plenary sessions, my sincere hope is that this conference marks only the beginning of a new era of cooperation and emulation,” crowed Mamdani, who posted footage of his remarks on social media.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/19/us-news/mamdani-hosts-private-u20-world-summit-with-other-lefty-leaders

Carrot Top (real name: Scott Thompson) was being extorted over a sex tape prior to his reported suicide attempt Friday, according to court documents obtained by Page Six.

Ronnie Bitman, the comedian’s attorney, claimed in a Sept. 3 filing in Broward County, Florida, that musician Brian Evans — a previous opening performer for Thompson’s long-running show at Las Vegas’ Luxor Hotel and Casino — threatened to leak an X-rated video of his client if he wasn’t paid.

“Evans demands immediate payment of significant sums and states that, absent immediate payment, a sexually explicit recording of Thompson will be filed in the public court file so that it may be obtained and disseminated by the press and other parties,” Bitman wrote, in part.

The court filing included an email from Evans to Bitman in which he requested $500,000 “in immediately available funds, in exchange for resolution of all claims against” Thompson or else he’d release the video, which was on a USB drive, in a public docket.

In the email, Evans writes, “It is not a threat. I am not offering to create coverage, stop coverage, or trade silence for money. I cannot control what outlets write after a public motion is filed. The only thing that stops coverage is if we both stop filing anything.”

“I am telling you … that I would rather resolve the claims against your client [Thompson] than continue this motion practice,” Evans added.

Evans’ email ended with a note that, should Bitman not meet his deadline, “it is not an offer your client will ever see again — not even remotely close.”

In a statement to Page Six, Evans said the aforementioned email was “intended to be confidential” and said he “never threatened — ever — to post any video anywhere in exchange for a settlement.”

Evans claimed the video “was deleted a long time ago” in accordance with a prior settlement.

“I am sorry that Scott apparently did something to hurt himself,” Evans told Page Six, noting that his grandfather died by suicide. “He’s a great talent but these are issues he needs to deal with and move past.”

Evans said he doesn’t “consider Scott to be a bad person,” but claimed he “made a few decisions that were not good ones,” adding, “That is not a reason to hurt himself.”

“Scott is still young and has a big life ahead of him. It’s not my intent to bring this guy down. It’s the opposite,” he continued, later noting, “Thankfully he is still with us.”

Evans sent Page Six a court document he said he filed Sept. 17 asking the judge in a case against Thompson, which he opened in Broward County, Florida, on Aug. 6 to be recused.

This court filing was not available in the online docket for the case, at the time of publishing.

In a statement to Page Six, Thompson’s representative, Jami Schlicher, noted that Evans has been declared a “vexatious litigant,” with a judge describing his court filings as “serial” and “spurious.”

This is reflected in a filing from the United States District Court in the Southern District of Florida filed Sept. 4 — two days prior to Evans’ initial filing in his Broward County case.

In that filing, a United States District Judge declared that Evans had filed “no fewer than fifteen pro se cases in this District since 2025, all of which appear frivolous. One such case listed involved Thompson as the defendant.

Schlicher told Page Six that the court’s findings and Evans’ litigation record “speak for themselves.”

In his lawsuit against Thompson in Broward County, Evans alleged that the comedian sent him unsolicited footage of himself engaging in oral sex with a person back in 2022 or 2023.

Evans stated that he was “shocked, disturbed and offended” by the video.

Per the docs, Evans claimed Thompson convinced him to sign a settlement agreement in 2024, which he now wants dismissed on the grounds that “at the time it was executed, [Evans] lacked the mental capacity necessary to knowingly and voluntarily enter into a binding contract” due to suffering from “severe psychiatric injuries sustained” following the Maui wildfires in 2023.

In court documents obtained by Page Six, Judge Shari Africk Olefson ruled Thursday that Evans — who is representing himself in the case — had improperly filed motions in the case as an “emergency” when “criteria was not met.”

“The court finds such non-compliance to constitute an abuse of the emergency motion procedure,” Olefson wrote.

Olefson also granted Thompson’s motion to strike or declare confidential certain information filed by Evans — including references to what Thompson’s attorneys characterized as “irrelevant unrelated videos, text messages and facts” — from the record.

The judge wrote that Evans agreed to the request “without objection” multiple times during a hearing and ordered the parties to submit proposed language identifying the material at issue.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2026/09/19/celebrity-news/carrot-top-was-extorted-over-sex-tape-before-alleged-suicide-attempt-docs/

Singer Ed Sheeran opened his latest concert alone onstage and apologised to his fans for making “mistakes” as he handled the fallout from the controversy over American rapper Macklemore being dropped from his tour over pro-Palestinian remarks.

“I never wanted to be an activist musician but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about free speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” he said.

Saturday’s show at a Philadelphia sports stadium was the first time he has addressed the matter in person.

It was a stripped down event and Sheeran went on without opening acts after several musicians dropped out over the debacle.

“My concerts have always been a safe space for everyone,” he said at the start of the show, adding that he is committed to fans and that is why he returned to the stage.

“Now, I want to address the question of where I stand in the situation in Israel and Palestine, and whether my doing this concert here tonight implies where I stand,” he said.

“I have tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind, because I want my music and shows to be about unity, not division; about humanity, not politics. But this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore.”

Sheeran said what happened in Israel during the 7 October 2023 attacks was “horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain”.

He added: “What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of of devastation and loss of civilian lives, of children’s lives, and this systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”

He said he is trying “to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times and listening and learning, because I do not know enough”.

Sheeran then closed out his statement by saying that he hoped his concert could be a place where everyone could gather irrespective of their beliefs.

The price for tickets dropped and sales declined for the remaining US leg of his Loop Tour due to the controversy.

The singer has said the decision to drop Macklemore was made by his promoters, not him.

Sheeran’s remaining tour dates are scheduled with shows set throughout North and South America. While the mega-star’s previous tour was among the highest-grossing of all time, some ticket prices for this show have dropped to $32 (£24).

Fans also reported being able to get ticket refunds, though Ticketmaster and concert promoter Messina Touring Group did not confirm they were being reimbursed.

An hour or so before the show began, hundreds concert-goers began to stream in for the event.

There was a smattering of press cameras outside the entry gates, though most fans skipped talking to the press.

A few dozen protesters turned up outside the nearest tube stop waving flags as ticket holders streamed towards Lincoln Financial Field – but the concert proceeded largely unfettered.

Of the handful of attendees who stopped to talk to the BBC, there was a sentiment of determination to enjoy an evening of music while at the same time supporting freedom of speech.

One married couple, who paid $450 per ticket, said that they respect Macklemore’s right to speak freely.

Another group of two ladies, who told us they got a “deal” for tonight’s concert after prices dropped, said that they support a free Palestine and at the same time love Sheeran’s music.

Finally, one family let their two young teenage daughters, Victoria, 15 and Sadie,13 be interviewed.

When we asked what they thought of the controversy and Macklemore’s removal, they replied “Who is Macklemore?”.

One protestor, who gave his name as Cooper, told the BBC that he came out “to support the struggle for” the Palestinian people.

“We need more people like Macklemore and other artists who have a voice, who have a public platform, to be able to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation, especially in the United States,” he said.

Cooper said that a best-case scenario at the concert would be an apology from Sheeran, but he was not optimistic.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm780ll1de18o

The proposal reportedly transmitted through Doha establishes a clear blueprint for a potential cessation of hostilities

Tehran has formally laid out its specific terms for ending the war with the United States, transmitting a comprehensive proposal to Washington via mediators in Qatar.

The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, confirmed to Al Jazeera that Iranian officials are now awaiting a direct response from US President Donald Trump following the transmission of these conditions through Qatari and Pakistani diplomatic channels.

The Three Core Demands

The proposal transmitted through Doha establishes a clear blueprint for a potential cessation of hostilities. Iran’s primary stipulations revolve around three major geopolitical and economic demands:

• Complete Cessation of Hostilities: An immediate end to all combat operations across all active fronts, alongside regional conflict resolution involving allied fronts.
• Lifting the Naval Blockade: The complete termination of the US naval blockade targeting Iranian ports and maritime trade corridors.
• Unfreezing National Assets: The full release of Iranian state funds and financial assets currently seized or frozen under international sanctions.

Rezaei asserted that accepting these terms serves Washington’s strategic interests, warning that coercive threats will fail to produce concessions as Tehran remains prepared for sustained conflict if diplomatic efforts collapse.

Diplomatic Backdrop and High-Stakes Pressure

The Qatari diplomatic channel has emerged as a vital pipeline following earlier breakdowns in direct and indirect negotiations, including the collapse of previous memorandums of understanding. Washington has maintained intense pressure through naval deployments along maritime trade routes, while Tehran has signalled its readiness to escalate through military drills and missile tests near strategic waterways.

President Trump acknowledged the ongoing diplomatic signals, indicating that Washington is evaluating Tehran’s willingness to reach a broader deal. However, the White House has historically viewed similar demands as unrealistic without structural guarantees regarding regional security and maritime transit freedom.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iran-sets-3-conditions-to-end-war-with-us-now-tehran-awaits-trumps-response-ws-lt-10341796.html

A senior Houthi official said that if Pakistani or Turkish forces join the offensive alongside Riyadh, the movement will strike back with an ‘iron fist’

In a sharp escalation of West Asian geopolitical tensions, Yemen’s Houthi movement has issued an explicit military threat against Pakistan and Turkey, warning both nations against deploying forces or intervening militarily in support of Saudi Arabia.

The warning follows public statements from Pakistani defence officials regarding the potential activation of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement—a trilateral collective security pact signed in August 2026 between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

High-Level Threat from Houthi Leadership

Addressing the growing speculation around foreign troop deployments in an interview, senior Houthi official Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti warned that any direct military intervention by Islamabad or Ankara would trigger severe and immediate military retaliation against both countries.

The Houthi official asserted that Yemen remains in a strictly defensive posture against Saudi-led military operations and economic blockades. However, he emphasised that if Pakistani or Turkish forces join the offensive alongside Riyadh, the movement will strike back with an “iron fist”. Drawing parallels to previous strikes against Western naval assets and regional targets, Al-Bukhaiti stated that Yemen would “discipline” any foreign power that enters the conflict.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/mecca-pact-under-threat-houthis-warn-pakistan-and-turkey-against-military-action-exclusive-details-ws-l-10341802.html

Journalists from CNN and MS NOW were turned away from the White House Saturday, a day after Trump announced he was banning the outlets along with Politico over what he called “FAKE NEWS.”

Denmark and Greenland on Saturday said any ​agreement with the United States would not compromise Greenland’s sovereignty, after President Donald Trump said the deal would give Washington “permanent control” ‌over the Arctic island’s security, leaving its precise scope unclear.
The United States, Denmark and Greenland said late on Friday they had reached an agreement for the US to develop a significant military presence on Greenland, while prohibiting US adversaries from building their own bases on the island.

“A time of uncertainty will hopefully give way to a ​binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, and thereby our shared security within NATO and Europe – while respecting the (Danish) Kingdom’s red lines,” he said.
But some residents in Greenland’s capital Nuuk expressed scepticism about closer ties with Washington.
“The US should not control Greenland. I think it’s better if we have cooperation with NATO,” said Jakob ​Ludvigsen, 65.
“Trump should stay far, far, far away from Greenland,” Marianne Hansen, a 71-year-old retired chef, told Reuters in Nuuk. “He should not expect our children ​and grandchildren to become Americans in the future.”

Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly insisted that Washington respect the sovereignty of the Danish kingdom and accept that Greenland is not ‌for sale.

TRUMP’S ⁠VISION FOR GREENLAND DEAL
Trump said on Truth Social on Friday that under a deal, “the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America.”
The deal “gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland,” Trump said, adding that no adversary would ever be permitted to have a base or military presence in Greenland, ​or make sensitive investments there, without Washington’s ​express written approval.
Trump made the ⁠announcement after Reuters exclusively reported that the US and Denmark were closing in on a deal.
“This is probably not the end of President Trump’s ambitions for Greenland and certainly not the end of US strategic interest in the territory ​and its resources,” said Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a political science professor at the University of Copenhagen.
If Copenhagen cedes ​any formal authority to ⁠Washington, it raises the question in Greenland of whether “this is the beginning of replacing the colonial relationship with Denmark with a colonial relationship to the United States,” he said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-denmark-say-us-deal-will-not-cede-sovereignty-2026-09-19/

The legislation, ‘Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 ‘, is named after Senator Lindsey Graham – one of Ukraine’s staunch defenders in Washington.

US President Donald Trump has signed the Russia sanctions bill into law, paving the way for up to 100 per cent tariffs on countries buying Russian oil and gas, and putting India and China under threat.

Trump’s nod came two days after the Republican-led House of Representatives passed the sweeping sanctions bill by a vote of 262-159.

The legislation, ‘Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 ‘, is named after Senator Lindsey Graham – one of Ukraine’s staunch defenders in Washington. He died in July this year shortly after returning from a trip to Kyiv.

All about the Russia sanctions bill
The legislation seeks to reduce the financial resources sustaining Russia’s war against Ukraine. It targets Russian officials, banks, energy interests, and foreign entities supporting Moscow’s military operations. The law authorises Trump to impose tariffs on countries doing business with Russia to cut their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

According to the House Ways and Means Committee, the legislation directs tariffs of up to 500 per cent on Russian goods. It also provides for duties of up to 100 per cent on goods from countries covered by its Russian oil and gas purchase provisions – which cover major Russian energy importers and leading facilitators of oil sanctions evasion.

Additionally, the bill includes sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior figures in the Russian government.

The impact on India
India is facing a new tariff threat now that Trump has signed the Russia sanctions bill into law.

An amendment introduced by Democratic Congressman Steny Hoyer had called for explicitly naming 10 nations – China, India, the UAE, Turkiye, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, and Slovakia – to be eligible for tariffs of up to 100 per cent under the bill’s secondary tariff provisions. However, the amendment does not itself impose a 100 per cent duty on India.

The tariffs could be imposed on India if Trump chooses to exercise his power.

If Trump levies the 100 per cent tariff on India, it would be on top of a 10 per cent tariff that the US currently imposes on imports from New Delhi as a penalty for not doing enough to stop the import of goods made using forced labour.

However, the exact impact of new tariffs on Indian exports can be assessed only after the US announces the tariff rates.

India and the US had strained ties last year when Trump imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports of Russian crude, on top of a 25 per cent reciprocal tariff. The additional tariffs were, however, removed in February 2026, while the reciprocal tariff was reduced to 18 per cent as part of a US-India trade framework.

What India said
India on Wednesday – when the US Congress passed the Russia sanctions bill – made it clear that it is determined to take all necessary measures to protect its trade and economic interests.

“As stated on several earlier occasions, India remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people. It will continue to do so through diversified sourcing and based on evolving market dynamics,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-signs-russia-sanctions-bill-amid-ukraine-war-clears-way-for-100-tariffs-on-india-china-12067070?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

Naqvi’s high-level mission focuses on de-escalating the dangerous security crisis in West Asia and restoring stability along critical sea routes

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is set to travel to Tehran to hold urgent talks with the Iranian leadership, CNN-News18 has learnt. Armed with a vital, direct communication from Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, Naqvi’s high-level mission focuses on de-escalating the dangerous security crisis in West Asia and restoring stability along critical sea routes.

At the heart of the emergency dialogue is Islamabad’s push for Iran to exert its diplomatic influence over the Houthi movement in Yemen. Recent escalations and stepped-up Houthi attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia and commercial shipping in the Red Sea have raised sharp concerns across Gulf nations. Pakistan, maintaining close economic and defense ties with Riyadh, is seeking Tehran’s active intervention to halt further aggression and avert a wider regional conflict.

The high-level push comes in the wake of fresh contacts between Islamabad, Beijing, and Tehran, following Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s recent engagements in China. By opening a direct diplomatic channel with Tehran through Naqvi’s visit, Pakistan is attempting to position itself as a key mediator, leveraging its balanced relationship with both Iran and Gulf monarchies to secure a fragile regional truce.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/asim-munirs-direct-message-why-pakistan-is-sending-mohsin-naqvi-to-tehran-exclusive-details-ws-lt-10340113.html

Tensions in West Asia have escalated dramatically, with the Iran-backed Houthis seizing control over several islands along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

The Pakistani government has introduced a new austerity package, seeking to conserve fuel and avoid non-essential spending amid renewed tensions in West Asia coupled with the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

The measures include a complete ban on the purchase of government vehicles and a 50 per cent reduction in fuel allocations for official vehicles. The government has also rolled out a single-dish rule for marriage functions.

Tensions in West Asia have escalated dramatically, with the Iran-backed Houthis seizing control over several islands along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the most significant waterways globally.

In the Strait of Hormuz, a Togo-flagged tanker was struck, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying it attempted an “illegal passage” through the waterway.

Pakistan had rolled out similar austerity measures back in March after the US-Israeli war on Iran broke out. Islamabad shut schools for two weeks and introduced several measures to cut fuel use, including work-from-home for officer workers.

The Cabinet Division of the Pakistan government released the notification on Thursday, September 17, with the measures coming into effect immediately. Some of the curbs, including a ban on foreign travel for federal officials, will be in effect for at least three months.

3-Month Curbs On Foreign Travel, One-Dish Rule For Marriage Events
Pakistan has introduced a three-month ban on foreign travel. In cases of emergency, ministers, advisers, and officials will fly economy class, according to Samaa TV.

The government has directed that only one dish be served at all marriage-related functions, aiming to cut oil consumption, Dawn reported. According to the notification, shops, markets, shopping malls, departmental and grocery stores will have to be shut by 9 PM.

The Pakistan administration has directed that wedding halls, marquees, and other commercial venues be closed by 10 PM, while restaurants, cafes, and food outlets, be shut by 11 PM.

According to Dawn, several essential services, including pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, fuel and CNG stations, have been kept outside the time restrictions.

Scientists looked at seismic data from 2008 to 2025 and detected 1,399 earthquakes around the mount, where North Korea carried out six underground nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.

North Korea’s nuclear tests may have triggered a rise in earthquakes around its main nuclear test site, with the activity continuing for years after the country’s last test in 2017. Moreover, the frequency and strength of these earthquakes are increasing over time, a new study has found.

While Mount Mantap and its surrounding area had been quiet for the past 2,000 years and there had been no earthquakes, scientists looked at seismic data from 2008 to 2025 and detected 1,399 earthquakes around the mount, where North Korea carried out six underground nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.

The findings are unusual because earthquakes linked to nuclear explosions generally do not continue to increase for years after a test.

The first earthquake recorded in the area came in 2013, after North Korea’s third nuclear test. But there were very few quakes in the following years.

That changed after the country carried out its sixth and largest nuclear test in 2017.

The study authors said seismicity, which refers to the frequency and strength of earthquakes, “remained sparse until 2017, when activity increased markedly after the sixth and largest detonation.”

The 2017 test produced a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. It may also have caused a tunnel collapse and changed the shape of the mountaintop by around 3 metres.

The earthquakes recorded after the tests were not particularly strong.

Kim, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Pusan National University, told CNN that most of them had magnitudes between 2 and 3. They also appeared to have happened at shallow depths.

The area was also known to have very little seismic activity before North Korea began its nuclear tests.

“We have more than 2,000 years of historical record in China and Korea. We have one event about 100 kilometers away,” Kim said. “I cannot say there’s no earthquakes, but the seismic activity here is very low.”

Researchers believe the rise in earthquakes could mean that the ground beneath Mount Mantap did not return to its earlier state after the 2017 explosion.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/north-koreas-nuclear-tests-may-have-triggered-1-399-earthquakes-study-finds-12066209?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Princess Diana’s brother has told the BBC exclusively that he is “telling the truth” about a phone call with King Charles in the days after his sister’s death.

Earl Spencer claims in a new book the then-Prince of Wales said “we’ll forget her soon enough” during an argument over whether Princes William and Harry should walk in Diana’s funeral procession.

In a strongly worded response, Buckingham Palace said the King was “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”.

But in his first interview since, Earl Spencer said: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”

Reacting to the rare statement from the Palace, Earl Spencer said: “Well, is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”

Speaking to the BBC at his Althorp estate, he added: “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life.

“I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”

Pressed on whether he had evidence to back up the claim, he said he told family and friends at the time what had been said “because it was so monstrous”.

In response to the Palace disputing his account, Earl Spencer, who shares his first name with the King, said: “They’ve sort of smudged that one, haven’t they? They’ve said that recollections may vary.”

When asked which Charles the public was meant to believe, he said: “I’m telling the truth.”

Buckingham Palace declined to give a response to Earl Spencer’s fresh comments.

The remarks may bring a renewed focus to the war of words between the Palace and the King’s former brother-in-law.

In excerpts of his book published by the Daily Mail, Earl Spencer claims the phone call took place after he insisted Diana would not have wanted the young princes to walk in the procession.

In his BBC interview, he says the King “went ballistic” and “ranted for a while”, accusing his family of not having an adequate sense of duty.

“And then he stopped and I thought, oh now, now he’s gonna pull himself together and say something more appropriate,” Earl Spencer said. “And then, he said, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough’.”

He said he couldn’t say exactly what went through his mind at that moment as he was “just so stunned”, adding: “I just, after a stunned silence, I said, I cannot believe you just said that. And I hung up on him.”

Earl Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due to be published next week and is expected to be highly critical of the Royal Family.

In further extracts published on Thursday, he claimed how the King “sounded giddily elated” when he called him after Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, alleging Charles sounded like a “lottery winner”.

Earl Spencer recounts being alerted to the crash by a phone call from his sister Jane in the middle of the night at his home in Cape Town, South Africa.

A call from Charles was among those that followed, and he alleges: “Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”

The death of Diana, a hugely popular figure, created a volatile atmosphere in the country at the time, with the royals accused of failing to show feeling and empathy, and seeming to be out of touch with the public mood.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmqxvd1drd35o

This week, the board of Tata Sons – one of India’s oldest conglomerates and owner of iconic British brands such as Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley Tea – defied its largest shareholder, Tata Trusts, by reappointing N Chandrasekaran as chairman and backing a public listing of the holding company.

Tata Trusts, which owns 66% of Tata Sons called the decision “illegal” under its articles of association and also opposed the listing, setting the stage for a period of prolonged upheaval and possibly a protracted legal drama at Bombay House, the headquarters of the 158-year-old company.

For the Tatas, who are no strangers to boardroom battles, a cloud of uncertainty now prevails at multiple levels.

The resolution to reappoint Chandrasekharan, while approved by the board, could be defeated at the company’s Annual General Meeting as Tata Trusts is likely to vote against it, putting a question mark over his future.

The meeting has to take place before 31 December as per reports, after the previous one was adjourned for lack of quorum, but no new date has yet been announced.

“The Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) of the Board of Tata Sons which reappointed him has no power to take this decision. They can only make a recommendation. Also, their decision flies against the governance code of the company that requires executives to step down from active roles at 65. These are serious lapses,” Nitin Potdar, a prominent Mumbai-based corporate lawyer told the BBC.

Chandrasekharan, who got a five-year extension, will turn 65 in 2028.

Tata Group stocks first soared and then crashed as the tensions mounted, reflecting hope and uncertainty about leadership and business continuity amid several high-stakes but loss-making bets by Chandrasekharan in sectors like semiconductors and airlines.

But beyond the leadership tussle, the bigger question to contend with is the group’s public listing, “which now looks increasingly inevitable”, Nirmalya Kumar, who previously headed strategy at Tata Sons, told the BBC.

In 2022, India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), classified Tata Sons as an “upper layer non-banking financial company” because of its systemic importance and investment activities. This created a listing obligation on the group.

Tata Sons sought to get out of this classification by repaying their debt and arguing that they do not borrow directly from the public markets.

But after sitting on its application for over two years, the RBI rejected the company’s bid to get out of the framework earlier this month, pushing the group closer to a stock market debut.

In a statement, Tata Trusts reiterated its long-held opposition to going public and said “all available options and not a listing alone” are being explored even though its trustees are no longer unanimous in their position on the matter.

Potdar says the regulator has no power to force any company to go public and the issue will almost certainly be legally challenged by Tata Trusts.

The RBI meanwhile has pre-emptively approached the courts seeking to be heard first in any matter related to the ‌listing.

The issue has sharply divided opinion among corporate pundits.

Many in the group, including the late Ratan Tata and veteran director NA Soonawala, have long argued strongly for keeping the group private.

A publicly held Tata Sons could significantly reduce the control and special rights the Tata Trusts wield over the group.

They say the Tatas have a unique operating structure where the majority shareholder is a charity which uses dividends received from commercial arms to fund hospitals, universities and research.

A listing, they say, will destroy its character by making it accountable to outside shareholders whose focus would be financial returns.

“A new group of shareholders might say, ‘Don’t declare dividends; we need to reinvest this money in the companies.’ What happens then? The first casualty will be the hospitals they run,” said Potdar.

Opponents of the initial public offering (IPO) also worry that bringing in public investors will weaken the group’s internal support function to rescue distressed businesses and expose the company to quarterly performance pressures.

Moreover the timing is another crucial factor.

“The group currently faces large financial commitments from recently formed subsidiary companies, including Air India, investments in long gestation projects, and losses in newer ventures,” Soonawala wrote in a piece for Times of India.

“The current situation in the case of Air India would be an acid test. All these would need to be disclosed fully in an IPO prospectus. Consolidated financial statements – reflecting subsidiary losses and borrowings – may not present an especially attractive picture to sophisticated investors, pointing to wrong timing for an IPO at the present time.”

Many, including Potdar, also argue that globally, industrial foundations are being protected as sources of patient capital – money that can be committed for years to fund long-gestation projects and social goals. By forcing the Tatas to list, India is going the other way.

But supporters of a listing say it would bring much-needed transparency and accountability to a group that is systemically important to India.

“There should be tougher scrutiny of their capital-allocation decisions being so central to the Indian business ecosystem. Everybody wants complete control over their empire and the freedom to take capricious decisions, but that is not a good thing for the organisation,” said Kumar.

Collectively, listed Tata companies including Tata Motors and TCS have a market capitalisation of more than $260bn and influence over 17.7 million retail shareholders, pension funds, insurers and mutual funds, investment advisory firm InGovern said.

“[It] cannot reasonably remain outside the governance and transparency expectations increasingly associated with systemically important financial and industrial conglomerates,” the report added.

It also argued that shareholders of listed Tata companies are indirectly affected by Tata Sons’ decisions, even though they have no direct voting rights in the holding company.

Moreover, given that the Tatas have recently made several high stakes global bets, making iPhones for Apple, partnering with Nvidia on artificial intelligence and Boeing, Airbus and Singapore Airlines on aerospace and aviation, InGovern says, a “flexible and transparent capital structure increasingly important”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c670lkvdzkn2o

A car-bomb attack on a mosque at a police compound in north-western Pakistan has killed at least 21 people and injured more than 100, officials say.

Fifteen police officers and a four-year-old child are among those killed in the suicide attack, which also involved gunmen firing on the police facility in the city of Kohat in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan’s APP news agency reported.

Video found by BBC Verify shows the site covered in rubble and people tending to casualties.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police suggested a faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, carried out the attack.

A car loaded with explosives rammed into the entrance of the mosque at about 13:15 local time (08:15 GMT), police say. Friday prayers were taking place at the time.

At least six of the attackers were killed in the explosion and the gun battle that followed, according to a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police spokesperson.

In a post on X, the force said it was “determined to foil the nefarious designs of Fitna-al-Khawarij” – the designation used by officials to refer to the Pakistani Taliban.

The group was set up in 2007 with the aim of enforcing its strict version of Islamic law and is allied with al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “his best wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the explosion” in a statement, and called for the “complete elimination” of foreign-backed terrorists.

A UN spokesman said Secretary-General António Guterres “strongly condemns” the bombing and that “attacks targeting civilians and places of worship are unacceptable”.

In February, officials accused the Pakistani Taliban of being behind a series of attacks in the country, including the suicide bombing of a Shia mosque in Islamabad in which more than 30 people were killed.

Faisal Karim Kundi, governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said on Friday the province had endured “immense sacrifices in the fight against terrorism”.

Militancy in Pakistan’s border areas has risen sharply in recent months, with armed groups targeting the military and police.

Islamabad says militants use Afghanistan as a safe haven to train and plan attacks in Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government denies the accusation and says militant groups are a domestic problem for Pakistan.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckn9wenz8wjwo

A GLAMOROUS influencer accused of stealing from sugar daddies has now been accused of drugging her billionaire ex-fiance.

Adva Lavie already faces charges for suspected romance scamming, using sugar baby websites to pray on her victims before fleecing them of cash and luxury possessions.

Now the 29-year-old, professionally known as Mia Ventura, is under investigation for allegedly drugging Stephen Cloobeck, 64, with ketamine.

The latest probe came to light after police requested a judge for permission to search Lavie’s phone.

According to the warrant, a Beverly Hills Detective was already looking into the drugging allegation, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Cloobeck had previously filed a report with Beverly Hills police, according to The Times.

The exact allegations behind the report or what led detectives to investigate the suspected drugging remains unclear.

Lavie’s attorney Jeremy Lessen also declined to comment on the allegation, according to The Times.

It comes after the LA influencer was arrested in July for allegedly stealing Rolexes and luxury accessories while out on bail “after ripping off her ankle monitor”.

Authorities said the alleged thief stole from two separate victims at an Airbnb rental on Spiaggia Place in April 2025.

One instance involved an alleged theft of an $8,600 Rolex, $700 Louis Vuitton sunglasses, an $1,800 Louis Vuitton card holder and the victim’s disabled parking pass, police said.

Court papers revealed that Lavie had removed her electronic ankle monitor before Beverly Hills officers hauled her into custody.

Her attorneys later sought mental health diversion, but the request was unsuccessful.

During a hearing last month, prosecutors played jailhouse recordings in which they said Lavie bragged about exploiting Cloobeck, the New York Post reports.

Cloobeck had called off their engagement back in June with Lavie moving out of his $26million Beverly Hills mansion that same month.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/17023135/penthouse-pet-drugged-billionaire-ex-faces-jail-robbing-daddies/

Saudi Arabia has rerouted about 60 million barrels of crude from its Gulf ports as disruptions at the Red Sea port of Yanbu reshape export flows.

Saudi Arabia has rerouted about 60 million barrels of crude from its Gulf port of Ras Tanura for loading through ship-to-ship transfers at Oman’s Sohar port this month and next, according to Reuters, citing multiple trade sources. The move comes as disruptions at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea export terminal of Yanbu have forced the kingdom to adjust how it moves crude to international buyers.

At the same time, Saudi Aramco has told at least two European refining customers that they will receive no Saudi crude next month following an attack on the pipeline linking the kingdom’s oil-producing region to the Red Sea.

The partial rebound in Saudi exports from the Gulf has also helped cool global oil prices, according to the Reuters report, as traders assess whether the additional volumes can compensate for some of the crude affected by the slowdown at Yanbu. Chinese and South Korean refiners are among the main buyers of the spot cargoes being moved through Oman, while some of the supply is expected to head to India and Japan.

Saudi Arabia Reroutes Crude Through Oman
The rerouting is indicative of the pressure on regional oil supply routes as the Red Sea and surrounding maritime corridors face major disruption. Saudi Arabia normally uses its infrastructure to move crude towards both Gulf and Red Sea export points, but the slowdown at Yanbu following the pipeline attack has made alternative routes increasingly important.

Trade sources cited by Reuters said the barrels are being moved from Ras Tanura in the Gulf to Oman’s Sohar, where they are loaded through ship-to-ship transfers. The arrangement allows Saudi crude to continue reaching overseas buyers while avoiding some of the constraints affecting the kingdom’s normal export routes.

Chinese and South Korean refiners are among the largest buyers of the spot supplies. Sources also told Reuters that some of the cargoes will be delivered to India and Japan, giving Asian refiners access to additional Saudi crude even as European customers face a different situation.

Saudi Aramco Tells European Buyers No Crude Next Month
While Asian refiners are receiving some of the rerouted Saudi barrels, European customers have been told they will receive no Saudi crude next month, according to people familiar with the decision cited by Reuters. Saudi Aramco normally supplies European refiners through term contracts designed to provide regular monthly shipments, but those deliveries will not take place next month.

The decision reportedly applies to all European buyers, with the people familiar with the matter speaking anonymously because the information has not been made public. Before the shutdown, European countries imported around 577,000 barrels of Saudi crude per day, highlighting the scale of the supply stream now facing disruption.

The difference between the two export flows is significant. Saudi Arabia is finding ways to move substantial volumes of crude from its Gulf infrastructure through Oman, but that does not mean those barrels will be distributed evenly across its traditional markets, with Asian refiners emerging as major buyers of the available spot supplies.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/middle-east/saudi-oil-shock-60-million-barrels-rerouted-via-oman-europe-to-get-no-crude-next-month-article-156182228

European governments are stepping up security preparations amid warnings over Russian hybrid activity and possible attacks amid growing drone-related incidents.

European governments are stepping up security preparations amid growing concern over Russian hybrid activity, possible drone or missile attacks and a series of recent airspace violations and sabotage attempts.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned Thursday that Moscow could send drones or missiles into NATO countries supporting Ukraine in the coming months. His warning came as Germany prepares hospitals for a possible conflict, Lithuania updates evacuation plans and NATO troops conduct exercises in the Baltic region.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Tusk’s warning “sound and well-documented” and said the Russian hybrid threat against France and other Europeans had intensified. Macron also announced a new plan to protect critical infrastructure.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said Tusk’s warning should be taken seriously, while Finnish President Alexander Stubb said people should be mentally prepared for possible incidents including sabotage and Russian drones.

Russia has also increased its rhetoric. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Europe this week that it would face a “very short” war if NATO allies attempted to attack Russia.

Switzerland Strengthens Defenses, Drone Activity Disrupts Luxembourg Airport
Switzerland’s Federal Council on Friday adopted a new national security strategy designed to prepare the country for what it described as an increasingly unstable international environment.

The 2026 Security Policy Strategy identifies three priorities: strengthening the resilience of the state, economy and society; protecting civilians, institutions and critical infrastructure; and improving Switzerland’s defense capabilities.

The strategy contains 10 objectives and 46 measures, with hybrid and remote attacks and organized crime identified among the most likely threats within Switzerland. The government also cited Russia’s war against Ukraine, cyberattacks and influence operations as growing security challenges.

Meanwhile, suspected drone activity disrupted flights at Luxembourg Airport in Findel on Friday evening. Incoming flights were diverted, while at least one flight from London City was redirected to Liège. A passenger told the Luxembourg Times that the pilot later told passengers that “drones are still flying over the airport.” A widely shared aviation notice also warned pilots about drone activity in the area.

The developments come as NATO allies continue military exercises and monitor a series of incidents across Europe. NATO jets recently shot down a Russian drone over Lithuania, while German and Swedish forces conducted joint exercises near Sweden’s Gotland island.

Despite the growing warnings, NATO said there was currently no imminent threat of attack. A NATO official said the alliance must nevertheless avoid being “naive or complacent” and ensure it remains strong in the years ahead.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/nato-europe-russia-threat-drone-attack-switzerland-security-luxembourg-airport-drone-article-156184202

The meeting would be attended by Kirill Dmitriev, who is a close adviser to Putin and who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, as well as AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, one of the people said.
A spokesperson for the AfD and a representative for Dmitriev declined to comment.
Before the sanctions imposed over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia supplied more than a third ​of Germany’s crude oil imports and more than half of its natural gas.
The meeting would only happen if a peace framework was agreed first between Russia and Ukraine, ​and the organisers hoped it would bring together the AfD, Russia and the United States, the person said. Possible locations for the summit included ⁠Israel, the United Arab Emirates or India, they added.

Weidel advocated the end of a boycott of Russian oil and gas to bolster Germany’s flagging economy in an interview with Reuters in June.
Dmitriev ​was present at a meeting this month in Moscow with US representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Organisers hoped Witkoff and Kushner would also attend the gas meeting, which would examine reopening the ​Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines, said the person.
A senior US official told Reuters that Witkoff and Kushner have not been informed about or invited to the proposed summit.
AfD HOPES TO SCORE WITH VOTERS
Any gathering would be symbolic, since the AfD does not govern. But the preparations highlight the fragility of Germany’s political system, where the longstanding refusal of mainstream parties to work with the far-right is being tested by the AfD’s electoral ​success.

The AfD has just won a major victory to become the biggest party in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt, and faces another test of its popularity on Sunday in an election in the ​state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines enter Germany in this state.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow welcomed the idea as “a positive and timely step”.
“Involving Germany as a key European ‌economy can create ⁠a broader platform for discussing issues that are significant both for these countries and for the rest of the world,” said Robert Agee, President of AmCham Russia.
Germany has struggled to recover from the shock caused by the shutdown of the key undersea Nord Stream pipelines, some of which were crippled by explosions in September 2022.
But any effort to restart Russian gas supplies or Nord Stream would stoke fierce resistance, both in Germany and among its allies, particularly in Eastern Europe.

“Germany cannot become dependent on Russia again,” said Michael Kellner, a Green lawmaker who was in charge ​of German energy policy in government during the ​crisis triggered by the cut-off of Russian ⁠gas following its invasion of Ukraine.
“We cannot repeat the mistakes of the energy crisis,” he said. “It cost us €50 billion. We cannot want to go back to that. It would be treason. Putin is using the AfD to his own ends.”
Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of parliament from Chancellor ​Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats, said the AfD meeting could embolden those in his party who also favoured buying Russian gas.
“The AfD is ​on Russia’s side, willing to ⁠betray both the Ukraine and Germany. Russia uses energy, especially Nord Stream, as a hybrid weapon for military purposes. Reopening Nord Stream would be a disaster for European security and isolate Germany.”
The AfD has framed its call for a resumption of Russian gas supplies as pragmatic, with Weidel describing “cheap energy from Russia” as “the secret of the success of ‘Made in Germany’.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-envoy-far-right-afd-prepare-talks-get-russian-gas-back-germany-sources-say-2026-09-18/

Russia’s mass deployment of repurposed missiles, originally designed to serve as target practice, takes its air attacks to record levels. Ukraine is highly exposed as it has virtually run out of US-made Patriot interceptors.

The bodies of passengers strewn across a bloodied suburban railway platform near Kyiv last month bore grim testament to the escalating air war dominating the conflict in Ukraine.
They were among eight people killed in a barrage of Russian missiles that was mainly focused on industrial facilities in the Brovary district, where the station is located, according to local officials. The attack that hit the railway wasn’t carried out by Russia’s main Iskander strike missile, Ukrainian investigators said, but by a less accurate weapon originally designed to serve as target practice for air defense crews.
Russia’s mass deployment of these repurposed training missiles, or RM48Us, has driven its aerial onslaught to record levels in recent months, official Ukrainian data seen by Reuters shows. RM48Us made up more than half of the 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles fired at Ukraine in July and early August, according to the figures compiled by military analysts at the General Prosecutor’s Office.

The scale of the RM48U deployment, which hasn’t been previously reported, helps show how Russia has been able to expand its attacks over the summer without running down its stocks of Iskanders and other primary strike missiles.

Moscow has been able to keep up a daily air barrage during a critical window in which Ukraine finds itself highly exposed: It has virtually exhausted its stocks of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, the only weapons in its arsenal capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles. There is little clarity on when fresh supplies might arrive, with more Patriots being funneled to the U.S. military and its allies in the Gulf than to Ukraine.
Russia’s defense ministry didn’t respond to questions about its use of RM48Us and other missiles in Ukraine. Moscow has denied intentionally harming civilians, saying it only targets military infrastructure. On August 5, the day of the railway deaths, the defense ministry said it struck a logistics center in Brovary that was being used to store drone components.
Firing large numbers of RM48Us serves as a way for Russia to drain any remaining Ukrainian interceptor stocks and attack lower-value targets without using up its precision strike missiles, according to Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at RUSI, a London-based defense think-tank.

“Their use allows the Russians to husband the more capable missiles they have, the Iskanders, but also the KN-23s and the Zircons, for winter when they would want to really lean into their ballistic missile campaign,” he said.
Indeed, as the RM48U attacks surged in July, the number of Iskanders fired fell to 38 from more than 100 the previous month, the Ukrainian data showed.
The war in Ukraine has entered yet a new phase.

With battle lines on the ground locked across a ferocious “kill zone”, both sides have launched intensifying air campaigns. Russia has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles over the summer and is widely expected to pound critical infrastructure including heating and power sites this winter. Ukraine, which has a far smaller arsenal of missiles, has unleashed hundreds of long-range drone attacks on Russian refineries, ships and ports.
July saw the deaths of at least 437 civilians in Ukraine, the largest toll recorded in a single month since the early months of the invasion, according to the United Nations, which pointed to missile and drone strikes as a key factor.
Russian civilian casualties, while far lower than in Ukraine, are also at record highs. The Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent open-source investigation group, said 327 civilians were killed in Russia in the first seven months of 2026, compared with 145 in the same period last year.

BALLISTIC TRAJECTORY, HIGH SPEEDS

The RM48U – RM for “raketa mishen” or “missile target” – flies on a ballistic trajectory at high speeds, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office and the country’s GUR military intelligence agency told Reuters. But it is less powerful and accurate than the Iskander, Russia’s primary short-range ballistic missile, the prosecutor’s office said.
The Ukrainian missiles data shows this summer was the first confirmed time the munitions, which are fired from Russia’s S-400 air-defense systems, have been deployed in large numbers.

The prosecutors linked the RM48U and its lower precision to several strikes that have caused high civilian casualties in the last few months, including the Brovary district railway platform. They said their military experts found that RM48Us deviate from their intended targets by around 300 metres on average and that their exploding warheads can unleash metal fragments over a large area.
Forensic investigators concluded the railway strike was conducted with an RM48U after analyzing the crater near the rail line beside the platform, metal fragments and damage to the platform, trees and bodies, the office said.
Reuters couldn’t independently verify the Ukrainian findings.

Volodymyr Bihun, head of Brovary’s military administration, said the rail attack happened shortly after midnight. Russia also fired a number of missiles that hit logistics facilities in the district, he said.

Overhead imagery obtained from commercial satellite company Planet Labs showed that a warehouse complex near the Kvitnevyi railway station platform had been damaged. Two plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the air.
In July, Russia fired the largest number of ballistic and hypersonic missiles in a single month since its 2022 full-scale invasion, according to the official Ukrainian data, which only includes strikes confirmed by on-the-ground analysis. Of those 158 strikes, 87 were from RM48Us, the data showed.
The pace of the aerial assault has only intensified; there were 70 Russian ballistic and hypersonic strikes in the first eight days of August, the Ukrainian data showed, with 36 of them from RM48Us.
Last month, the Ukrainian air force stopped publishing regular readouts of the number of missiles fired and shot down during enemy attacks. It said the decision was taken to prevent Russia parading reports about the poor performance of Ukrainian air defenses for propaganda purposes.
RUSSIA STRIVES TO OVERWHELM DEPLETED DEFENsES
Russia has a stockpile of about 100 Iskanders available, compared with 400 RM48Us, the US-based Institute for the Study of War estimated last month. According to Ukraine’s GUR, the country also has smaller stocks of KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles and Zircon and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which can travel faster than five times the speed of sound.
RUSI’s Kaushal put Russia’s Iskander production at around 750 missiles a year. The solid rocket motors are a limiting factor, pushing Moscow to use the weapons judiciously, he said.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-russia-war/revamped-missile-leading-russias-ballistic-onslaught-ukraine-2026-09-18/

Those drinks knocked a few screws loose.

The American Airlines passenger who had to be duct-taped to his seat on a flight to Newark revealed he threw back a few screwdrivers before his alleged racist and homophobic mid-air meltdown.

Layne Lundeen, 67, told a Maryland judge he downed two of the orange juice and vodka cocktails before the tirade that forced the Sept. 3 flight to make an emergency stop in Maryland, according to The Baltimore Banner.

Fellow passengers had to bind Lundeen, who claimed to have no memory of the outburst, to his first-class seat with duct tape and zip-ties, and he allegedly hit one of the cops who dragged him off the plane.

Lundeen, an Arizona realtor who lost his job after the episode, allegedly hollered profanities and racial slurs and started “blaspheming Jesus and God,” according to the passenger in the next seat, Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn.

Cahn said they were casually chatting, but Lundeen snapped when the topic turned to religion.

“I have never seen someone change in a split second from light to dark as I saw then, as if something had taken him over,” Cahn previously said. “He went from the friendliest guy in the world to this dark person.”

Juan Mejia, a retired law enforcement officer who helped tie Lundeen down, said a flight attendant mentioned serving at least one drink, he told CBS.

Mejia said the flight from Dallas, Texas, had been in the air for two hours before all hell broke loose.

Lundeen said his memory of the flight stops well before then.

“I don’t remember any of what happened,” he told a judge in Annapolis, according to The Banner which obtained audio of his appearance.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/09/17/us-news/duct-taped-passenger-reveals-what-he-drank-before-antisemitic-homophobic-outburst/

Swedish pop star Zara Larsson has condemned the White House for using one of her most recognisable songs in a social media reel.

The clip used Larsson’s Midnight Sun in a video appearing to show immigration enforcement raids. The song has since been removed from the post, but the video is still visible on the White House’s TikTok feed.

The video is captioned “never ending deportations”, riffing on Larsson’s lyrics “never-ending midnight sun”.

In a three-minute reaction video posted on social media, Larsson described the clip as “dehumanising”, joining a growing list of singers, including Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande, who have told the Trump administration to not use their music.

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

The reel splices together multiple videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, as well as other US law enforcement personnel, handcuffing men and putting them into vehicles.

Larsson reposted part of the original clip, which then cuts to a selfie video of her using her fingers to hold an ‘L’ shape against her forehead.

In the reaction video that has already clocked up more than 4.2 million views on TikTok, she tells her followers the White House video is “so dehumanising”.

Larsson continues: “These people in this video – they’re real people.”

“The vast majority of these people who are undocumented are regular people with jobs and they’re just trying to have a better future”.

“It’s so crazy how everything is so memefied and so ‘ha-ha-ha’,” she says, accusing the White House of using her song to sow “division”, despite the lyrics reflecting a connection between people and nature, according to Larsson.

Earlier this year, Larsson condemned a video of President Donald Trump dancing at various events overlayed with her hit Lush Life.

White House social media accounts have been forced to remove various songs from their feed following interventions from artists.

Taylor Swift’s seasonal track August disappeared from a reel shared by the Trump administration in August, while one of Olivia Rodrigo’s songs vanished from a video after the singer condemned its use for what she called “hateful propaganda”.

Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande have also warned the Trump administration in separate incidents to not use their music in social media content after the White House posted videos featuring their songs.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqr7d3l0y2zpo

Every Nigerian is now an oil magnate.

At least that is what the social media memes would have you believe as investor fever hits the country.

Nigerians have been eager to have a piece of the energy business that was built up by the country’s – and continent’s – richest man: Aliko Dangote.

More than four billion shares in his giant oil refinery – representing just over 3% of the company – went on the market on Monday in Africa’s biggest-ever sale of its kind.

The minimum purchase was 10 shares for about $4 (£3) and despite this only representing a miniscule portion of the firm, many are now celebrating and joking about their new-found (part-)owner status.

One popular social media video has a Nigerian narrating how he stopped a speeding Dangote company lorry driver, telling him not to be reckless with company property.

Other memes show investors trying to phone up Dangote to discuss business matters.

And the term “Yangote” – a pun in the Hausa language essentially meaning “we all have a share now” – has been trending on social media.

On the first day of the Initial Public Offering (IPO), investment apps crashed as they could not handle the high demand.

Bamboo, which runs one of the most popular investor tools here, later apologised, saying: “We know we let you down.”

Public affairs analyst Jamil Ubah said he had rarely seen Nigerians as excited about something as this. He argued that it fed the dream that it could lead to greater riches for a population that is often battling to make ends meet.

“I think the hope for the common man is that his money will grow into something big, and don’t forget this is coming at a time when many are struggling as the economy is not doing great,” he told the BBC.

Dangote wanted this to be “the people’s IPO” with drivers, cooks, cleaners and servants having the chance to be part of something big.

And they took him at his word.

Twenty-five-year-old clothes seller Idris Lawal Musa made his first-ever stock exchange purchase and told the BBC he was happy after investing 21,000 naira ($16; £12) in 40 shares.

“It is no longer Dangote but ‘Yangote’, the company belongs to us now,” he said while laughing.

But he may make a quick sale.

“I am a trader by profession and when I see that the shares have increased in price I will sell,” he noted.

The popularity also reflects a growing investment culture among younger Nigerians who have embraced mobile trading platforms, cryptocurrencies and digital savings products.

But fear of missing out may have also pushed some to get into the investment business.

In the build-up to the IPO, social media platforms were awash with financial conversations. People shared subscription guides, debated valuation metrics and encouraged friends and family to participate.

But amid the frenzy, experts have warned that there are risks – shares can go down in value, as well as up, meaning people could lose some, or all, of their investment.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw7v4jr2932ro

UN human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians.

A new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said February’s missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd constituted indiscriminate attacks causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure.

The US previously denied striking Lamerd and said it was investigating what happened in Minab. A State Department official said the US did not give credibility to the findings in the report.

The experts also found Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during a crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January.

They said killings by security forces occurred on “a staggering and unprecedented scale” across all 31 provinces.

Iran has also not yet commented on the findings, but it has previously rejected allegations of systematic violations of human rights.

“Civilians in Iran are caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government and the nation’s deadly conflict with the United States and Israel,” the fact-finding mission warned in a statement on Thursday.

For their latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, the mission’s three independent experts investigated two of the deadliest attacks on civilians during the conflict.

On 28 February, when the US and Israel launched their war against Iran, Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern town of Minab, killing at least 156 people, including 120 children, according to local authorities.

The fact-finding mission’s experts said the school was adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval complex also attacked that day, but that the school was clearly identifiable and that no information indicated that it was used for military purposes.

The experts said that, based on the evidence gathered – including media reports indicating that a preliminary US military inquiry found US forces responsible, and the fact that the US is the only party to the conflict that possesses Tomahawk missiles – they had reasonable grounds to believe that the strike on the school was carried out by the US.

They also concluded that the school was “the intended point of impact and that the damage did not result from an errant strike or collateral damage” from the attack on the IRGC complex, citing survivors as saying the school was struck twice.

The US military has yet to release the findings of its investigation into the Minab strike, but Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said it would “never target civilian targets”.

Also on 28 February, Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) dispersed clouds of tungsten pellets over a sports complex and residential area in the town of Lamerd, killing at least 21 civilians, including seven children, according to local authorities.

Again, the fact-finding mission’s experts said the sports complex was clearly identifiable and that no information indicated it was used for military purposes.

They concluded by saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that the strike was carried out by the US, citing evidence including the fact that the US is the only party to the conflict that possesses PrSM missiles.

The US military has said it carried no strikes on Lamerd that day and disputed reports identifying the weapon used as a PrSM.

In both incidents, the fact-finding mission’s experts said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the US committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects”.

The fact-finding mission’s report also covers the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of the mass protests that took place across Iran in December 2025 and January 2026.

The experts said it was an unprecedented escalation from past crackdowns, marked by the widespread use of lethal force resulting in mass killings and injuries, and extensive arrests.

They cited witnesses, health workers and victims’ families as saying that security personnel positioned themselves on rooftops and other elevated positions, firing their assault rifles into crowds.

Protesters also sustained severe wounds to the head, chest and eyes from metal shotgun pellets, causing permanent blindness.

As the crackdown escalated, security forces attacked healthcare facilities, beating and arresting wounded demonstrators and arresting some healthcare workers, which deterred victims from seeking life-saving care, according to the experts.

They also found that the tens of thousands of people detained during the protests faced torture, solitary confinement and denial of legal counsel.

The experts warned that the government had since intensified its use of the death penalty against protesters, with at least 29 men executed following expedited trials on charges connected to the unrest.

The fact-finding mission’s report noted that it was not possible to independently verify the death toll from the crackdown, but said there were strong grounds to believe that it was significantly higher than the official figure of 3,000, the majority of whom the government identified as members of the security forces or bystanders.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) has said it has confirmed the killing of more than 7,000 people, almost all of them protesters.

The fact-finding mission’s experts concluded that Iranian authorities had committed “many gross human rights violations” during the crackdown, and that these amounted to “the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, and other inhumane acts, committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population”.

Iranian authorities accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest and blamed the deaths on what they described as “terrorists” and “rioters”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm9w4n5nverdo

Prince Harry made his first official outing since his and Meghan Markle’s turbulent return to the United Kingdom.

The Duke of Sussex attended the Invictus Spirit Gala Dinner & Awards at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London on Thursday — without his wife.

When asked by People how things were going since he, Markle and their children returned to the UK, Harry responded, “Good. It’s good to be back on British soil.”

For the outing, he wore a black tuxedo and bow tie with his military medals on display.

He also wore the Royal Victorian Order medal around his neck.

In photos obtained by Page Six, Harry was chipper as he took selfies with other attendees.

He was also spotted walking into the event with two former Invictus competitors, per a video obtained by Hello! magazine.

This is the first time that Harry has stepped out for an official appearance since moving back to the UK on Aug. 26.

Harry and Markle relocated to the UK with their two kids — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — six years after they stepped away from their royal duties and moved to Montecito, California.

Although Harry moved back to be closer to his cancer-stricken father, the two appear to be at odds already.

About a week after the family of four touched down in England, King Charles III released a statement clarifying the couple’s status as “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests” — not working royals.

However, the “Spare” author, 41, and Markle, 45, took issue with the label, per People, as they consider themselves “public figures.”

Shortly after, Uganda withdrew from the Invictus Games in “support” of the monarch — a decision that Harry allegedly blamed on his father’s announcement.

Charles, ultimately, intervened and his top adviser “encouraged” Uganda to “proceed with preparations for [their] participation in the games” during a phone call.

The couple faced another blow when they had to pull their kids out of school just two days into the semester over security concerns caused by heavy traffic in the area.

As Page Six previously reported, the pair chose a ritzy $35K-a-year prep school for their little ones.

“None of these logistical problems are a surprise,” royal expert Kinsey Schofield exclusively told Page Six on Monday. “When I was speaking to people locally about the original school, one of the first things I was warned about was the horrific traffic.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2026/09/17/royal-family/prince-harry-steps-out-sans-meghan-markle-for-first-official-outing-since-turbulent-uk-return/

A massive sinkhole outside Nicolas Cage’s lavish Malibu mansion continues to grow.

Jaw dropping new aerial photos obtained by The Post reveal a massive crater yawning open alongside the $10.5 million beachfront property, with shattered concrete, torn up earth and heavy equipment surrounding the gaping void.

The images offer a stomach churning look at the damage.

A huge black pit has opened directly beside the mansion as crews work from a boom lift over the wreckage.

Just beyond the homes, waves continue to slam into the coastline.

It is a nightmare view for residents of the gated Sea Level Drive community, where the collapse swallowed the soil beneath the private road and wiped out the only route in and out.

The sinkhole opened around 5:45 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8, and measures a whopping 25 to 30 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide.

And Cage’s home is reportedly right in the middle of the mess.

The 62 year old actor bought the property for $10.5 million in 2024.

The disaster forced residents of 31 oceanfront homes to evacuate as officials scrambled to deal with structural dangers and the loss of emergency access.

Malibu officials declared a local emergency at 6 p.m. that day, red tagging seven homes over structural danger and another 24 because emergency vehicles could not safely reach them.

The collapse also triggered a gas leak, forcing crews to shut off both gas and water lines.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/09/17/us-news/nicolas-cages-10-5m-malibu-home-still-on-edge-of-massive-sinkhole/

President Trump said Thursday that he was at a crossroads over whether to renew attacks in Iran to wipe out the regime and bring the war to an end.

“I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not?” he told Axios. “It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me.”

Trump’s comments echo previous threats he’s levied against Tehran since the war began.

But this time, he said, his next move is likely to be influenced by his meetings with Gulf allies at next week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting.

“I want to find out where they are and how they are doing. We have been very protective of them,” Trump added.

Tensions are expected to be high at the gathering after the Iran-backed Houthis launched fierce attacks on Saudi Arabia this past week, threatening global oil and gas supplies.

The UN Security Council already saw a clash on Thursday after Russia and China vetoed a bid to extend an expert panel to monitor sanctions against Iran and the regime’s nuclear program.

Beijing and Moscow have been repeatedly accused of protecting Iran and even assisting its military operations during the war.

Jennifer Locetta, an American ambassador to the United Nations, slammed the vetoes as a clear “act of obstructionism” that highlights Russia and China’s support of “rogue regimes.”

Meanwhile, Iran allegedly scored another hit on US aircraft this week, with two unmanned MQ-1 Predator drones shot out of the sky in recent days, CBS News reported.

The older-model UAVs — estimated at about $4 million each — have been used to protect the Strait of Hormuz under the US naval blockade, according to the outlet.

The US has lost at least 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones since the war began, which is a loss of about $720 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office report released this week.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/09/17/world-news/trump-says-he-has-a-big-decision-coming-up-on-iran-do-i-want-to-go-in-and-annihilate-them/

Police in West Bengal’s Purulia detained four Bangladeshi nationals after tracing one suspect and then three others. The men have been sent to a detention centre as repatriation formalities move ahead.

Four Bangladeshi nationals have been detained in West Bengal’s Purulia district for entering India illegally through the international border, police said. The four men have been placed at a detention centre, while the legal and official process for their repatriation to Bangladesh is underway.

HOW POLICE FOUND THE FIRST SUSPECT
The case came to light on September 13 after police received information from a confidential source about a suspicious person seen near Salka Hospital Road around noon. The person was reportedly wearing a sari.

Police questioned the suspect, who identified himself as Mohammad Touhid Mondal, son of Mohammad Tarikul Mondal. He told investigators that he was a resident of Habaspur village under Pangsah Police Station in Bangladesh’s Rajbari district.

During questioning, Touhid allegedly told police that he had entered India illegally through the international border in Nadia district on September 1, along with several other Bangladeshi nationals.

THREE MORE BANGLADESHI NATIONALS DETAINED
Acting on the information provided by Touhid, police searched an apartment in the Purulia Town Police Station area. Three more Bangladeshi nationals were subsequently detained and brought for questioning.

The three men were identified as MD Zahid Emon, Suman Sheikh and Shanto Hossain. According to police, Zahid Emon is from Rajbari district, while Suman Sheikh and Shanto Hossain are residents of Kushtia district in Bangladesh.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bangladeshi-nationals-detained-in-purulia-west-bengal-begins-repatriation-process-2997210-2026-09-17

South Korea plans to approve abortion pills for the first time to promote women’s rights to health and safety, deepening debates over abortions in a country that until recently had imposed strict rules on the procedure.

The government announced Wednesday that it aims to allow medication abortions for women who are up to nine weeks pregnant by the first quarter of 2027. Officials said that for the first two years, abortion pills would be directly prescribed and dispensed by doctors.

In a landmark ruling in 2019, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ordered the easing of the decades-old ban on most abortions, one of the strictest in the developed world. Abortion was subsequently decriminalized, but parliament has yet to revise related legislation, as opposition remains strong among many religious and conservative groups.

Some women have turned to unauthorized online channels to get abortion drugs that are not verified safe. The legislative gap has also undermined women’s rights to choose surgical or medication abortions and caused some confusion in the medical field.

“This introduction of medication abortion is meaningful because it’s a step to make sure that ending pregnancy is done more safely and within the national healthcare system, and to improve the situation caused by a lack of an effective government oversight system,” Gender Equality and Family Minister Won Min-kyong told a news conference.

The step is designed to approve a local company’s application for importing a two-drug combination pack consisting of mifepristone and misoprostol. A combination of mifepristone and misoprostol is the most common regimen for abortion pills in the United States.

In July, President Lee Jae Myung, a liberal, instructed officials to explore ways to allow women to use the two-drug combination pack. As of 2024, about 100 countries have permitted the use of abortion pills, according to the gender ministry.

An estimated 32,000 abortions took place in South Korea in 2020, according to a government-affiliated think tank. Obstetrician-gynecologist Lee Jae-kwan said the majority of abortions in South Korea are surgical abortions. He added that doctors sometimes prescribe misoprostol, which is most commonly used to treat stomach ulcers, for abortions but don’t face persecution, though it’s not approved for that purpose.

The Korea Women’s Associations United, a leading women’s rights organization in Seoul, called the announcement “a first step toward supporting a safe ending of pregnancy.” It urged the government to take additional measures to help women get abortion pills more swiftly and ensure their expenses are covered by the national health insurance system.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-abortion-pills-women-1d7d79be82330998b2080af1d8b81074

Killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would not be considered illegal unless the animals were specifically targeted, under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act by President Donald Trump’s administration that marks a sea change in how the landmark environmental law is enforced.

A directive sent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees this week says imperiled animals or plants must be intentionally targeted for their killing to be considered illegal.

That’s a sharp turnaround from past practice at the wildlife service, which historically held people liable even for accidentally harming protected species such as grizzly bears, manatees and spotted owls.

Former Fish and Wildlife director says the change ‘creates a huge loophole’
Experts said the change would allow timber companies to log forests in the Pacific Northwest even if they knew that doing so could kill imperiled birds nesting in the trees, or for developers to build a dam knowing it would kill salmon.

“This cuts against the entire history of the Endangered Species Act,” said Dan Ashe, who led the Fish and Wildlife Service under former President Barack Obama.

“It just creates a huge loophole,” added Ashe, who is now president of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “It completely relieves people of any responsibility for their actions, even consequences that can be easily predicted.”

Encouraged by Republican lawmakers and industry lobbyists, officials under Trump have moved to dismantle key parts of the endangered species law and make companies exempt from its regulations. Administration officials have said they are returning the law to its original intent, following a 2024 Supreme Court decision that limited the authority of federal agencies to interpret environmental statutes passed by Congress.

States and conservation groups have filed numerous lawsuits seeking to turn back the changes.

The directive follows a rule change defining ‘harm’ under Endangered Species Act
The new interpretation of what it means to harm — or “take” — a species was detailed in a Sept. 14 directive from Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik.

“Felling a tree is not a take of the bats roosting in it unless the tree is felled for the purpose of killing or capturing them,” Nesvik wrote, adding that the bats would only be impacted “indirectly and accidentally.”

The directive, reported earlier by The New York Times, leans heavily on a dissenting opinion from former Justice Antonin Scalia in a 1995 Supreme Court case. It comes on the heels of a new rule from the wildlife service in July that narrowed the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act, or ESA.

Nesvik’s directive will guide how that new rule is put into action, according to a Thursday statement from the Interior Department, which includes the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Under the guidance, the ESA’s prohibition on ‘take’ continues to prohibit conduct including harassing, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing or collecting protected wildlife,” Interior Department officials said.

Some companies may still seek permits
For decades, the government had defined harm to imperiled animals broadly to include encroachments on places where they live. Environmentalists warn the recent moves, if allowed to stand, will speed extinctions by letting protected species be killed and opening the door to habitat destruction.

“This is basically a free-for-all,” said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. “It’s a radical reinterpretation that would put polluters and other industry before the natural world.”

Federal officials have long worked with companies and individuals to minimize harm to species by crafting habitat protection plans and issuing permits for some incidental killings.

Under the new interpretation of the law, the only people needing such a permit would be those acting directly against animals, such as hunters, trappers, anglers and perhaps pesticide users, said Sandi Snodgrass, an attorney with Holland and Hart in Denver whose clients include developers, energy companies and utilities.

But Snodgrass said some companies may still seek permits to guard against changes by future administrations or to protect themselves against citizen lawsuits.

The Endangered Species Act is credited with bringing back iconic animals — including the bald eagle, American alligator and California condor — from the brink of extinction.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/endangered-species-killing-wildlife-trump-a4f2c2392dd6b9f8cfb35eb0a4716092

Canada’s Mark Carney backs deeper ties with Europe as Trump threatens tariffs over the proposed alliance, with Canada and EU exploring cooperation on trade, defence, technology, energy.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has backed a deeper alliance with Europe as tensions with the US over tariffs intensify, saying Canada and the European Union are “stronger together”.

Speaking at the European Parliament, Carney welcomed an EU proposal for closer ties with Canada and pitched what he called a “new alliance” with Europe to protect against external economic and political pressures.

The remarks came after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested Canada could become the 27-nation bloc’s first “associate member” during her annual “State of the European Union” address on Wednesday.

Carney Pushes Back Against Trump
Carney said Canada welcomed the EU proposal and wanted deeper cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, defence and energy, AFP reported.

Responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to cut trade ties with Europe over the proposed alliance with Canada, Carney said, “No one is going to dictate our culture, or with whom we can strike agreements internationally.”

Carney has been seeking closer ties with Europe as Canada’s trade tensions with the US continue to grow. Earlier this week, he said Canada was looking for a “unique alliance” with the EU, but not EU membership.

Trump has reacted angrily to the proposal. He called the idea “laughable” and told reporters he could impose “very serious tariffs” or “stop trading with Europe” if the alliance goes ahead.

Canada, EU Eye Deeper Economic And Defence Ties
The EU and Canada are looking to expand cooperation in areas including manufacturing, technology, defence, the Arctic, AI, energy and critical minerals, Reuters reported.

Von der Leyen said the two sides would work towards creating a “common prosperity and economic space”.

The proposed closer relationship comes as Canada and the EU seek to strengthen economic cooperation and support what they describe as the rules-based international order amid growing pressure from the US and China.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/canada/trump-warns-europe-over-canada-pact-carney-hits-back-no-one-is-going-to-dictate-article-156178216

Pakistan has announced a fresh set of austerity measures to conserve fuel and reduce government spending as the wider Gulf conflict disrupts energy supplies and pushes up petrol and diesel prices.

Pakistan has announced a new round of austerity measures as rising fuel prices and disruptions to energy supplies put additional pressure on the country. The measures, announced on Thursday, are aimed at conserving fuel while limiting government expenditure.

Under the new policy, fuel allocations for official vehicles will be reduced, while the government has also banned the purchase of vehicles and most other durable goods. IT procurement has been exempted from the restriction.

Foreign visits by government officials and official dinners have also been restricted. Authorities are encouraging the use of teleconferencing for meetings as part of the effort to reduce fuel consumption and spending.

The measures come as Pakistan faces the prospect of gas and electricity shortages. Disruptions to LNG supplies linked to the wider Gulf conflict have added to concerns over the country’s energy security, while petrol and diesel prices have risen.

Pakistan Had Announced Similar Steps In March
This is the second time this year that Pakistan has introduced broad austerity measures in response to energy and economic pressures. In March, the government temporarily closed schools for two weeks and introduced measures to reduce fuel consumption.

Those steps also encouraged more government employees to work from home. The objective was to conserve fuel while cutting government expenditure. The latest measures come as the impact of the regional conflict extends beyond oil markets. Pakistan is particularly exposed to disruptions in energy and maritime trade because of its dependence on imported fuel and LNG.

Fuel Subsidy For Motorcycles And Small Cars
Alongside the government austerity drive, Pakistan introduced a new fuel subsidy policy beginning Wednesday. Motorcycle, rickshaw and small-car owners are being offered a subsidy of 100 Pakistani rupees, or around 36 US cents, per litre subject to a monthly quota.

The measure is intended to cushion the impact of rising fuel prices on consumers. It comes as Islamabad simultaneously seeks to reduce fuel consumption across government operations.

The wider energy pressure has been linked to disruptions around key regional trade routes. Attacks by the US and Israel on Iran more than six months ago disrupted oil and gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz, while fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis has created additional risks for trade through the Red Sea.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/asia/pakistan-announces-austerity-measures-as-gulf-conflict-drives-fuel-prices-higher-article-156176073

The official noted that this year’s delegation would be smaller than last year’s, and would face travel restrictions along with a ban on purchasing luxury goods and other items.

The United States will allow an Iranian delegation to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, the State Department confirmed on Thursday, despite an ongoing war between the two countries that has now stretched into its seventh month.

A source familiar with the matter told AFP that the delegation would include Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level Week,” a State Department spokesperson said.

However, the official noted that this year’s delegation would be smaller than last year’s, and would face travel restrictions along with a ban on purchasing luxury goods and other items, in line with existing US policy.

Conflict Shows No Signs Of Easing

The decision to permit Iranian attendance comes against the backdrop of a bruising conflict that began in late February, when US and Israeli strikes targeted Iran, triggering fighting that has since spread across the wider Middle East. In response, Tehran imposed a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial channel for global energy shipments, which sent oil prices sharply higher worldwide.

Hostilities between Washington and Tehran have flared up again in recent weeks. Meanwhile, shipping remains heavily restricted through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait near Yemen, where Houthi rebels have taken control of key territory.

Contrast With Abbas Visa Denial
The move to admit Iran’s delegation stands in stark contrast to Washington’s treatment of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has once again been denied an entry visa for the General Assembly, a source confirmed on Wednesday — the second consecutive year the US has taken this step.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/us-allows-iranian-delegation-including-pezeshkian-attend-un-general-assembly-amid-war-ws-l-10337610.html

Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan’s pledge covered more than territorial defence, extending specifically to the protection of Makkah and Madinah.

Pakistan’s military on Thursday issued a strong statement on defending Saudi Arabia, with military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry saying Islamabad would defend the Kingdom “to any extent” amid ongoing Houthi missile and drone attacks.

Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), told Arab News that Pakistan “fully stands with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both diplomatically and physically”, stressing the word “physically” before adding: “We will go to any extent.”

Chaudhry said Pakistan’s pledge covered more than territorial defence, extending specifically to the protection of Makkah and Madinah, Islam’s two holiest sites.

Pakistan Pledges Unconditional Support
“There should be no doubt on that,” he said. “We will continue to defend Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any aggression.”

He described the relationship between the two countries as an “emotive, deep-rooted, historical and unbreakable bond” between their people, militaries and political leaderships.

The statement marks a notably stronger formulation than Islamabad’s public position last week. Pakistan’s Foreign Office had said no military response was being discussed under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, while stressing that Islamabad would act “when the time comes”.

The agreement, signed on August 7, treats an armed attack on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Turkiye as an attack on all three countries. It builds on a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in September 2025.

The full operational details of both agreements have not been made public, leaving questions over what military action they would require.

Islamabad, Beijing Seek Tehran’s Help
Pakistan already maintains a significant military presence in Saudi Arabia. Reuters reported in May that Islamabad had deployed around 8,000 troops, along with JF-17 fighter jets, drones and an HQ-9 air-defence system to the Kingdom.

The latest remarks also come against reports that Pakistan and China have sought Iran’s help in containing the Houthis.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/pakistan-general-vows-to-defend-saudi-arabia-to-any-extent-amid-houthi-attacks-ws-l-10337784.html

A government Group B officer earning Rs 80,000 monthly considers quitting her government job for private sector growth.

A government employee working as a Group B officer and earning Rs 80,000 monthly said she was considering leaving the job for a private sector opportunity. The 34-year-old woman sought advice from social media, asking whether her decision to leave her comfortable and safe government job that came with benefits and a ‘certain social status’ was a realistic decision.

The woman highlighted that she was willing to walk away despite being due for promotion to a Group A post soon, adding that she was feeling ‘stuck’, especially since she was not willing to compromise on her integrity.

“With the current cost of living and inflation, Rs 80,000 honestly doesn’t feel like enough to build the kind of life I want for myself and my family, especially in a city like Bengaluru,” the woman wrote.

The employee said she had always been ambitious and wanted to learn more, take on bigger challenges, and work in roles where performance translates into faster growth.

“I increasingly feel that my growth has become saturated, promotions are largely time-bound, the financial upside is limited, and regardless of how much more I am capable of doing, the trajectory remains fairly predetermined,” the woman said.

“At the same time, I’m very aware of what I would be giving up: job security, pension/NPS benefits, work-life predictability to some extent, and a career that many people spend years preparing to enter.”

The woman said she was mulling transitioning into the private sector, where her government experience would be highly valuable in key areas such as taxation, regulatory affairs, public policy, and compliance.

“I don’t want to leave simply because I’m temporarily frustrated. But I also don’t want to wake up at 45 and realise that I stayed purely because the job was safe, despite knowing that I wanted much more from my career.”

Check The Viral Post Here:

‘Horrendous Idea’

As the post gained traction, social media users were unanimous in their verdict that the woman should not quit her secure job as mass layoffs were currently the norm in the private sector.

“Ex-Maharatna employee here. Trust me, it is a stupid idea. Unless you choose to leave India and luckily get something outside, which is very difficult in recent times, leaving a govt job is hitting yourself happily,” said one user, while another added: “Bad, very bad idea. My brother is in the private sector, and he is always worried about whether he will be fired.”

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/government-employee-earning-rs-80-000-considers-quitting-for-private-sector-internet-says-its-a-stupid-idea-12061462?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_featured_articles

India, meanwhile, said that it remained firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its people and will continue to source supplies from diverse sellers based on market dynamics after the US made a new move to punish such buyers.

The Donald Trump administration has sent a blunt message to India and China: Reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas or risk facing unprecedented economic penalties from the United States. Addressing the media after the passage of the Russia Sanctions Bill in the US Congress, Republican Senator Richard Blumenthal warned New Delhi and Beijing to ‘get their act together’ and buy their energy from ‘somewhere else.’

“To China and India: You better clean up your act. Buy your oil and gas somewhere else. Appeasement is not a strategy,” he said.

India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer, is among the biggest buyers of Russian oil, which is seen as helping Moscow replenish its budget since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and was hit with sweeping Western sanctions.

Blumenthal, who wrote the bill with late Senator Lindsey Graham, said he hopes the sanctions will help force Putin to the negotiating table and end the war.

“To Vladimir Putin — we have your number. And to Ukraine — you are not alone,” Blumenthal said.

The Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 aims to sanction Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving. It also directs Trump to impose up to 100 per cent tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas — including India and China– with an exception for countries that import less than 15 per cent of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports.

The legislation was approved by the House in a 262-159 vote on Wednesday and will now go to Trump to be signed into law.

India’s Reaction
India, meanwhile, said that it remained firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its people and will continue to source supplies from diverse sellers based on market dynamics after the US made a new move to punish such buyers.

New Delhi also said that it had warned Washington that any such new moves could impact ties between the two countries.

The foreign ministry said that it had noted the passage of the bill, adding that New Delhi had raised the issue with various U.S. interlocutors in recent months, and had “very clearly articulated” the potential implications for the bilateral relationship and the international energy market.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/clean-up-your-act-team-trump-warns-india-china-over-russian-oil-trade-12058483?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

When Japanese finance minister Satsuki Katayama called Scott Bessent for help to support the cratering yen in June, her U.S. counterpart’s response was familiar: If Tokyo wanted assistance, it had to get its fiscal house in order.
For months, Treasury Secretary Bessent had told Katayama and other officials privately that Japan should rein in its massive fiscal spending and that its central bank needed to raise interest ​rates, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The June 22 call, the details of which haven’t been previously reported, helped set the stage for massive joint intervention by Washington and Tokyo in late July, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
This account of the interactions between Japan and the U.S. shows how Bessent used Washington’s leverage over currency and Treasury markets to extract policy concessions from a key ally — forcing Takaichi to navigate the competing demands of voters and her ​most important security partner.
“Bessent has run out of patience with Japan,” said David Boling, managing director for Japan at The Asia Group, a consultancy. The U.S., he said, wants a stronger, more stable yen, less risk of Japanese selling of Treasuries, and policy that looks more credible to markets on inflation and ​fiscal stability.

Japan’s Ministry of Finance and Takaichi’s office declined to comment. The BOJ didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined to comment on specific private discussions with Japanese officials. Separately, a Treasury official told Reuters “monetary-policy decisions are for ⁠Japanese authorities to make” and that “U.S. interest in orderly yen markets is not about targeting a particular exchange rate.”
AMERICAN LEVERAGE
A sharp rise in Japan’s long-term yields would risk pushing up U.S. borrowing costs, given Japan is the largest foreign holder of Treasuries. For Bessent, who styles himself as “America’s leading bond salesman,” that would be an unwelcome development as ​Washington grapples with its own swelling deficit.
When Bessent met Katayama in Japan in May, he stressed the need for higher BOJ rates, three sources said. After that, a rate hike in June or July was considered a given within the Japanese government, said one of the sources.

The BOJ’s June hike gave Katayama hope that Bessent would agree to ​her request for Washington to join a coordinated yen buying spree, said one of the sources.
Instead, Bessent in the June phone conversation repeated his earlier calls for Japan to overhaul spending that he felt undermined the BOJ’s efforts to rein in inflation.
“The United States does not want Japan, its ally, to lose economic strength because of excessive yen weakness,” said Takehiko Nakao, who served as Japan’s top currency diplomat between 2011 and 2013.

The call crystallised a tension Takaichi faces: She favours “Abenomics”, the mix of big spending and ultra-low rates championed by her political hero, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But she is now pressured by markets and Washington.
That pressure became clear in July when Katayama publicly flagged that Japan’s state pension fund, the world’s largest, could buy more domestic assets, a move investors ​read as support for Japan’s bond market.
After the BOJ held rates steady in July, Governor Kazuo Ueda struck a hawkish tone, signalling a hike was coming soon.
That signal proved decisive. Moments after the BOJ’s meeting, the yen spiked, first on Japan’s solo intervention, before combined U.S.-Japanese action extended the rally.
Katayama and her top currency diplomat, Atsushi Mimura, negotiated ​the joint intervention with the U.S. while the BOJ met, one of the people said.
Despite months of groundwork, the late July intervention came together quickly, this person said.
“This is a culmination of Japan’s currency alliance with the United States,” Mimura said, announcing the joint intervention.
‘I AM THE HOUSE’
That alliance, however, soon hit headwinds.
Within weeks, the yen slid and Washington grew frustrated with Takaichi’s ‌lack of progress in ⁠rolling back stimulus and a global spike in bond yields.
At a U.S.-hosted G20 finance leaders’ gathering on August 31-September 1, Bessent again called for higher Japanese rates and fiscal tightening. But this time, his message was sharper.
In an interview with Reuters then, Bessent said Japan should “sit back and enjoy the success of Abenomics”, noting the age of deflation had passed and that combating inflation, not stimulating the economy, was now the critical objective.
Those remarks were Washington’s strongest signal of its displeasure over the remnants of Abenomics it saw in both Takaichi’s policy and political loyalists.
“In the past, the message was more along the lines of, ‘We expect Japan to pursue the right policies’,” Nakao said.
Days later, Japan’s benchmark yield hit a 30-year high above the key 3% milestone, piling pressure on Takaichi to water down her spending ambitions.
“Given Japan’s huge public debt, Japan needs to present a credible medium- to long-term fiscal outlook, and demonstrate consistency between monetary and fiscal policy, to avoid an unwelcome spike in long-term interest rates,” said Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Japan’s former top currency diplomat.
U.S. scrutiny ​of Japan’s finances prompted Katayama to assure her G20 counterparts that Japan would shed ​its over-reliance on additional spending and avoid issuing debt to fund tax ⁠cuts.
In comments to reporters after a meeting with Bessent at the G20, Katayama recounted showing him remarks by Takaichi to Japanese newspaper Yomiuri that stressed the premier’s resolve to “achieve growth and fiscal discipline simultaneously”.
“He seemed to understand, saying that’s very good,” Katayama said.
A week later, Bessent was again helping Japan with strong warnings against yen bears, saying he had asymmetric information and good insight into what Japanese policymakers, including the BOJ, would do.
“I am the house now,” Bessent said this month, adding “you can bet against me if you want.”
The ​yen jumped against the dollar.
TOUGH TRADE-OFFS
Bessent’s demands broadly align with the policy direction of the BOJ, which is expected to lift rates again on Friday.
On fiscal plans, there’s a bigger gap.
Takaichi cannot easily retreat from flagship stimulus plans that drove her ​party to victory in this year’s election. Her ⁠handouts and subsidies to curb fuel costs also helped ease anger over rising cost of living.
Forcing Takaichi to abandon tax plans is also risky for Washington if it weakens an administration of a reliable U.S. ally to counter an assertive China. After joining Tokyo in shoring up the yen, President Donald Trump emphasised the importance of the U.S. partnership with Japan.
In a move that analysts saw as placating markets and Bessent, Takaichi reappointed Katayama as finance minister in a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday.
Katayama – a fiscal conservative at heart – has walked that line since taking office, reassuring markets Japan won’t spend recklessly, even as she promotes her boss’s investment ambitions.
For now, there are no signs Takaichi is backing down. Budget requests for the next fiscal year ⁠have ballooned to 143 ​trillion yen ($916.14 billion), near pandemic-era levels.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/how-bessent-americas-bond-salesman-cornered-japan-big-spending-2026-09-17/