Ms Tolentino on her daily boat ride – her mother is rowing them to the clinic
Crissa Tolentino has long been resigned to floods as a way of life.
The 36-year-old public school teacher takes a paddle boat through the inundated streets nearly every day. It’s the only way to travel from her home in the suburbs to the heart of Apalit, a low-lying town near the Philippine capital Manila.
The boat takes her to work, and to the clinic where she is being treated for cancer. She says she only sees dry streets for about two months in the year.
But this year she is very angry.
An unusually fierce monsoon has derailed daily life more than ever in the South East Asian nation, and sparked anger and allegations about corruption in flood control projects.
The rains have stranded millions mid-commute, left cars floating in streets that have turned into rivers and caused outbreaks of leptospirosis, a liver ailment that spreads through the excrement of sewer rats.
“I feel betrayed,” Ms Tolentino says. “I work hard, I don’t spend too much and taxes are deducted from my salary every month. Then I learn that billions in our taxes are being enjoyed by corrupt politicians.”
It’s a charge that is resonating across the Philippines, where people are asking why the government cannot tame the floods with the billions of pesos it pours into infrastructure like roads, bridges and embankments.
Their anger is palpable on TikTok, Facebook and X, where they are venting against lawmakers and construction tycoons who they allege win contracts for “ghost” projects that never materialise.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr himself acknowledged this as a continuing challenge on a visit to inspect a flood control dam that he then found did not exist. The economic planning minister later said corruption had claimed 70% of public funds allotted for flood control.
The House Speaker, who has been implicated, has resigned, although he denies any wrongdoing. And the leader of the Senate has been ousted after it was found that a contractor who won a government bid was found to have donated money to his 2022 campaign, which is illegal.
Outraged Filipinos have been stitching together AI videos of lawmakers as crocodiles, a symbol of greed. A lot of the ire is also aimed at “nepo babies”, the children of wealthy politicians or contractors, whose extravagant lives are all over social media.
Scrolling through her feeds, Ms Tolentino says she relates most to a rap song from 2009 which has become the soundtrack to the public fury.
Upuan, by local artist Gloc-9, questions why politicians are unable to empathise with common folk. The song’s title means “seat” in Tagalog, a local language, and it channels the anger at those with parliamentary seats who seem far removed from the lives of ordinary Filipinos.
“That [song] is our real situation,” Ms Tolentino says. “It explains everything.”
A huge anti-corruption protest is already planned for Sunday, 21 September – the anniversary of the day in 1972 when then leader Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.
His son, who is now president – Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr – is well aware of how far public anger can go. It was anti-corruption protests that drove his father from power in 1986, ending a decades-long dictatorship that embezzled billions from the state.
More recently, anti-corruption protests forced legislative reform in Indonesia and, just last week, toppled the government in Nepal. And so on Monday, as Filipinos demanded an explanation, President Marcos Jr announced an inquiry that would “unmask the swindlers and find out how much they stole”.
“If I wasn’t president, I might be out on the streets with them,” he told reporters.
“Let them know how much they hurt you, how they stole from you. Let them know, shout at them, demonstrate – just make it peaceful.”
It echoed earlier comments when he promised relief from the floods, while appearing to pin the blame elsewhere. He faulted corrupt politicians and constructions firms for the severe lack of infrastructure: “Shame on you,” he said.
Then in a press conference he said he had uncovered a “disturbing” fact: the public works ministry had contracted only 15 firms to build flood control projects worth 545bn pesos ($9bn; £7.1bn).
All of those firms are now under scrutiny and the central bank has frozen their assets, but the most attention has gone to one family-owned business. It belongs to Pacifico and Sarah Discaya, who were raised in poor families but are now a wealthy, high-flying couple active on social media. Before the floods controversy, Ms Discaya was best known for her unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Pasig city.
Late last year the couple were interviewed on popular YouTube channels, where they shared their rags-to-riches story. One interviewer described it as “inspiring”. But in the wake of the disastrous flooding, those videos have resurfaced as subjects of anger.
They show the couple showing off their three dozen luxury cars, including a Mercedes Benz Maybach, a Lincoln Navigator and a Porsche Cayenne. They bought some models in two separate colours, black and white.
The backlash was swift. The Discayas were summoned by the Senate and the House of Representatives for investigations, and authorities blacklisted their firm, while protesters smeared the gates to their office with mud and spray-painted the word “thief”.
At a recent House hearing, Mr Discaya admitted to paying kickbacks to lawmakers – “We couldn’t do anything but play along with them” – but the Congressmen disputed his allegation.
The Discayas and other contractors have accused more than a dozen lawmakers, including key allies of President Marcos, but they all denied the allegations.
The boss of Nvidia says he is “disappointed” that China has reportedly ordered its top technology companies to halt purchases of the firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Jensen Huang told BBC News the US needs “to make sure that people can access this technology from all over the world, including China.”
He added: “The advance of human society is not a zero-sum game.”
Mr Huang is one of a number of tech bosses, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, accompanying US President Donald trump on his state visit to the UK.
“President Trump is very clear,” Mr Huang said. “He wants America to win, and President Xi wants China to win, and it’s possible for both of them to.”
But he believes “the conversation will sort itself out.”
Donald Trump is expected to speak to China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday.
Nvidia – the world’s leading chipmaker – had previously been banned from selling its most advanced chips to China, before Trump reversed the ban in July.
Nvidia has to pay 15% of its Chinese revenues to the US government in an unprecedented deal struck in the summer.
On Wednesday morning, the Financial Times reported that China’s Cyberspace Administration had told tech companies to stop using Nvidia chips which had specifically been manufactured for the Chinese market.
Shares of the US company were down more than 1% in premarket trading.
Mr Huang said he would “support the US” as they try to resolve geopolitical issues, and would tell the same thing to Trump if he is asked about it on Wednesday evening.
The UK is hosting Trump at a state banquet, where tech bosses including Mr Huang are expected to attend.
The US and China have been in trade talks in Europe this week.
On Monday, China’s market regulator said Nvidia had violated Chinese anti-monopoly laws, without giving any more details.
The supermodel isn’t feeling her best at the moment
FANS are concerned about Bella Hadid’s health after seeing her latest Instagram posts.
The famous model, 28, shared a series of snaps today featuring stunning views as well as a number of photos of her appearing unwell.
In the snaps Bella can be seen with tear-stained cheeks hooked up to an assortment of wires and IV drips.
There’s also a photo of her wearing an oxygen mask indoors while tucked up in bed with a pizza squishmallow plush.
The star is wearing various different tops in the images – including a blue and white stripe jumper and a white vest – indicating that they were taken on different days.
There’s a small cut visible on her forehead above her right eyebrow, too.
A worn-out looking Bella captioned the series of photos with an apology for taking time away from being online, and sent love to her 61 million followers.
“I’m sorry I always go MIA I love you guys.”
The comments section on the post has since been limited to restrict any new comments being shared, but many Instagram users took a moment to share their well wishes while they could.
“We love you so much,” replied one user, followed by a white heart emoji.
“Take care and heal, the world is waiting for Miss Bella Hadid always. Stay strong,” said another.
A sea of users left no words but dropped heart emojis in Bella’s comments section.
It’s unknown right now what Bella is struggling with, but she has been open over the last decade about her “invisible suffering” with lyme disease.
In past interviews, she’s described how she lives in “chronic” pain most days and can even find it hard to take a shower.
The widely expected cut of a quarter percentage point comes amid economic pressures ranging inflation and tariffs to sluggish job growth. Two more cuts are expected before the end of the year.
President Trump has put pressure on the Fed Chair Powell to cut rates [FILE: July 24, 2025]Image: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo/picture allianceThe US Federal Reserve , commonly known as the Fed, lowered its benchmark rate Wednesday by a quarter percentage point, the first such cut since last year.
It cut the benchmark lending rate to a range between 4.0% and 4.25%.
The Fed paused its easing cycle in January due to uncertainty over how President Donald Trump’s import tariffs might affect inflation and the overall economy.
It said Wednesday’s cut was warranted as, “downside risks to employment have risen” even as inflation has “moved up and remains somewhat elevated.”
Although inflation remains slightly above the Fed’s target rate of 2%, data shows hiring has slowed to a halt in recent months, while the unemployment rate has risen.
Lowering interest rates, and reducing borrowing costs, is tool used by central banks to boost hiring and increase consumer spending.
Tension between the White House and the Fed
The new Fed Governor, Stephen Miran, formerly an economic adviser to Trump, voted against the decision, favoring a deeper cut of 50 basis points.
Miran was sworn in earlier this week, amid criticism from Democrats that he would not separate economic decision making from political pressure.
The other 11 voting members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted for the quarter-point cut.
Trump has been pushing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who acts independently of the White House, to cut interest rates for months.
He has tried to pressure Powell to resign and has openly considered firing him.
Powell said Wednesday the Fed was “right to wait and see how tariffs and inflation and the labor market evolved” before lowering rates.
He added the the central bank was “strongly committed” to maintaining its independence from politics.
On Tuesday, Democrats introduced a Senate bill aimed at reinforcing the separation between the White House and the Federal Reserve, just hours after Miran was sworn in as a Fed governor.
The strategic defence pact between Pakistan and Saudi comes just days after an Israeli strike targeted Hamas leaders in neighbouring Qatari capital Doha.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif embrace each other on the day they sign a defence agreement, in Riyadh(REUTERS)
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed a new defence agreement, under which the two sides said an attack on either of them would be considered “an aggression against both”.
The deal – “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” – was signed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif traveled to Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the crown prince, a statement said.
The strategic defence pact comes just days after an Israeli strike targeted Hamas leaders in neighbouring Qatari capital Doha. The air strike in Doha was described by the US, on which Gulf states have long depended on for their security, as a unilateral attack that does not advance American and Israeli interests.
“This agreement… aims to develop aspects of defence cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” AFP news agency quoted a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.
“The agreement states that any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” it added.
The signing of the agreement also comes just months after the four-day military conflict between Pakistan and India which followed Operation Sindoor carried out by Indian armed forces in retaliation to the April 22 terror attack of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in which terrorists found to have links with Pakistan killed 26 people.
The military conflict ended with Pakistani DGMO reaching out to the Indian counterpart seeking a pause on the fighting.
Israel last week carried out an attempt to kill political leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian outfit that is fighting the Israel forces in Gaza. The Israel strike in Doha killed six people.
Qatar, which said one of its security forces was killed in the attack, said Israel was treacherous and engaged in “state terrorism.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said shortly after the air strike it was a “wholly independent Israeli operation” against top “Terreorist chieftains of Hamas”.
Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility, the PMO said.
In another parallel development, Qatar and the United States are also on the verge of finalising an enhanced defence cooperation agreement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was not informed by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in advance about Israel’s attack in Qatar last week.
India’s response
India said it “will study the implications” of the strategic mutual defence pact signed between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, under which an attack on either nation will be treated as “aggression against both.”
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, addressing a weekly media briefing in Delhi, noted that the government had been aware this agreement was being considered.
The gesture, inspired by PM Modi’s ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ initiative, reflects their shared commitment to environmental conservation.
The United Kingdom’s King Charles sent on Wednesday to Prime Minister Narendra Modi a Kadamb tree on his birthday, inspired by the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ initiative.
The British High Commission shared the details in a post on X.
It said, “His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to send a Kadamb tree to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday. The gesture, inspired by PM Modi’s ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ initiative, reflects their shared commitment to environmental conservation.”
During his visit to the UK in July, PM Modi gifted His Majesty The King a ‘Sonoma’ tree as part of the same initiative.
Collaboration on climate and clean energy is a key pillar of the Commonwealth and the UK-India partnership as set out by the two PMs in Vision 2035. pic.twitter.com/XaFrFKeUYC
In another post on X, the UK High Commission further highlighted how, earlier during PM Modi’s visit to the UK in July this year, PM Modi had gifted King Charles a ‘Sonoma’ tree.
“During his visit to the UK in July, PM Modi gifted His Majesty The King a ‘Sonoma’ tree as part of the same initiative. Collaboration on climate and clean energy is a key pillar of the Commonwealth and the UK-India partnership as set out by the two PMs in Vision 2035.” The essence of the “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” initiative is to plant a tree in one’s mother’s name symbolically.
An official statement by the GoI noted how this simple act serves a dual purpose- honouring the role of mothers in nurturing life and contributing to the health of the planet. Trees are the foundation of life, and like a mother, they provide nourishment, protection, and a future for the next generation. Through this initiative, people can plant a tree in honour of their mothers, creating a lasting memorial, while also addressing the urgent need for environmental protection.
The Prime Minister had emphasised the importance of collective efforts to improve the environment and spoke about India’s progress in increasing forest cover over the past decade. He stated that this campaign is in line with the country’s need for sustainable development.
As part of the celebrations, light shows were organised on various iconic buildings around the world in tribute to PM Modi.
Piccadilly Circus, London |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 75 on Wednesday, 17 September 2025. From world leaders to followers and well-wishers, people across the globe extended their birthday wishes to the Prime Minister.
As part of the celebrations, light shows were organised on various iconic buildings around the world in tribute to PM Modi. In Mumbai, several landmarks, including the five-star hotel Trident, held light displays featuring images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Internationally, Piccadilly Circus in London also displayed an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The digital screen featured the message:
“Warm birthday wishes, celebrating 75 years”, alongside a picture of the Prime Minister.
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space located in London’s West End, within the City of Westminster. It was constructed in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, the word “circus”, derived from the Latin word meaning “circle”—refers to a round open space at a street junction.
The iconic Times Square in New York also featured a picture of Prime Minister Modi, extending birthday wishes on his 75th birthday.
Besides, a spectacular 3D drone show was organised on Wednesday at the SP College Ground in Pune on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday.
The show, named “Jyotine Tejachi Aarti”, lasted for 45 minutes. Around 1,000 drones showcased the achievements of the Modi government, along with Pune’s social, cultural, and historical landmarks.
THIS is the dramatic moment Donald Trump bombs another Venezuelan boat as he wages war on “extremely violent drug trafficking cartels”.
The US president warned “WE ARE HUNTING YOU” as he shared unclassified footage of the vessel being obliterated with 11 people on board.
Donald Trump bombed a Venezuelan drug boat as he left it up in flames in international watersCredit: Reuters
Three “male terrorists” were killed in the kinetic strike on international waters, according to Trump.
Dramatic footage showed a small boat rocking around in choppy waters before it was targeted by a US missile.
A huge explosion erupts and leaves the vessel up in flames.
Trump shared the video to his Truth Social account as he sent a direct warning to any drug traffickers.
He wrote in the caption: “These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests.”
“BE WARNED — IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!
“The illicit activities by these cartels have wrought DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American Citizens.
“NO LONGER.”
In a bizarre response Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed the footage shared by the US was actually made with artificial intelligence.
Maduro said: “The video shows modification by AI.
“Everybody knows it… I’m not Gemini. I’m Maduro. There’s a lot of mechanisms that say it.”
Trump and Maduro are locked in a bitter international feud after weeks of heated back and forth.
President Trump accused his Venezuelan counterpart of being complicit in “mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere”
He also slapped a $50million bounty on Maduro offered by Washington.
Maduro responded by saying he will never let Trump get away with his “threats of bombs, death, and blackmail”.
He also announced he is mobilising his nation’s military – claiming to have 2.5 million military personnel deployed to defend Venezuela.
President Maduro claimed: “Everyone knows that the story of drugs and drug trafficking is a plot.
“That’s the argument. They want regime change to seize the country’s wealth, to control the country’s oil reserves.”
Around 78,000 Americans died of drug overdoses between March 2024 to March 2025, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump has always claimed the figure is likely much higher and has vowed to prevent as many drug-related deaths as possible during his second term.
Just weeks ago, the Don blitzed another narco boat killing 11 on board.
On September 3, Trump claimed he attacked a boat full with drug-smuggling gangsters heading for American shores.
THE suspect accused of assassinating political activist Charlie Kirk has appeared in court hours after state prosecutors vowed to pursue the death penalty.
Tyler Robinson, 22, appeared stone-faced as he attended his first court hearing virtually and remained silent throughout the 12-minute proceeding.
Charlie Kirk speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on September 10 before he was assassinatedCredit: AP
Robinson, who wore a suicide prevention smock, showed no emotion as Judge Tony Graf read the slew of charges against him and when state prosecutors confirmed they had filed a notice seeking the death penalty.
Prosecutors charged Robinson with seven felonies, including aggravated murder, discharge of a firearm, and two counts of obstruction of justice, among other crimes.
Robinson nodded as the judge spoke to him and only spoke when asked to state his name for the record.
Judge Graf also granted a pretrial protective order for Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, that was filed by Utah County prosecutors.
The judge informed Robinson that he would remain in custody without bail.
It’s the first time Robinson has been seen in public since his parents turned him over to Washington County Sheriff’s officials 33 hours after Charlie Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Judge Graf set Robinson’s next hearing for September 29.
VILE ‘CONFESSION’
Robinson’s court hearing came hours after state prosecutors outlined the extensive evidence they collected in their case against the alleged assassin.
Jeffrey Gray, the Utah County attorney, revealed on Tuesday that Robinson’s DNA was found on the trigger of the rifle believed to have been used in Kirk’s assassination.
Kirk, a popular right-wing political activist, was minutes into his Q&A event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem when he was fatally struck in the neck by a single gunshot.
Hundreds of attendees fled in terror as Kirk’s team rushed him to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where he died hours later.
Gray said that Robinson wrote in one text message to his roommate that he had been planning to kill Kirk, 31, for “a bit over a week.”
In a series of text exchanges, Robinson allegedly confessed to his roommate, whom he had been romantically involved with, to killing Kirk.
“Drop what you’re doing. Look under my keyboard,” Robinson wrote to his roommate, according to court documents.
The note, according to prosecutors, read: ‘I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it.”
The roommate, who is cooperating with investigators, replied, “What?????????????? You’re joking. right????” adding, “You weren’t the one who did it right????”
Robinson allegedly responded, “I am, I’m sorry.”
‘ROBINSON’S DESPERATION’
Robinson allegedly said he used his grandfather’s distinct rifle, which he was given as a gift, and hid it in a bush as he fled the crime scene.
Prosecutors said Robinson was desperate to retrieve the rifle, but feared law enforcement had already swept the area.
“I can get close to it but there is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don’t wanna chance it,” Robinson texted his roommate, according to prosecutors.
“I’m wishing I had circled back and grabbed it as soon as I got to my vehicle…. I’m worried what my old man would do if I didn’t bring back grandpas rifle… idek if it had a serial number, but it wouldn’t trace to me.
“I worry about prints I had to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits. didn’t have the ability or time to bring it with…. I might have to abandon it and hope they don’t find prints.
“How the f**k will I explain losing it to my old man…. only thing I left was the rifle wrapped in a towel…. remember how I was engraving bullets?
“The f*****g messages are mostly a big meme, if I see ‘notices bulge uwu’ on fox new I might have a stroke alright im gonna have to leave it, that really f*****g sucks.”
Robinson then instructed his roommate to delete their text exchange.
FAMILY TURNS ROBINSON OVER
Gray, the Utah County attorney, said during a press conference on Tuesday that Robinson was first identified as the suspect thanks to his parents.
“Robinson’s mother expressed concern to her husband that the suspect shooter looked like Robinson,” Gray said.
His mother told investigators that “over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented,” the Utah County attorney added.
“GAZA is burning” Israel has said after another night of strikes blitzed the region.
The IDF warned residents to move south as Israel launched its ground operation in the famine-stricken city – and the US cautioned Hamas “time is running out” to make a deal.
Netanyahu has vowed to wipe out all the terroristsCredit: AFP
Israeli forces said the increased operation “to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure” has started after another night of heavy bombardment killed at least 20 people in northern Gaza.
The country’s Defence Minister Israel Katz announced “Gaza is burning”.
Roughly a million Palestinians were living in Gaza City before the evacuation warnings.
And over 220,000 have been forced to flee northern Gaza over the past month because of Israeli strikes.
Israel said it’s been urging Gaza locals to evacuate for the past month but charities warned Palestinians face “an impossible choice” – either flee and face dying of starvation on the road or stay and risk being killed by Israeli forces.
It comes as the UN today confirmed Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza since October 2023, with the “intent to destroy the Palestinians”.
An IPC report today said: “If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies and basic health, nutrition and [sanitation and water] services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.”
The war in Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned Hamas “time is running out” to make a deal, citing the dangers “an intensified” military campaign posed to the war-torn region.
Referencing a path to peace, he said he hoped “it can happen through negotiation”.
He said: “The Israelis have begun to take operations there. So we think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen.
“We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks so it’s a key moment — an important moment.
“Our preference, our No. 1 choice, is that this ends through a negotiated settlement.
“The only thing worse than a war is a protracted one that goes on forever and ever.
“At some point, this has to end. At some point, Hamas has to be defanged, and we hope it can happen through a negotiation. But I think time, unfortunately, is running out.”
Just yesterday, Israel launched a fresh ground offensive to occupy Gaza city.
Amid reports of the assault, Donald Trump claimed Hamas were moving hostages above ground “to use them as human shields”.
Posting on his Truth Social platform, he said: “I hope the Leaders of Hamas know what they’re getting into if they do such a thing.
“This is a human atrocity, the likes of which few people have ever seen before.
“Don’t let this happen or, ALL ‘BETS’ ARE OFF. RELEASE ALL HOSTAGES NOW!”
Netanyahu thanked Trump for his “unflinching support” for, what he calls, Israel’s battle against Hamas and the release of its hostages.
It’s understood 20 hostages remain under Hamas’ control.
The Israeli PM has been uncompromising in his determination to wipe out Gaza.
In the wake of his attack on Qatar, he warned any nations harbouring terrorists: “Expel them or bring them to justice.”
IT was a clash that had Capitol Hill buzzing – a fiery Senate showdown where FBI Director Kash Patel locked horns with Democrats and declared he was here to stay.
The tense back-and-forth played out Tuesday during Patel’s first appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee since taking over the bureau.
FBI Director Kash Patel clashed with Senate Democrats in a fiery hearing (stock)Credit: Getty
In Washington, the hearing quickly spiraled into a spectacle as Patel faced barrage of questions over his handling of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Senator Cory Booker went on to attack, predicting Patel’s days in office were numbered.
“Here’s the thing, Mr. Patel, I think you’re not gonna be around long, I think this might be your last oversight hearing,” Booker said.
“Because as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution, Donald Trump has shown us he is not loyal to people like you.”
Patel snapped back without hesitation.
“I am not going anywhere,” he fired back.
“If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on.”
The dramatic exhange came as Patel already faced heat for publicly misfiring on social media about the Kirk investigation.
Patel initially announced on X that the bureau had caught the shooter, only to later retract the claim.
Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, slammed Patel for rushing to claim credit.
“Mr. Patel was so anxious to take credit for finding Mr. Kirk’s assassin, that he violated one of the basics of effective law enforcement: at critical stages of an investigation shut up and let the investigators do their job,” Durbin blasted.
Authorities eventually arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson in Orem, Utah, after a tense manhunt lasting more than 24 hours.
Patel traveled to Utah alongside Governor Spencer Cox to announce the capture, but he was criticized for dining at Manhattan’s exclusive Rao’s restaurant the night of the shooting instead of heading straight to the scene.
President Donald Trump, pressed by reporters, deflected – first praising ally Pam Bondi before nodding to Patel’s role in Robinson’s arrest.
“Well first of all I think Pam Bondi has done an unbelievable job,” Trump said.
“And Kash, take a look at what he did with this horrible person that he just captured.”
But the firestorm didn’t stop with the Kirk case.
Patel also came under pressure over the bureau’s controversial July memo declaring that Jeffrey Epstein had no “client list” and died by suicide.
The unsigned document sparked outrage from lawmakers across the aisle and fueled fresh conspiracy theories.
Durbin pressed Patel on why the paper carried no signature.
“The memorandum had the insignia of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Patel said.
“And in our effort to secure transparency for the American people, because the three prior administrations had not done so, we conducted an exhaustive search… and we produced what was legally and permissibly able to be produced.”
Utah County’s district attorney has announced seven counts, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice for disposing of evidence, and witness tampering.
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey S. Gray speaks during a press conference about the charges and next steps in the case of Tyler Robinson, who is suspected of fatally shooting US right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an ally of US President Donald Trump, in Provo, Utah, US, September 16, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Jim Urquhart)
Utah prosecutors said on Tuesday (Sep 16) they will seek the death penalty for the suspect in conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination and revealed evidence including alleged text messages in which he confessed.
Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of firing a single rifle shot from a rooftop sniper’s nest that killed the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder on the campus of Utah Valley University last Wednesday.
“I had enough of his hatred,” Robinson told his roommate and romantic partner, according to court transcripts filed by prosecutors.
Utah County District Attorney Jeffrey Gray announced seven counts, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice for disposing of evidence, and witness tampering. He said the decision to seek the death penalty was made “independently, based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime”.
TEXTS TO ROOMMATE
Court documents show Robinson left a note under his keyboard: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” When confronted by his roommate, Robinson replied: “I am, I’m sorry.”
He allegedly told the roommate he had planned the attack for more than a week, wished he had retrieved the rifle afterward, and asked for texts to be deleted. DNA was later recovered on the trigger of the suspected murder weapon.
Robinson surrendered after his parents recognised him in gunman images and persuaded him to meet a retired sheriff’s deputy. Prosecutors say he told his roommate before surrendering: “I’m much more worried about you,” urging silence with police.
The roommate, who has not been identified, is cooperating.
POLITICAL VIOLENCE FEARS
Kirk, a prominent Trump ally, was addressing 3,000 people when he was shot, an event captured in graphic video that spread online.
The killing has fuelled fears of rising US political violence after last year’s two assassination attempts on Trump and the killing of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota.
The US Secretary of State thanked Qatar for its efforts to end the Gaza war and reiterated America’s support for the country’s security and sovereignty.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the Amiri Diwan in Doha on Sep 16, 2025. (Photo: Pool via AFP/Nathan Howard)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged strong support for Qatar’s security on a lightning visit on Tuesday (Sep 16), as anger boils in the Gulf ally over last week’s Israeli attack on Hamas negotiators.
On a hastily arranged stop in Doha after a visit to Israel, Rubio shook hands with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in his office before entering closed-door talks that lasted just under an hour.
He flew out straight after the meeting.
In Israel, he had pledged “unwavering support” even after it angered US allies in the Gulf by targeting Hamas negotiators in Doha.
“Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Qatar, and thanked Qatar for its efforts to end the war in Gaza and bring all hostages home,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.
Rubio “reiterated America’s strong support for Qatar’s security and sovereignty”, he added.
Rubio had earlier said the United States would work with Qatar to finalise a defence agreement soon despite the Israeli military action.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said his country appreciated US support for its mediation efforts, adding that “this attack, of course, expedited the need for renewed strategic defence agreements between us and the US”.
Rubio had earlier said he would “ask Qatar to continue to do what they’ve done”, adding that “if there’s any country in the world that could help end this through a negotiation, it’s Qatar”.
But Israel’s launch of its long-anticipated ground assault on Gaza City early on Tuesday left little scope for any new mediation bid.
Rubio’s visit also sought to reassure Qatar after the Israeli strikes undermined security pledges to the Gulf emirate from its key ally.
Rubio landed in Qatar a day after an Arab-Islamic summit in Doha condemned Israel for the strikes, with the head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council urging Washington to “use its leverage and influence” to rein in Israel.
President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “won’t be hitting” Qatar again.
Rubio made no such comments in Israel.
Netanyahu said his government assumes “full responsibility” for the attack on Doha “because we believe that terrorists should not be given a haven”.
One year after China’s aggressive property stimulus, prices are still falling in most cities – except Shanghai. Analysts explain why.
Shanghai skyline with The Bund on Jul 31, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Tan Wen Lin)
Buying a new apartment in Shanghai these days requires more than just cash – it takes stamina, luck – and sometimes a bit of theatre.
At a recent weekend launch of One Tian An Place, a mid-range project in the well-established Jinyuan area of Minhang, hopeful buyers queued, clutching numbered slips that determined the order they could enter to claim a unit before the red “sold” tags went up.
One successful buyer, who drew a lottery number well past 60, described the process as “a bit nerve-wracking” – but ultimately worth it.
“The (unit) floor was a bit lower than we expected but it doesn’t really matter as long as it doesn’t affect the lighting,” he wrote on Xiaohongshu on Sep 7, under the handle Zaoshuizaoqiba.
“Land prices keep rising,” he added. “We were really worried we might not be able to afford anything later. Since (the unit) was still under 100,000 yuan (US$14,042) per square metre, we just wanted to get on board quickly.”
“The earlier you buy, the more peace of mind you have.”
By the end of the day, sales agents reported around 90 per cent of units had been sold.
But for 33-year-old Andree Wu, also looking to buy in Shanghai, the search has been less successful.
Living in Putuo District with her husband, child and dog, she began house-hunting in February after giving birth, hoping to find a larger three to four-bedroom apartment.
Months later, she is still looking – even after raising her budget from 15 million yuan to 25 million yuan, opening the door to more choices.
“There are only houses that excel in one aspect but are very poor in another,” she told CNA.
“The house we really want just doesn’t exist.”
Still, Wu admitted the recent policy support played a role in stretching her budget.
“The lower mortgage rates made me more willing to raise my budget … Lower rates have reduced the pressure somewhat,” she said.
Both cases reflect the buyer enthusiasm fuelling Shanghai’s property market, where high-spec central projects are snapped up almost immediately.
On Jul 2, financial outlet Yicai reported that five mid- to high-end projects sold out on their first day.
But these frenzied sell-outs mask a deeper malaise.
Nearly a year after China launched its most aggressive property stimulus in decades, the housing market remains sharply bifurcated.
Pockets of buoyancy endure in luxury enclaves of Shanghai and a handful of top-tier cities.
Elsewhere, demand is anaemic.
Average new-home prices continue to edge down while land sales in fourth- and fifth-tier cities have plunged to their lowest levels since 2011.
China’s property market, once the country’s growth engine, now runs on two tracks – roaring at the top, stalling everywhere else.
The big bang package may not restore the property boom – only blunt the pain, analysts argue.
BIG BANG MEASURES – AND THEIR LIMITS
The September 2024 stimulus package was a sweeping attempt to turn the tide.
Beijing cut existing mortgage rates by 50 basis points, delivering savings to an estimated 50 million households.
Down-payments were standardised at 15 per cent for first and second homes.
A 300 billion yuan affordable housing re-lending facility was fully funded, while other measures ranged from “white list” financing to revitalising idle land and easing purchase curbs in mega-cities.
The measures, announced at a State Council press conference on Sep 24 last year, were aimed at clearing unsold inventory, reviving housing demand, and stabilising prices, according to the government’s official policy summary.
Yet the backlog keeps growing.
According to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of unsold new homes rose to 405 million square metres in August 2025, from 382 million square metres in July 2024.
“My sense is that (the measures) have almost zero impact (on moving the property market),” said Lin Han-Shen, China country director at The Asia Group.
“If I was to look at what the primary driver is to drive more purchases of property, it’s if the properties rise in price.”
“The Chinese are not deep value investors,” Lin said. “They do not buy when prices are low. They tend to buy when prices are going up.”
Wang Dan, China director at Eurasia Group, agreed. “There was not a single policy that has achieved any of the effects to reverse the housing cycle,” she told CNA.
“What the policies have been doing so far is basically to try to stimulate more of a demand among potential homebuyers,” she added.
“Housing prices are still going down – that’s why it didn’t work.”
Except for one city: Shanghai.
Standing out from the pack, the city posted a 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase in new-home prices in August, according to NBS data released on Sep 15.
Despite that, average prices across China’s four top-tier cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – still fell 0.9 per cent from a year earlier, as declines in the other three outweighed Shanghai’s gains.
In second-tier cities, prices fell 2.4 per cent, while third-tier cities saw a 3.7 per cent drop.
China’s new home prices
Analysts pointed out the misalignment between market hopes and Beijing’s intentions.
“There is a misperception in the market that the government wants the property market to recover. That is not true,” Lin explained.
“Certainly, the government does not want property to make up 30 per cent of GDP the way it used to,” Lin added.
“So if that’s the definition of recovery, that is not what the government desires. What it does desire is a stabilisation.”
Wang echoed the point, saying the central government “doesn’t believe that housing should be the main growth engine for China anymore”.
Citing how the Chinese leadership under President Xi Jinping believes the new engine should be productivity, Wang said: “The resources and the policy support are basically in those high-tech industries, emerging industries, manufacturing.”
China is therefore careful not to inflate another property bubble, instead focusing its measures on cushioning a drawn-out correction, analysts noted.
Lin put it this way: “The government knows three things have to happen. Market prices have to go down – but not too quickly. Developers have to consolidate – but not too quickly. Banks have to write off nonperforming loans – but not too quickly. So it’s a matter of buying time right now in the sector.”
NATIONAL PICTURE: SLUMP BEYOND TIER-ONE CITIES
“(The pricing) in tier-one (cities) is generally more resilient than tier-two and tier-three,” said Sam Xie, head of research for China at CBRE.
But even China’s largest cities are not immune.
“More people are selling in Beijing than buying. It actually would drag the housing prices down even faster,” said Wang.
Outside a few policy-induced bursts, most of China’s market remains in the doldrums.
Goldman Sachs in June estimated a cumulative 20 per cent drop in home prices from peak to trough – and expects another 10 per cent fall before stabilisation in 2027.
Investment has also cooled.
Total real-estate development between January and July reached 5.36 trillion yuan, with residential investment at 4.12 trillion yuan – far below the 6.09 trillion yuan and 4.62 trillion yuan recorded in the same period of 2024, and below the earlier highs, when real estate development investment peaked at 14.7 trillion yuan in 2021.
China’s land market, once a vital fiscal engine for local governments, has nearly ground to a halt in lower-tier cities.
Land transaction values hit decade-lows in third- to fifth-tier cities, the Financial Times reported, citing Wind data.
In the first half of 2025, fourth-tier cities generated just 87 billion yuan in land revenue, while fifth-tier cities brought in 51 billion yuan.
By contrast, state-owned developers focused on Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, helping push first-tier land sales up about 30 per cent in value from a year earlier, according to the Financial Times.
Amid the gloom, some buyers are returning not because of stimulus, but because prices have finally fallen within reach.
In Beijing, 30-year-old office worker Olivia Zhang and her husband bought their first home – a second-hand two-bedroom unit of about 60 to 70 square metres – in July, after prices fell to what they considered “reasonable”.
“Even though our salaries are higher now than a few years ago, the prices back then still felt unaffordable and not worth it. The price drop definitely encouraged us to buy,” Zhang said.
Their modest flat near Sihuidong station, between the Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads, cost 3 to 4 million yuan.
Buying second-hand was the only realistic choice.
“There are basically no new apartments (within the Fifth Ring) anymore,” Zhang said. New builds further out would have meant worse commutes.
“Since we’re young and both working, we prioritised a good location.”
It’s the kind of “old, small and shabby” place many end up buying within this budget.
Purchased as a marital home rather than an investment, Zhang added: “Whether prices go up or down doesn’t matter much to us.”
“We’ll keep living here, and we don’t plan to sell.”
While homeownership remains a prerequisite for marriage in many circles, expectations are evolving.
“With the younger generation … there’s a higher willingness to rent. It’s cheaper and they’re more mobile,” said Wang from Eurasia Group.
“They have to change up a lot,” she added. “So between different cities, it’s just easier if they rent homes.”
Yet the social norm is sticky. “If you want to get married, buying a home is still a robust requirement, especially from the women’s family,” she added.
As young people delay marriage, “the demand for housing is also later, and that is another downward pressure.”
Meanwhile, persistent oversupply continues to weigh on the market.
Developers are sitting on vast inventories, with Goldman Sachs estimating 30 trillion yuan worth of unsold homes.
New-home demand is projected to remain 75 per cent below its 2017 peak for years to come.
Even official efforts to clear the stock – such as through purchases by state-owned firms and local governments – have seen tepid results.
“No one is going to buy an overvalued asset, and everybody knows that those assets are overvalued,” Wang said. “So they’re not going to enter the market at this point.”
Lin from The Asia Group, attributes much of the inertia to a mismatch: “The inventory buildup versus the actual demand, that mismatch gap is going to continue to get wider.”
CBRE’s Xie noted that developers remain highly cautious in the current environment.
“They are primarily focused on land banking in tier-one and upper tier-two cities,” he said. “For lower-tier cities, the top priority is ensuring that overdue projects are completed and delivered.”
The divide is stark.
According to data, nationwide investment in residential development declined by 10.9 per cent year-on-year during the first seven months of 2025, while investment in Shanghai grew by 3.3 per cent over the same period.
Lin offered a telling example.
A personal trainer he knows – a young man with modest income – said he owned five apartments in Anhui, accumulated through a mix of inheritance and purchases over the years.
Yet he admitted he could never trade up into a city like Shanghai, even if he sold all five.
To Lin, this was symptomatic of a deeper glut in lower-tier cities, where demographic inheritance and limited mobility have locked properties into limbo.
“You are certainly seeing a tale of two cities,” he said – one of excess and stagnation in the hinterlands, and one of cautious recovery in wealthier urban cores.
In some places, prices barely matter – because homes simply aren’t changing hands.
“You don’t pay attention to prices anymore,” said Lin. “It’s just that the volume of transactions is frozen.”
China’s total new home sales value
Based on data from the 100 biggest real estate companies in China
While no second-tier city is experiencing anything close to a rebound, Wang noted that some are benefiting modestly from demographic shifts.
“Some cities like Chengdu and Changsha are attracting more of a reverse migration,” she said. “because many people, if they lose their jobs in Beijing and Shanghai, which was the case in the past few years, then they would return to some vibrant city in central China.”
“There is some support because of the population inflow for the local housing market (in cities experiencing reverse migration),” she said.
“But it’s not enough to really drive up housing prices simply because the supply is too high.”
OUTLIER CITY
If China’s market is still groping for a bottom, Shanghai, at least parts of it, has found a way to float.
Despite national price declines, buyer enthusiasm has swept across several well-located and high-end developments.
Especially popular are centrally located luxury towers and suburban homes built by trusted developers.
In both cases, tight supply and a deep pool of affluent local buyers are fuelling the frenzy.
That includes Kangding Garden in Jing’an District, which drew Wu’s attention.
Priced around 168,000 yuan per square metre, she joined the buyer lottery for the project’s third-phase sales – without success.
“For that project, apart from the price, I thought there were no drawbacks,” she said.
“If it completely meets my needs … even if I buy at a higher price, I don’t mind. I just treat that extra cost as consumption.”
Recent policy shifts have also fanned momentum.
In late August, Shanghai authorities scrapped per-household purchase limits outside the Outer Ring Road, where more than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock is located.
Residents can now buy an unlimited number of flats in these zones, up from a cap of two.
Mortgage rates for second homes were cut to 3.05 per cent, matching first-home rates for the first time.
Restrictions on non-locals were loosened too: since late 2024, buyers from other provinces need only 12 months of tax history in Shanghai, down from three years.
Yet Shanghai’s resilience is not evidence of a broad-based recovery.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Wang, when asked if this rebound might signal a national trend.
“Policymakers know that Shanghai is a different market … It is very lucky that people still view it as good, investable assets. But in the majority of China, this is not the case.”
“So Shanghai’s market is fundamentally different from the rest of the country,” Wang said.
“It is a safe asset.”
After four years of declining home prices, she explained, many Chinese believe the national market has yet to reach bottom – and are unwilling to buy into an overvalued asset without clear upside.
“Right now, the stock market is performing really well. Whoever entered the market since last September has made money,” Wang said.
“But if people have put money in housing as investment, then most people wouldn’t be able to make any money, or they will make a big loss.”
In contrast, she said, certain districts in Shanghai have bucked the trend.
“Since 2022 … the prices have even gone up,” she noted. “So it’s considered more as an investable asset rather than a place to live.”
Lin, at The Asia Group, attributed Shanghai’s divergence to structural forces.
“Rich people will always have capital to invest. And because of capital controls, it’s not easy to go outbound,” he said.
“Shanghai has the deepest pool of capital in China with such a concentration of the well-off. If they have to put their money somewhere, I can see some of it coming back into property.”
Even within Shanghai, however, this upturn is narrow and uneven.
Lin described “a much humbler aspiration” among ordinary households: “If the mass market is very concerned about prices going down for their property, then … we’re going to see much more modest consumption habits going forward.”
THE RIPPLE EFFECT – WHY IT MATTERS
The weakness in China’s property market is more than a drag on GDP – it carries social consequences.
For years, housing was a major social anchor – a prerequisite for marriage, a store of family wealth, a trigger for big-ticket consumption. Today, those assumptions are fraying.
Lin puts it down to a generational shift. “When I look at my students, their consumption preferences are quite a bit different than when I first came (to China) 20 years ago,” he said.
“They seem to aspire to experiential spending. And they seem to be less concerned in the accumulation of assets or goods, including property.”
Part of the reason, he suggests, is confidence they will eventually inherit property.
“If that is the case … where people are quite comfortable (and doing) experiential spending, and waiting for their property inheritances, it’s not a good sign for the outlook for future developers.”
Others are simply locked out. Even with home prices falling, many young Chinese still can’t afford to buy.
“The gap between purchasing power, the multiple of your salary, the number of years you had to save up to buy a property … it’s just still too wide for the vast majority of the younger generation,” Lin said.
Wang of Eurasia Group noted how consumption has changed. “Before 2022, the biggest portion of the household consumption is tied to apartments,” she said.
“So for an average Chinese family, if they didn’t buy a new apartment, there would be no big item consumption. Like the aircon, fridge, cars – these are tied with housing and also decoration.”
One apartment purchase, she noted, could trigger half a million yuan in related spending. Now, that ecosystem has atrophied.
“After the housing downturn, after 2022 … (household consumption) is mostly just (on) daily necessities, consumer goods, more services, more cultural goods, and tourism,” she said.
“You can (take) 2,000 trips, but still it doesn’t compare to buying one home and instead (spending) a million on decoration.”
Among the wealthy, trust in property as a “safe” asset has splintered.
“Those that were able to get into the property market earlier … they’re in a better capacity to enjoy the pleasures of their wealth through buying other luxury properties,” Lin said.
For them, purchases are driven by lifestyle aspirations.
“When you buy a property, it could be for a property to act as your pension. But I don’t think that’s the main driver for the richer class … for them, it’s still very much a quality of life, aspiration.”
For the vast majority, housing is no longer the cornerstone of financial security it once was, he said, adding that property is now just “one potential asset class among others” alongside gold and government bonds.
Meanwhile, local-government finances have weakened dramatically.
With land-sale revenue collapsing in lower-tier cities, budget gaps are widening.
“Every city, every county, every province has a sizeable budget gap that can no longer be filled by land sales,” Lin warned.
“And for the most part, issuing more debt is problematic as well. So they’re going to have more austerity.”
The global knock-on effects are still unfolding.
Fears of a Lehman-style crisis have faded, analysts noted, but a sluggish Chinese housing market will continue to ripple through global demand, commodity prices, and investor confidence.
“(The property sector) is going to continue to be a drag on the economy for at least the next five-plus years or so,” said Lin.
“But as long as it’s not a drag enough (and still) allow a transition to a technology-driven economy, that’s okay.”
“The government will do what it needs to just stabilise (the property market).”
That future, he suggests, may lie not in another property supercycle, but in a rotation of capital into tech, green energy and industrial upgrades.
“We’re starting to see some signals from the trigger of … technology driving the stock market,” Lin said.
“If China’s stock market continues to steadily go up … that will boost the wealth effect, and maybe help compensate and drive consumer spending.”
WAITING FOR THE BOTTOM
Few expect China to return to the old playbook.
Analysts suggest the current approach is longer-term and deliberately cautious – not to re-inflate a bubble but to manage a drawn-out adjustment.
Wang believes the sector’s role is being rewritten.
“The future of Chinese housing, I believe, is permanently lower prices than before,” she said.
“More homes need to be built in the future, but it wouldn’t be built in a similar fashion as before. A lot of the construction will be done by the state sector, by state-owned enterprises, instead of private businesses.”
With 2025 marking the final year of both the 14th Five-Year Plan and the “Made in China 2025” strategy, attention is turning to the Fourth Plenum expected in October – where senior leaders may clarify Beijing’s long-term posture.
And observers do not expect a dramatic shift.
“What (the government) does desire is a stabilisation,” Lin said.
“It’s a much more modest goal, but the market has not understood that yet.”
“They’re still looking for some form of bailout, still looking for some major form of stimulus … and that’s not likely around the corner.”
The teenagers, who were drunk, had posted a video of their act online
Two teenagers who peed into a pot of broth at a hotpot restaurant have been ordered to pay 2.2m yuan ($309,000; £227,000) to two catering companies in China.
The incident, which happened in February at a Shanghai branch of China’s biggest hotpot chain Haidilao, sparked widespread criticism after the 17-year-olds posted a video of their drunken act online.
There is no suggestion that anyone consumed the contaminated broth but Haidilao had offered to pay thousands of diners who dined at the restaurant in the days following the incident.
In March, Haidilao sought more than 23m yuan in losses, saying this took into account the amount it compensated customers over the incident.
Last Friday, a Shanghai court found that the teenagers had infringed upon the companies’ property rights as well as reputation through “acts of insult”, noting that their actions contaminated tableware and “caused strong discomfort among the public”.
It also found that the teens’ parents had “failed to fulfil their duty of guardianship” and ordered that they bear the compensation, state media reported.
This includes 2m yuan for operational and reputational damage, 130,000 yuan to one of the caterers for tableware losses and cleaning expenses, and 70,000 yuan in legal costs.
However the court ruled that any additional compensation Haidilao offered to its customers, beyond what they were billed, was a “voluntary business decision”, and therefore should not be borne by the teenagers.
Haidilao had offered to compensate more than 4,000 diners who visited the branch between 24 February – the date of their visit – and 8 March, both with a full refund and a cash compensation that is 10 times the amount they were billed.
Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her shocking endorsement of Zohran Mamdani, arguing Tuesday the socialist mayoral contender is the best candidate to fight Donald Trump.
New York City’s next mayor needs to “stand up” against Trump’s desire to lord over City Hall — and Mamdani fit that bill best out of the crowded mayoral field, Hochul argued during an unrelated event in a Hell’s Kitchen pharmacy.
“I could not have been crystal clearer,” she said, not very clearly.
“I need a mayor who understands that.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul argued Tuesday that Zohran Mamdani is the best mayoral candidate to fight President Trump. Robert Miller
Hochul’s bombshell backing of Mamdani on Sunday came after months of holding the Democratic nominee at arm’s length, and seemingly came with little-to-no concessions from the firebrand for the governor.
Her New York Times op-ed announcing the endorsement praised Mamdani’s commitment to affordability, but otherwise offered few specific reasons for her support — among them his commitment to fighting Trump.
A massive brawl erupted in suburban Long Island as 20 members of rival biker crews tangled in a bloody clash across two towns that left four people stabbed and seven facing rioting charges.
Round one of the throwdown erupted at 1683 Sports Bar & Grille in West Islip on Sunday afternoon before the crews dug in for more fighting at Phillips 66 gas station in Lindenhurst, police said.
In Lindenhurst, five miles away from the bar, round two of the fighting ballooned into a full-on street showdown — with blades drawn and blood splashing onto the street, a gas station attendant who witnessed the melee told The Post..
Multiple brawls took place across Suffolk County among rival biker crews, which led to four people being stabbed and seven individuals facing rioting charges. News 12 Long Island
Five men were taken to the hospital and were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Four had been stabbed, while another was left bloodied, bruised and battered with blunt force wounds all over his body and face, according to Suffolk cops.
Seven unidentified men were slapped with second-degree riot charges and handed desk appearance tickets, meaning none spent the night behind bars.
Detectives stressed the investigation is ongoing and said more serious charges — such as assault, weapons possession, or even attempted murder — could soon follow.
Scientists have identified the origins of the blue color in one of Jackson Pollock’s paintings with a little help from chemistry, confirming for the first time that the abstract expressionist used a vibrant, synthetic pigment known as manganese blue.
“Number 1A, 1948,” showcases Pollock’s classic style: paint has been dripped and splattered across the canvas, creating a vivid, multicolored work. Pollock even gave the piece a personal touch, adding his handprints near the top.
The painting, currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is almost 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide. Scientists had previously characterized the reds and yellows splattered across the canvas, but the source of the rich turquoise blue proved elusive.
In a new study, researchers took scrapings of the blue paint and used lasers to scatter light and measure how the paint’s molecules vibrated. That gave them a unique chemical fingerprint for the color, which they pinpointed as manganese blue.
The analysis, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first confirmed evidence of Pollock using this specific blue.
“It’s really interesting to understand where some striking color comes from on a molecular level,” said study co-author Edward Solomon with Stanford University.
The pigment manganese blue was once used by artists, as well as to color the cement for swimming pools. It was phased out by the 1990s because of environmental concerns.
Previous research had suggested that the turquoise from the painting could indeed be this color, but the new study confirms it using samples from the canvas, said Rutgers University’s Gene Hall, who has studied Pollock’s paintings and was not involved with the discovery.
“I’m pretty convinced that it could be manganese blue,” Hall said.
The researchers also went one step further, inspecting the pigment’s chemical structure to understand how it produces such a vibrant shade.
Scientists study the chemical makeup of art supplies to conserve old paintings and catch counterfeits. They can take more specific samples from Pollock’s paintings since he often poured directly onto the canvas instead of mixing paints on a palette beforehand.
After decades of scouring the bottom of Lake Michigan, searchers have finally found the wreckage of a “ghost ship” that sank during a ferocious storm almost 140 years ago off the Wisconsin coastline.
The Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association announced Monday that a team led by researcher Brendon Baillod found the wreck of the F.J. King. Baillod said in an email to The Associated Press that the wreckage was discovered on June 28.
According to the announcement, Baillod’s team found the ship off Bailey’s Harbor, a town of about 280 people on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, an outcropping of land jutting into Lake Michigan that gives the state its distinctive mitten-thumb shape.
The F. J. King was a 144-foot (43.89 meters), three-masted cargo schooner built in 1867 in Toledo, Ohio, to transport grain and iron ore. According to the historical society and archaeology association’s announcement, the ship ran into a gale off the Door Peninsula on Sept. 15, 1886, while moving iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago.
Waves estimated at 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 meters) ruptured her seams and after several hours of pumping Captain William Griffin ordered his men into the ship’s yawl boat. The schooner finally sank bow-first around 2 a.m., with the ship’s stern deckhouse blowing away in the storm, sending Griffin’s papers 50 feet into the air. A passing schooner picked up the crew and took them to Bailey’s Harbor.
Searchers have been trying to find the F.J. King since the 1970s but conflicting accounts of the ship’s location when it sank stymied their efforts. Griffin reported that the ship went down about 5 miles (8 kilometers) off Bailey’s Harbor but a lighthouse keeper reported seeing a schooner’s masts breaking the surface closer to shore. Commercial fishermen kept claiming to have brought up pieces of the wreckage in their nets, too. Shipwreck hunters scoured the area but came up empty. Over the years F.J. King developed a reputation among shipwreck hunters as a ghost ship.
Baillod believed that Griffin may not have known where he was in the darkness as the ship went down. He drew a 2-square-mile (5.17 square-kilometer) grid around the location the lighthouse keeper gave and proceeded to search it. Side-scan sonar uncovered an object measuring about 140 feet (42.6 meters) long less than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the lighthouse keeper’s location. It turned out to be the F.J. King.
“A few of us had to pinch each other,” Baillod said in the announcement. “After all the previous searches, we couldn’t believe we had actually found it, and so quickly.”
He said the hull appears to be intact, surprising searchers who expected to find it in pieces due to the weight of the iron ore the schooner was carrying.
This photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard shows damage on the Filipino fisheries vessel, the BRP Datu Gumbay Piang in the South China Sea on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Philippine Coast Guard via AP)
China’s coast guard accused a Philippine ship of deliberately ramming one of its vessels on Tuesday near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippines denied it, saying China’s forces used powerful water cannons that damaged its ship and injured a crew member.
A Chinese coast guard statement said more than 10 Philippine government ships coming from various directions entered the waters around the shoal, which is called Huangyan island in Chinese. It said it deployed water cannons against the vessels.
The encounter came six days after China announced it was designating part of Scarborough Shoal as a national nature reserve. The Philippine government, which calls the shoal Bajo de Masinloc, filed a diplomatic protest.
China and the Philippines have clashed repeatedly around outcroppings in the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. The two countries are among several that have competing claims to territory in the waters, which are of strategic importance and home to valuable fishing grounds.
The Philippine coast guard said two Chinese coast guard ships hit a Filipino fisheries vessel, the BRP Datu Gumbay Piang, with powerful water cannons for nearly 30 minutes “resulting in significant damage,” including in the captain’s cabin and the bridge. A glass window was shattered and injured a personnel while the deluge of water caused a short circuit that affected electrical outlets and five outdoor air-conditioning units, it said.
A Chinese navy warship also broadcast a radio notice “announcing live-fire exercises” at the shoal which caused panic among Filipino fishermen, said the Philippine coast guard.
The Philippine coast guard and fisheries ships were deployed to the shoal on Tuesday to provide fuel, water, ice and other aid to more than 35 fishing boats in the area.
Several friendly countries have backed the Philippines on the nature reserve.
A U.S. appeals court declined on Monday to allow Donald Trump to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook – the first time a president has pursued such action since the central bank’s founding in 1913 – in the latest step in a legal battle that threatens the Fed’s longstanding independence.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means that the administration only has hours to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if it hopes to block Cook from attending the Fed’s policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday where it is expected to cut U.S. interest rates to shore up a cooling labor market.
The White House on Tuesday said it planned to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
“The President lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause. The Administration will appeal this decision and looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.
The D.C. Circuit denied the Justice Department’s request to put on hold a judge’s order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb had ruled on September 9 that Trump’s claims that Cook committed mortgage fraud before taking office, which Cook denies, likely were not sufficient grounds for removal under the law that created the Fed.
The decision was 2-1, with Circuit Judges Bradley Garcia and J. Michelle Childs in the majority, both of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, dissented.
In an opinion joined by Childs, Garcia wrote that Cook is likely to prevail on her claim that she has been denied due process in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
“Before this court, the government does not dispute that it provided Cook no meaningful notice or opportunity to respond to the allegations against her,” the judge wrote.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Fed, which had no comment on the ruling, has not made any legal arguments in the case. It has asked the courts for a swift resolution of the matter, and has said it will abide by any court ruling.
Cook’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, the Senate on Monday night narrowly confirmed Trump’s nominee to a recently vacated seat on the Fed board. The largely party-line 48-47 vote means that it is likely that Stephen Miran, currently chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, will also participate in this week’s rate-setting meeting alongside Cook.
FOR CAUSE
In setting up the Fed, Congress included provisions to shield the central bank from political interference. Under the law that created the Fed, its governors may be removed by a president only “for cause,” though the law does not define the term nor establish procedures for removal. No president has ever removed a Fed governor, and the law has never been tested in court.
In Monday’s opinion, Garcia wrote that because Cook’s due process claim was “very likely meritorious”, there was no need for the court to address the meaning of ‘for cause’ at this point in the case.
Dr. Lisa DeNell Cook, of Michigan, nominated to be a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, speaks before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/Pool/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, sued Trump and the Fed in late August. Cook has said the claims did not give Trump the legal authority to remove her and were a pretext to fire her for her monetary policy stance.
The Trump administration has argued that the president has broad discretion to determine when it is necessary to remove a Fed governor, and that courts lack the power to review those decisions.
The case has ramifications for the Fed’s ability to set interest rates without regard to the wishes of politicians, widely seen as critical to any central bank’s ability to function independently to carry out tasks such as keeping inflation under control.
Trump this year has demanded that the Fed cut rates aggressively, berating Fed Chair Jerome Powell for his stewardship over monetary policy. The Fed, focusing on fighting inflation, has not done so, though it is expected this week to make a cut.
The Supreme Court this year has allowed Trump to proceed with the removal of various officials serving on federal agencies that had been established by Congress as independent from direct presidential control.
But in a May order in a case involving Trump’s dismissal of two Democratic members of federal labor boards, the Supreme Court signaled that it views the Fed as distinct from other executive branch agencies. It said the Fed “is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity” with a singular historical tradition.
Unlike other members of regulatory boards that the Supreme Court allowed Trump to remove, Cook’s protection from at-will removal distinguished her case, Garcia wrote in Monday’s opinion.
The Trump administration in a court filing on Thursday had asked the D.C. Circuit to move quickly so that Trump could remove Cook before the Fed’s policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Administration lawyers said that allowing the president to fire Cook would “strengthen, not diminish, the Federal Reserve’s integrity.”
Cook’s lawyers in a filing in response said removing Cook ahead of the meeting would impact U.S. and foreign markets, and that the public interest in keeping her in office outweighed Trump’s efforts to take control of the Fed.
In his dissenting opinion, Katsas said there was a greater risk of harm to the Trump administration than there was to Cook in leaving her in her job while the appeal played out.
“Moreover, the Board of Governors no doubt is important, but that only heightens the government’s interest in ensuring that its Governors are competent and capable of projecting confidence into markets,” Katsas wrote.
In blocking Cook’s removal, Cobb had found that the “best reading” of the 1913 law is that it only allows a Fed governor to be removed for misconduct while in office. The mortgage fraud claims against Cook all relate to actions she took prior to her U.S. Senate confirmation in 2022.
Trump and his appointee William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, have claimed that Cook inaccurately described three separate properties on mortgage applications, which could have allowed her to obtain lower interest rates and tax credits.
A loan estimate for an Atlanta home purchased by Cook shows that she had declared the property as a “vacation home,” according to a document reviewed, by Reuters, information that would appear to undercut the allegations against her. And the property tax authority in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said in response to a Reuters inquiry that Cook has not broken rules for tax breaks on a home there that Cook had declared her primary residence.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong, Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang and Deputy Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China Wang Jingtao hold a press conference on the day of U.S.-China talks on trade, economic and national security issues, in Madrid, Spain, September 15, 2025. REUTERS/Louiza Vradi Purchase Licensing Rights
China on Wednesday called the framework deal reached in Madrid to switch short-video app TikTok to U.S.-controlled ownership a “win-win” and said it would review TikTok’s technology exports and intellectual property licensing, in a state media editorial.
Investors on both sides of the Pacific are now waiting for a call scheduled for Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the agreement should be confirmed.
Progress over the popular social media app – which counts 170 million U.S. users – is seen as key to facilitating further talks in the coming months as the world’s two largest economies chart a path beyond their current tariff truce.
Reuters has reported that the deal, transferring TikTok’s U.S. assets to U.S. owners from China’s Bytedance, is similar to an agreement worked out earlier this year, but which was shelved after Trump announced steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
“China reached the relevant consensus with the United States on the TikTok issue because it is based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” the official People’s Daily said in a commentary.
Pakistan on Tuesday faced fresh embarrassment as Japan has accused it of attempting human trafficking through a fake football team.
Pakistan Embarrassed as Japan Uncovers Fake Football Squad
Amid the cricket-related handshake controversy with India, Pakistan faced fresh embarrassment on Tuesday as Japan issued a warning over allegations that it had sent a “fake” football team. The bogus football team was deported from Japan after authorities alleged a possible human-trafficking attempt. The group carried forged documents and falsely claimed to be players from a fictitious Sialkot team.
According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Malik Waqas, a key suspect in the human smuggling scam, registered a football club under the name ‘Golden Football Trial’. According to a report by Pakistani news agency Geo News, Waqas, a human trafficker, received Rs 4 million from each individual to send them abroad via illegal means.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reported that 22 individuals posing as a football team departed from Sialkot airport for Japan, where authorities discovered their documents were fraudulent and promptly deported them.
According to a PIA spokesperson, the individuals were coached to appear as professional football players. The spokesperson added that Waqas had arranged forged documents, including fake Pakistan Football Federation registrations and counterfeit papers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, the FIA arrested Waqas and opened an investigation. During questioning, he admitted to previously sending 17 people to Japan in January 2024 using the same scheme.
Pakistan remains in the spotlight over a cricket spat with India following a crushing loss in the ongoing Asia Cup. Tensions between the two nations surfaced on the field when players skipped handshakes before and after their match in Dubai.
According to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), match referee Andy Pycroft of Zimbabwe asked both captains — India’s Suryakumar Yadav and Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha — not to shake hands during the coin toss on Sunday, September 14.
In a late-night statement released in Urdu, the PCB condemned Pycroft’s directive as “against sportsmanship’ and said team manager Naveed Akram Cheema registered a formal protest with the International Cricket Council, which has yet to comment publicly.
Notably, the cricket match was the first between India and Pakistan since the Pahalgam attack in April. In the post-match presentation ceremony, captain Suryakumar Yadav said that he and Team India stand by I the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and their families. He even dedicated the massive win to the Indian Army.
Leaders of Arab and Islamic nations pushed for an “Arab Nato” in a meeting of over 40 Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Turkey. Egypt, which has the Arab world’s largest army, pitched it as a collective defence shield.
During the Doha Summit, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged the creation of an Arab-Islamic task force to keep in check Israeli expansionist designs. (AFP Image)
On Monday, scores of leaders from Arab and Islamic nations rushed to Doha, for an emergency meeting to present a united response to Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar there last week. Although the leaders differed on the way forward and settled on only minimal action against Israel, a more concrete outcome may be that they have set in motion the emergence of an Arab military alliance.
The proposed alliance, dubbed “Arab Nato” by Egypt, which has the Arab world’s largest army, came at the meeting in Qatar attended by Pakistan and Turkey.
Pakistan, the only nuclear-armed Muslim state, not only attended the emergency summit but also called for a joint task force to “monitor Israeli designs in the region”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was also present at the Summit, called for an “economic squeezing of Israel”.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani also batted for a Nato-style collective security framework, stressing that “the security and stability of any Arab or Islamic country is an integral part of our collective security”.
The decade-old initiative, launched by Saudi Arabia after the Arab Spring, announced the formation of a 34-nation Islamic alliance against terrorism. That plan is now being fast-tracked following Israel’s airstrike on Doha, as Donald Trump’s US is busy revisiting its security engagement terms with allies worldwide.
The emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha, convened by Qatar on Monday, also marks a big moment in Middle Eastern geopolitics and security, with Egypt’s renewed push for a Nato-like collective defence mechanism.
First proposed by Cairo at the 2015 Arab League Summit in Sharm El Sheikh amid the Yemen conflict and the rise of ISIS, the idea of a joint Arab force has long languished due to sovereignty concerns, regional rivalries, and logistical hurdles.
However, Israel’s unprecedented airstrike on Doha, which killed five low-ranking Hamas members and a Qatari security officer, has breathed new life into the concept.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, leveraging his country’s status as home to the Arab world’s largest military (over 4.5 lakh active personnel), has positioned Cairo as the alliance’s nerve centre.
HOW EGYPT IS PROPOSING THE ARAB NATO
Reports indicate Egypt is offering to contribute up to 20,000 troops initially, with the headquarters of the “Arab Nato” in Cairo and an Egyptian four-star general as the inaugural commander. The force would rotate leadership among the 22 Arab League members, incorporating land, air, naval, and commando units, alongside integrated training and logistics.
Saudi Arabia is eyed as a principal partner for the deputy command role, potentially drawing in Gulf states like the UAE and Bahrain for funding and advanced capabilities.
The proposal frames itself as a “defensive umbrella” rather than an offensive pact against Israel. It aims to deter security threats and terrorism or anyone who poses a threat to the Arab world’s safety and stability.
At the summit on Monday, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani lambasted the Israeli attack as “blatant, treacherous, and cowardly,” accusing it of sabotaging US-backed Gaza ceasefire talks. While the joint statement urged reviewing diplomatic ties with Israel and pursuing legal action, the real momentum lies in military integration.
ARAB NATO IS MORE TALK THAN ACTION: EXPERTS
Analysts note that the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) pledge to activate its joint defence pact could serve as a foundational layer, with broader Arab participation expanding its scope.
However, the case for an “Arab Nato” did not see a concrete outcome as member states produced only condemnations and vague pledges instead of binding commitments. It basically lacked teeth. While Egypt is backing an “Arab Nato”, Shia Iran is looking to give it a broader Islamic look.
Egyptian-American author Hussein Aboubakr Mansour said the Doha summit exposed deep divisions, and yielded symbolism, not substance.
“The fact that the Arab Nato is Egypt’s idea and the Muslim Nato is Iran’s, tells you everything about the delusional, thinly veiled pyramid scheme and what other countries think about. The Saudis would rather fund the Iron Dome before giving protection money to either Egypt or Iran,” Aboubakr Mansour said on X.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in the U.K. Tuesday for a two-day state visit that aims to show the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong, despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.
It’s the sort of experience you just can’t buy.
The carriages are being polished, the family silver is being laid out, and diamonds are being dusted off as King Charles III prepares to offer a royal welcome to Donald Trump for what will be the highlight of the U.S. president’s unprecedented second state visit to Britain.
Hundreds of soldiers, gardeners and chefs are putting the finishing touches on their preparations to make sure the president and first lady Melania Trump get the full royal treatment. But it’s a spectacle with a purpose: to bolster ties with a world leader known for a love of bling at a time when his America First policies are putting pressure on trade and security arrangements globally.
The second leg of the visit will take place on Thursday, when Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meet at Chequers, the 16th-century redbrick mansion in the Chiltern Hills northwest of London that serves as the official country estate of British prime ministers. The government hopes a technology deal to be signed during the trip will underline the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of NATO.
The backdrop for day one will be Windsor Castle, an almost 1,000-year-old royal residence with gilded interiors, crenelated towers and priceless artworks.
It’s a scene that has seemed to enchant Trump, who ditched his trademark bluster and described the invitation to Windsor as “a great, great honor.”
“I think that also is why he seems so visibly excited about the second meeting, because it isn’t an invitation given to (just) anyone,” said George Gross, an expert on the British monarchy at King’s College London.
Trump said Tuesday after arriving in London that he loved being back in the United Kingdom, calling it a “very special place.” Asked if he had a message for Charles, he said the king was a longtime friend of his and well-respected.
While Britain’s royals long ago gave up real political power, their history, tradition and celebrity give them a cachet that means presidents and prime ministers covet an invitation to join them. That makes the invitations, handed out at the request of the elected government, a powerful tool to reward friends and wring concessions out of reluctant allies.
State banquet
No U.S. president, or any other world leader, has ever had the honor of a second U.K. state visit. That won’t be lost on a president who often describes his actions with superlatives and has made no secret of his fondness for the British royals.
The day will begin when the king and Queen Camilla formally welcome the Trumps to Windsor Castle.
That will be followed by a horse-drawn carriage ride through the estate — 6,400 hectares (15,800 acres) of farms, forest and open space that includes a one-time royal hunting ground which is still home to 500 red deer.
Back at the castle, a military band will play “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Trump and the king inspect an honor guard of soldiers in traditional scarlet tunics and tall bearskin hats.
After a private lunch and a visit to an exhibit of documents and artwork illustrating the ties between Britain and the U.S., it will be time for the glitz and glamour of a state banquet.
Tiaras and medals will be on display as up to 160 guests in formal wear gather around a 50-meter long mahogany table set with 200-year-old silver to honor the president. Charles will deliver a speech, then the king and president will offer toasts.
Trump won’t, however, have the chance to address a joint session of Parliament as French President Emmanuel Macron did in July during his state visit, because the House of Commons is in recess. The president also missed out on that honor during his first state visit amid opposition from then-Speaker of the House John Bercow.
Robert Redford, the director, actor, and activist has died at his home in Utah. Redford rose to fame in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men.”
Redford was the godfather for independent cinema as Sundance founder [FILE: February 22, 2019]Image: Nasser Berzane/ABACA/picture allianceRobert Redford, the Oscar-winning director, and actor, has died at the age of 89.
Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah, the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” his publicist Cindi Berger said.
He passed away in his sleep at his home in the mountains of Utah, according to his publicist Cindi Berger.
Redford rose to fame in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men,” using his star power to spotlight American culture and politics.
He later became a champion of independent cinema and was a vocal advocate for environmental causes.
Sundance Kid becomes indie champion
Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, Redford has always been independently minded. His fame and success never drove him from one Hollywood party to the next.
Redford focused on doing his own thing, by consciously choosing roles that had meaning for him, as well as the directors he worked with.
Initially written off as “just another California blond,” Redford defied expectations with his rugged charisma and enduring appeal, becoming one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men and a beloved global icon for over 50 years.
Redford was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s with such films as “The Candidate,” “All the President’s Men” and “The Way We Were.”
Redford capped off the decade with the best director Oscar for 1980’s “Ordinary People,” which also won best picture that same year.
His roles ranged from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, a mountain man in “Jeremiah Johnson,” and a double agent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He used the money from his acting to co-found the Sundance Institute for aspiring independent filmmakers, from which the renowned annual film festival gets its name.
“The industry was pretty well controlled by the mainstream, which I was a part of. But I saw other stories out there that weren’t having a chance to be told and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can commit my energies to giving those people a chance.’ As I look back on it, I feel very good about that,” Redford told the Associated Press in 2018.
Tributes to Redford pour in
Actor Marlee Matlin was one of the first to pay tribute to Redford, stating that her Oscar-winning film “Coda” would never have received the attention it did without the Sundance festival.
“Our film, CODA, came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance. And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed,” she wrote on X.
Meryl Streep, who starred with Redford in “Out of Africa,” said in a statement, “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
Superman Director James Gunn said he grew up with Redford’s movies.
“He was THE movie star, and will be greatly missed,” he wrote on Instagram.
A committed environmental activist, Redford also fought to preserve the natural landscape and resources of Utah, where he lived.
Former US President Barack Obama awarded Redford the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, saying he was admired not just for his acting, “but for having figured out what to do next.”
“He has supported our National Parks and our natural resources as one of the foremost conservationists of our generation,” Obama said at the time.
The United States, South Korea and Japan are holding air and naval exercises off a South Korean island. Pyongyang has condemned it as a “reckless muscle-flexing.”
The Iron Mace exercises involving US and South Korean troops are being held for the third time after drills in August 2024 and April this year (File: April 26, 2017)Image: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP
South Korea and the United States on Monday commenced Iron Mace, a military drill that aims to explore ways to integrate Washington’s nuclear and South Korea’s conventional capabilities to bolster deterrence against North Korean threats.
The tactical exercise is taking place at Camp Humphreys, the primary base for US forces in South Korea.
It is designed to improve the responses of allied forces and reinforce deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
“I do not think the timing of Iron Mace is in response to any particular event, but it is an overdue exercise to learn effective ways to prevent and counter a possible North Korean nuclear threat,” said Chun In-bum, a retired lieutenant general in the South Korean army and now a senior fellow with the National Institute for Deterrence Studies.
“And even though we may not be able to link these exercises with a single event in the North, it is clear that the North is becoming increasingly militarily capable and the alliance needs to be prepared for a possible nuclear scenario on the peninsula in order to prevent it,” he told DW.
How did North Korea react?
The Iron Mace exercise is being held for the third time after drills in August 2024 and April this year, with each version expanding in scale and complexity, although the militaries of both South Korea and the US are keeping the operational details secret.
The drill coincides with another exercise called Freedom Edge 25, a three-way air and maritime exercise involving units from the US, South Korea and Japan in waters off eastern and southern Korea.
The maneuvers will include air defense exercises, medical evacuation, maritime interdiction and stepping up ballistic missile defense capabilities.
The maneuvers have clearly agitated the North Korean government.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, condemned the exercises.
“Reckless muscle-flexing by the US, Japan and South Korea in the wrong location … will definitely bring about unfavorable consequences,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying.
She added that Pyongyang would consider the exercises as a “display” and a continuation of the confrontational stance adopted by successive governments in Seoul.
Strengthening the alliance between Seoul and Washington
North Korean state media also played up reports of Kim Jong Un attending the ground test of a new high-thrust solid-fuel engine for a new generation of advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles that is made of composite carbon fiber, with the North Korean leader declaring the breakthrough a “significant change” in enhancing the nation’s nuclear forces.
The North is suspected to be making strides on the development of the Hwasong-20 ICBM, which was first revealed this month.
Analysts suggest that it is being manufactured in part due to technological assistance provided by Russia.
Kim Sang-woo, a former politician with the left-leaning South Korean Congress for New Politics and now a member of the board of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation, said that the Iron Mace and Freedom Edge drills are critical in reinforcing the alliance between Seoul and Washington.
“Former [South Korean] President Yoon Suk Yeol went to Camp David with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in August 2023, they agreed on the creation of a nuclear consultative group, which was the US guarantee to increase its nuclear umbrella when North Korea became more aggressive and its capabilities were enhanced,” he told DW.
“The agreement at Camp David was the counterbalance to the North and in part it was meant to try to reassure the South that it did not need to develop its own nuclear capabilities because the US would protect it,” he added.
Kyiv’s defense intelligence said operatives attacked a $40 million Buk-M3 anti-aircraft missile system. Meanwhile, Moscow is calling a drone intrusion in Romania a provocation from Ukraine. DW has more.
Ukraine’s military said a special forces unit targeted the Russian weapons system, like the ones seen here on parade, and destroyed it in the occupied Zaphorizhzhia regionImage: Evgenia Novozhenina/REUTERS
Poland detains Belarusians after drone detected at government sites
Two Belarusian citizens were detained after a drone was spotted over Polish government buildings, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
Poland’s State Protection Service has successfully neutralized a drone, Tusk wrote on X.
The drone was reported over several government buildings, including Belweder Palace, one of the official residences of the Polish president.
US military officers welcomed as observers at Russia-Belarus drills
US military officers attended the joint military drills between Russia and Belarus on Monday.
Russia and Belarus began the joint military Zapad-2025 exercise on Friday amid heightened tension with NATO, after Polish and other NATO aircraft shot down Russian drones in Poland’s airspace.
“Who would have thought how the morning of another day of the Zapad-2025 exercise would begin?” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
It added that representatives from 23 countries were at the training ground, including two other NATO member states — Turkey and Hungary.
In a video, two uniformed US officers thanked Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin for the invitation and shook his hand.
“We will show whatever is of interest to you. Whatever you want. You can go there and see, talk to people,” Khrenin told the US officers, who declined to talk to reporters.
The visit could be seen as another sign of warming ties between Washington and Russia.
Ukraine: Life in a mined village
Hundreds of thousands of mines lie hidden in the village of Kamianka in eastern Ukraine. Despite the danger, some want to stay and rebuild their homes.
UK summons Russian ambassador over NATO airspace violations
Britain has summoned Moscow’s ambassador following what the foreign office called “Russia’s unprecedented violation of NATO airspace.”
“Significant and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian drones last week — followed by a further incursion into Romanian airspace on Saturday — was utterly unacceptable,” a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said in a statement.
“The UK stands united with Poland, Romania, Ukraine and our NATO Allies in unreservedly condemning these reckless actions, “the spokesperson said.
Poland managed to shoot down Russian drones last Wednesday in the first known action of its kind by a NATO member during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Days later, Romania scrambled warplanes when a Russian drone breached its airspace.
“The response of NATO forces demonstrates the seriousness with which NATO is treating Russia’s actions,” the UK foreign office statement said, adding that NATO allies were bolstering defenses along the eastern flank, using counter-drone sensors and weapons.
Various Russian diplomats have been summoned over the incidents.
Cluster munitions caused over 1,200 civilian casualties in Ukraine
Switzerland-based campaign group the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor said that cluster munitions have caused over 1,200 civilian casualties in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
“There continue to be attacks impacting civilian areas and residential buildings. Individual attacks…have killed dozens of civilians and left hundreds injured,” said Michael Hart, Cluster Munition Monitor Research Specialist.
Cluster munitions can cause severe injuries and have continued to be used by both sides during the conflict, particularly Russia.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine is party to the 2008 convention which bans the munitions.
Over 120 countries ban cluster bombs because they can kill indiscriminately over a wide area and are known to cause civilian casualties.
Cluster munitions are deployed from the ground or by aircraft and explode mid-air, spraying smaller bomblets over large areas.
Campaigners are particularly concerned about unexploded bombs that remain on the battlefield long after a conflict ends.
The munitions monitor highlighted that Lithuania became the first country ever, to withdraw from the treaty in March 2025, citing regionalsecurity concerns for doing so.
Memphis recorded one of the highest homicide rates of any US city with a population of at least 100,000 last year, according to FBI data.
Donald Trump was joined on Monday by Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who is backing the president’s move.(Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump approved a National Guard deployment to Memphis, expanding the federal government’s efforts to crack down on what he has cast as out-of-control crime in Democratic-run cities.
“I’m signing a presidential memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force, and it’s very important because of the crime that’s going on,” Trump said at the White House on Monday as he approved sending troops to the city.
“We’re going to be doing Chicago probably next,” Trump said, citing another city he has claimed is beset with violence and disorder, and added that he was looking at St. Louis and New Orleans as well.
Trump said the Memphis deployment would include the National Guard, in addition to the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security officials and US Marshals. And he indicated that additional cities could also see federal resources deployed.
The president likened the Memphis deployment to his efforts in Washington, DC, where he has placed the local police department under federal control and ordered National Guard troops into the capital.
“This task force will be a replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts here,” Trump said.
Trump was joined on Monday by Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who is backing the president’s move.
“We are very hopeful and excited about the prospect of moving that city forward. I’ve been in office seven years, I’m tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back,” Lee said.
The new deployment highlights how Trump is moving ahead with his plans to expand the use of the military to implement his policies, including an immigration crackdown, even as the legality of those moves is being challenged in court.
Memphis recorded one of the highest homicide rates of any US city with a population of at least 100,000 last year, according to FBI data. The city’s location in Tennessee, a state with a Republican governor, also sets up the prospect of more cooperation from state and local authorities, in contrast to the opposition Trump has faced from other cities in Democratic-controlled states.
Trump has been touting his plans for Memphis, promising a “no crime ‘miracle’” for the city. Trump has also regularly assailed other cities, including Chicago, Baltimore and San Francisco. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have staunchly opposed such a move and vowed to challenge it in the courts.
Asked how he could send troops into Chicago without the assistance of officials in the city or state, Trump said that if he received their cooperation “that’s good” but added “if they don’t, it’s not going to matter to us,” suggesting that the police in the city would be on the side of the administration.
“You know, who wants to help us? The police department, they have no respect for the governor. They have no respect for the mayor,” he added. “They respect us. And we found that in Washington, you know, we haven’t had total support in Washington from government.”
Trump earlier this year deployed the National Guard and US Marines to the Los Angeles area after protests over immigration raids, a move he made despite the opposition of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom. A US district court judge on Sept. 2 ruled that the deployment violated federal law and issued an order barring the use of military troops in California “to execute the laws.”
Trump on Sunday night escalated his threats against Washington, saying he was prepared to “call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary” the capital’s law enforcement again if city officials did not cooperate with ICE. An emergency declaration for the city came to an end, but National Guard troops are set to remain in the city through November.
File photo of fighter jets performing a flypast over Buckingham Palace in London on Thursday, June 2, 2022. (Photo: AP/Paul Ellis)
UK fighter jets will join a NATO operation over Poland to help defend the alliance’s eastern flank after Russian drones entered Polish airspace last week, the defence ministry said Monday (Sep 15).
“British fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland to counter aerial threats from Russia, including drones,” the ministry said in a statement, adding the missions by RAF Typhoons would start “in the coming days”.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said Friday the alliance would reinforce the defence of its eastern flank following a Russian drone raid into Polish airspace.
Poland and its NATO allies last week scrambled jets to shoot down Russian drones over allied airspace for the first time since the war in Ukraine started three-and-a-half years ago.
And on Saturday, Romania became the latest NATO member state to report a drone incursion, as Poland also scrambled aircraft in response to fresh Russian drone strikes just over the border in Ukraine.
“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a direct threat to European security and a violation of international law,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.
He said the “aircraft are not just a show of strength, they are vital in deterring aggression” as well as securing NATO airspace and protecting the UK’s national security.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a Sep 17 deadline to reach a deal could be extended by 90 days to allow the deal to be finalised.
Teenagers pose for a photo while holding smartphones in front of a TikTok logo in this illustration taken on Sep 11, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)
United States and Chinese officials said on Monday (Sep 15) they have reached a framework agreement to switch short-video app TikTok to US-controlled ownership that will be confirmed in a Friday call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The potential deal on the popular social media app, which counts 170 million US users, was a rare breakthrough in months-long talks between the world’s number one and number two economies that have sought to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.
After a meeting with Chinese negotiators in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a Sep 17 deadline that could have disrupted the popular social media app in the US encouraged Chinese negotiators to reach a potential deal.
He said that the deadline could be extended by 90 days to allow the deal to be finalised, but declined to discuss specifics of the deal.
Bessent said that when commercial terms of the deal are revealed, it will preserve cultural aspects of TikTok that Chinese negotiators care about.
“They’re interested in Chinese characteristics of the app, which they think are soft power. We don’t care about Chinese characteristics. We care about national security,” Bessent told reporters at the conclusion of two days of talks.
Trump, when asked if China would hold a stake in the company, told reporters, “We haven’t decided that but it looks to me, and I’m speaking to President Xi on Friday, for confirmation of that.”
It is the second time this year that the two sides have said they were nearing a TikTok deal. The earlier announcement in March ultimately did not pan out.
Any agreement could require approval by the Republican-controlled Congress, which passed a law in 2024 requiring divestiture due to fears that TikTok’s US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app.
But the Trump administration has repeatedly declined to force a shutdown, which could anger the app’s millions of users and disrupt political communications. Trump has credited the app with helping him win re-election last year, and his personal account has 15 million followers. The White House launched an official TikTok account last month.
“A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Bessent did not say whether parent company ByteDance would transfer control of the app’s underlying technology to the unnamed US buyer. Wang Jingtao, an official at the Chinese cyberspace regulator, said the deal could license intellectual property rights, including algorithms.
Aside from TikTok, the US has cited national security concerns to block shipments of semiconductors and other advanced technology to China, and ban Chinese products that Washington has concluded could be used to spy on Americans or gather intelligence.
China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters that those concerns amounted to “unilateral bullying.”
“The United States cannot on the one hand ask China to take care of its concerns, and on the other hand continue to suppress Chinese companies,” Li said.
Li said the two sides had reached a “basic framework consensus” on resolving TikTok-related issues – a slight variation from the language used by the US side.
The US-China meeting at the Spanish foreign ministry’s baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz was the fourth round of talks in four months to address strained trade ties as well as TikTok’s divestiture deadline.
Delegations led by Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng have met in European cities since May to try to resolve a trade war that has seen tit-for-tat tariff hikes and a halt in the flow of rare earths to the United States.
Nepal’s prime minister on Monday selected three new ministers to join her interim administration, which is tasked with holding fresh elections in March after violent street protests last week led to the collapse of the previous government.
Sushila Karki, the Himalayan country’s first female prime minster, appointed Kalman Gurung as energy minister, Rameshore Khanal as finance minister and Om Prakash Aryal as home minister.
Karki, 73, was named prime minister on Sept. 12. She was a popular figure while serving as the Supreme Court’s chief justice in 2016 and 2017, and was known for standing against corruption in the government.
Last week’s massive demonstrations — called the protest of Gen Z — ended with at least 72 people killed and hundreds wounded. The army stepped in to impose a curfew and finally agreed to make Karki the head of an interim government that will hold elections in six months.
“I did not come to this position because I had sought it but because there were voices from the streets demanding that Sushila Karki should be given the responsibility,” Karki said Sunday. “We are here for only six months to complete the task given to us and transfer the responsibility to the upcoming government and ministers.”
Karki faces challenges as she seeks to balance the expectations of the young generation of protesters and older political leaders, and rebuild government structures that were destroyed in the violent protests.
“What we need now is to work to end corruption, bring good governance and economic equality,” Karki said.
Chandra Lal Mehta, a student, said she believes voters will choose a younger leader when elections are held in March but pointed to Karki’s expertise in legal matters as a qualification for her current role as prime minister.
Businessperson Shrawan Dahl said Karki is the right person to lead the interim government because she has the support of the army and the people.
“Her purpose is to hold the election and our hope is that she will complete the task successfully,” Dahl said.
In April 2017, lawmakers tried to impeach Karki when she was chief justice of the Supreme Court, accusing her of bias, but the move was unsuccessful and criticized as an attack on the judiciary.
The massive demonstrations began on Sept. 8 over a short-lived social media ban. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets, particularly young people, angry about widespread corruption and poverty, while the children of political leaders, known as “nepo kids,” seemed to enjoy luxurious lifestyles.
The protests turned violent, with demonstrators attacking the Parliament building and police opening fire.
Donald Trump posted a video on social media of the boat that was attacked in the strike on Monday
President Donald Trump says the US military has destroyed an alleged Venezuelan drug vessel travelling in international waters on the way to the US.
Trump said on Monday that three men were killed in the attack on “violent drug trafficking cartels”. He provided no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs.
Shortly before, his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro said Caracas would defend itself against US “aggression”, calling America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio the “lord of death and war”.
Tensions between the two countries escalated after the US deployed warships to the southern Caribbean on what officials said were counter-narcotics operations, carrying out a strike which killed 11 people.
“This morning, on my orders, US military forces conducted a second kinetic strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels pose a threat to US national security.”
The post also included a nearly 30 second video, which appeared to show a vessel in a body of water exploding and then bursting into flames.
Speaking later from the Oval Office, Trump said that the US had recorded proof and evidence that the boats belonged to narco-terrorist groups.
“All you have to do is look at the cargo – it was spattered all over the ocean – big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place,” he said. “We recorded them. It was very careful, because we know you people would be after us. We’re very careful.”
Trump went on to assert that drug trafficking to the US by sea had decreased under recent efforts, but acknowledged that narcotics were still entering the country by land.
“We’re telling the cartels right now, we’re going to be stopping them too,” he said.
Rubio had earlier on Monday defended the first attack on a boat said to be carrying drugs from Venezuela, which killed all 11 people on board, saying Washington had “100% fidelity and certainty” that the vessel was involved in trafficking to the US.
“What needs to start happening is some of these boats need to get blown up,” he said during an interview on Fox News. He added that Maduro represented “a direct threat to the national security” of the US due to his alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
Later on Monday, Maduro said that relations with the US had “been destroyed by their bomb threats”.
“We have moved from a period of battered relations to a completely broken one”.
The Venezuelan president said the government would “fully” exercise its “legitimate right to defend itself”.
Legal experts previously told the BBC that the fatal strike on the first vessel in international waters may have violated international human rights and maritime law.
Asked by a journalist on Sunday whether the US would now “start doing strikes on mainland Venezuela”, Trump answered: “We’ll see what happens.”
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, the president said Venezuela was “sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs”.
He said that maritime traffic in the southern Caribbean had reduced significantly “since the first strike”.
Experts raised questions about the legality of the 2 September attack on the alleged drug boat, saying that it may have violated international law.
Venezuela responded by flying two F-16 fighter jets over a US Navy destroyer two days later.
That led Trump to warn that any Venezuelan jets putting “us in a dangerous situation” would be shot down.
After a brief lull, tensions rose again on Saturday when Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil accused US forces of boarding a Venezuelan vessel.
Gil said the vessel, which he described as a “small, harmless” fishing boat, was seized “illegally and hostilely” for eight hours.
In a statement, the Venezuelan foreign ministry alleged that those who ordered the seizure were “looking for an incident to justify escalating war in the Caribbean, with the aim of regime change” in Caracas.
The US, and many other nations including the UK, have not recognised the re-election of Maduro in July 2024, pointing to evidence gathered by the opposition with the help of independent observers showing that his rival, Edmundo González, had won the election by a landslide.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce celebrated Patrick Mahomes’ 30th birthday Sunday night after the pop superstar stealthily attended her beau’s game on Sunday.
The couple appeared to be in high spirits despite the Kansas City Chiefs losing to the Philadelphia Eagles earlier.
Country singer Kane Brown and his wife, Katelyn Brown, shared a photo of themselves posing alongside Swift, Kelce, Mahomes, and Mahomes’ wife, Brittany Mahomes.
Kelce also posed with sports commentator Chandler Parsons at the bash. iNSTAGRAM/Haylee Parsons
Swift wore a plaid vest and miniskirt set by Simkhai, which she paired with sky-high Gucci platform heels and a Chanel necklace.
In Brown’s second slide, he posted a video of Mahomes clapping and blowing out his birthday cake lit with sparklers.
Brittany happily clapped for her husband as a man singing happy birthday to Patrick could be heard in the background.
The NFL athlete — who was dressed casually in a white shirt, black pants, a black hat and sneakers — celebrated early as his actual birthday is on Sept. 17.
Kane captioned the post, “Happy birthday Pat & congrats TT❤️ thanks for hosting us Britt 🙏🏽.”
The bash was held at Kelce and Mahomes’ 1587 Prime steakhouse in Kansas City., Mo.
Kelce posed for a picture with sports commentator Chandler Parsons in a photo shared by Parsons’ wife, Haylee Parsons, on Instagram.
Kelce flashed a huge smile in the photo while Parsons put his arm around him, definitely in a better mood after he made headlines during Sunday’s game for slamming his helmet on the sidelines in an emotional outburst.
The tight end, 35, was still sporting his Thom Browne shorts suit he wore to the game.
Swift snuck into the Chiefs vs. Eagles game Sunday with an elaborate barrier to hide her.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating social media posts by at least seven different accounts that appeared to indicate foreknowledge of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, according to three people familiar with the investigation and screenshots obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The posts—one of which referenced the date of Kirk’s assassination, September 10, more than a month before it took place—were all deleted in the days following the killing. Several of the accounts appear to belong to transgender individuals, and at least one of them followed suspect Tyler Robinson’s roommate, with whom Robinson was allegedly in a relationship, on TikTok.
The FBI has received archived copies of the posts, according to a person who flagged them for the agency. Screenshots of the posts have been circulating online but had not been previously authenticated.
While the posts do not establish that any of the individuals knew or conspired with Robinson, the 22-year-old gunman who allegedly shot Kirk, several of them mention the conservative activist by name and fantasize about his death.
“itd be funny if someone like charlie kirk got shot on september 10th LMAO,” one X account posted on September 3.
Another account posted on August 6—more than a month before the shooting—that “september 10th will be a very interesting day.” After Kirk’s assassination, the account followed up: “I plead the fifth.”
The morbid quip was reposted by an account named “churbum75m (SAW TYLER JUNE 30),” who appears to follow Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, on TikTok, where Twiggs’s username is “lanclotl.”
Minutes after Kirk was pronounced dead, churbum75m posted on X: “WE FUCKING DID IT.”
Several of the accounts under investigation appear to be associated with LGBT subcultures. One individual, “Osamu bin Tezuka,” used the X handle “@fujoshincel,” a reference to a genre of anime that depicts romantic relationships between men.
Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro made remarks as the US chief negotiator arrived in Delhi on Monday for a day-long talk on the trade deal.
President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said that India was “coming to the negotiating table”, a remark that came ahead of a US team arriving in Delhi to hold key talks with Indian officials on the bilateral trade deal.
“India is coming to the table. Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet, and President (Donald) Trump responded to that. We’ll see how this works,” he told CNBC.
Last week, Mr Trump said that India and the US are “continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers”.
“I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both our countries,” he posted on Truth Social.
In response, PM Modi said that he was “confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership”. India and the US are “close friends and natural partners”, he wrote on X.
“Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest. I am also looking forward to speaking with President Trump. We will work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future for both our people,” PM Modi said.
Mr Navarro, who has in the past called India “the Maharaja of tariffs”, reiterated that India has the “highest tariffs” of any major country.
“They have very high non-tariff barriers. We had to deal with that, like we’re dealing with every other country that does that,” he said.
He also criticised India for buying Russian oil, saying it never did so before the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022.
“The Indian refiners got in bed with the Russian refiners immediately after the invasion, and they’re making out like bandits. It’s crazy stuff because they make money off of us in unfair trade. So American workers get screwed. Then they use that money to buy Russian oil, and then the Russians use that to buy weapons. And then we, as taxpayers, have to pay more for the defence of Ukraine,” Mr Navarro said.
He also said that PM Modi wouldn’t have felt “comfortable” sharing the stage with China’s Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.
“And watching Modi on a stage with China, which has been its long-term existential threat. And Putin, that was an interesting stretch. I don’t think he felt comfortable doing it,” he said, referring to the three leaders meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin on September 1.
US Chief Trade Negotiator In Delhi
Mr Navarro’s remarks came hours before US chief negotiator Brendan Lynch arrived in Delhi on Monday for a day-long talk on the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
New Delhi and Washington have so far held five rounds of negotiations. The sixth round of talks, scheduled from August 25-29, was postponed after Mr Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, including 25 per cent for purchasing Russian oil.
“We have indicated that in the past also the discussions are going on, the chief negotiator of the US is visiting India tonight and tomorrow will be holding talks to see what can be the picture “It is not the sixth round of negotiations but it is definitely discussions on the trade talks and trying to see how we can reach an agreement between India and the US,” Rajesh Agarwal, India’s chief negotiator and a special secretary in the commerce ministry, said on Monday.
The DHS used Martinez’s example to justify the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and said, “This is exactly why we are removing criminal illegal aliens to third countries.”
Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah (left) was beheaded by Yordanis Cobos-Martinez
Yordanis Cobos Martinez, a 37-year-old undocumented immigrant in the US, who is accused of killing an Indian motel manager in Dallas, Texas, last week, is now facing deportation. Condemning the beheading of Indian national Chandra Nagamalliah, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said the gruesome tragedy could have been completely prevented if the previous Joe Biden administration had not allowed the illegal Cuban national to stay in America.
Taking to X, DHS said, “This vile monster beheaded a man in front of his wife and child and proceeded to kick the victim’s head on the ground. This gruesome, savage slaying of a victim at a motel by Yordanis Cobos-Martinez was completely preventable if this criminal illegal alien was not released into our country by the Biden Administration, since Cuba would not take him back.”
The DHS used Martinez’s example to justify the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and said, “This is exactly why we are removing criminal illegal aliens to third countries.”
“President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem are no longer allowing barbaric criminals to indefinitely remain in America. If you come to our country illegally, you could end up in Eswatini, Uganda, South Sudan, or Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT),” it added.
Chandra Nagamalliah’s Beheading
On September 10, 37-year-old Martinez, an employee at the Downtown Suites motel on Samuell Boulevard in Dallas, fatally attacked the motel manager, Nagamallaiah, and decapitated him and then dumped his head in a trash bin. The accused was arrested and charged with capital murder and is presently being held in the Dallas County Jail.
The Trump team’s reaction came a day after the President himself condemned the grisly killing and promised to prosecute the accused to “the fullest extent of the law” by charging him with “murder in the first degree.” He also vowed to make “America safe again” and said his administration won’t be “soft” on illegal “immigrant criminals”.
Last week, a CCTV footage from the Downtown Suites motel went viral on social media, showing Martinez, who has a violent criminal history and was recently released from custody, repeatedly assaulting the motel manager, Nagamallaiah, with a machete in front of his wife and 18-year-old son.
police mugshot shows Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the fatal shooting of U.S. conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S., in this photo released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on September 12, 2025. Utah Department of Public Safety/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
The suspect accused of assassinating right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah wrote a text message before the shooting that he planned to kill Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Monday.
In an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Patel said investigators believe Tyler Robinson also wrote a physical note saying he had the “opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk” and would do so. The note was destroyed, Patel said, but investigators have collected forensic evidence that it had existed and confirmed its contents through interviews.
Patel did not say who had received the text message or whether anyone had seen the written note before the attack.
Investigators have not publicly identified a motive. Law enforcement authorities have said they believe Robinson acted alone when he shot Kirk but are investigating whether anyone else had a role in plotting the killing.
Separately, the Washington Post reported on Monday that Robinson had sent a message via the online platform Discord to friends apparently confessing to the crime on Thursday night, shortly before he was arrested.
“It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this,” read a message from the account belonging to Robinson, the newspaper reported, citing two people familiar with the chat as well as screenshots it had obtained.
Kirk, an influential ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who co-founded the leading conservative student group Turning Point USA, was killed by a single rifle shot last Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles south (65 km) of Salt Lake City.
COURT HEARING BY VIDEO
Robinson, 22, is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday, around the same time that he makes an initial court appearance by video from his jail cell.
Patel told Fox News that DNA matching the suspect’s was found on a towel that was wrapped around the rifle believed to be the murder weapon and on a screwdriver found on the rooftop that served as the shooter’s sniper perch.
Robinson has not cooperated with authorities, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday, but investigators have been interviewing his friends and family in an effort to determine the motive for the shooting.
The killing has shaken a country already gripped by a spike in political violence, fueled by deepening polarization between the right and the left.
Both sides have universally condemned Kirk’s slaying as an indefensible act of political violence, though partisan differences have emerged over the framing of that message.
Some Republicans, including Trump, have blamed liberal groups for Kirk’s murder despite a lack of evidence, while Democrats have noted that left-wing figures have also been the targets of political violence in recent years.
The left and right also disagree over Kirk’s legacy and how he should be remembered.
LEGACY DIVIDED
Kirk’s supporters cast him as an influential and charismatic figure who galvanized support for Trump among younger voters in 2024, and the Republican president has honored Kirk by ordering flags flown at half staff on public buildings.
Civil rights advocates and liberals have criticized Kirk as a divisive figure who embraced Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election in 2020 and has marginalized Blacks, women, the LGBT community, Muslims and immigrants with derogatory rhetoric.
In an appearance on Kirk’s eponymous podcast on Monday, Vice President JD Vance said the “incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism” had helped lead to Kirk’s killing.
While Robinson was raised in a Mormon household by religious parents in a deeply conservative region of the state, “his ideology was very different than his family,” Cox said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, without going into specifics.
State records show Robinson had registered to vote without choosing a party affiliation and did not vote in the 2024 presidential election. But a relative told police that Robinson had grown more political and had expressed dislike for Kirk in a recent conversation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and three other top members of the House Republican leadership held a brief vigil on Monday for Kirk, attended by dozens of lawmakers, friends and supporters in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
Back in Utah, at the scene of Kirk’s assassination, scores of mourners have flocked to makeshift memorials in recent days to leave flowers and handwritten notes, and to inscribe messages in chalk on campus sidewalks, many of them Bible verses.
U.S. military officers observed joint war games between Russia and Belarus on Monday for the first time since Moscow used Belarus as a launchpad to enter Ukraine, as U.S. President Donald Trump deepens ties with Moscow’s closest ally.
The presence of the U.S. officers, less than a week after neighbouring Poland shot down Russian drones that crossed into its airspace, is the latest sign that Washington is seeking to warm ties with Belarus.
Last week, Trump’s representative John Coale visited Minsk and said Trump wanted to reopen the U.S. embassy there soon, normalise ties and revive trade.
TRUMP MAY BE SEEKING DIPLOMATIC GAINS
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Western foreign policy analysts speculate that Trump may be trying to peel Belarus away from Russia, a strategy widely viewed as unlikely to succeed, or to exploit its close ties with Moscow to promote a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
At least two U.S. military officers – Air Force Lt. Col. Bryan Shoupe and another unidentified officer – were in Belarus to observe the “Zapad-2025” war games, which were also being watched by Russian Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
Fighter jets, attack drones and helicopters flew over a training ground hemmed in by trees as infantry practised firing automatic weapons, mortars and missile systems and riding into combat on motorcycles.
The exercise, being held at training grounds in both countries, is a show of force that Russia and Belarus say is designed to test combat readiness.
A Belarusian Mi-35 attack helicopter flies during the joint Russia-Belarus “Zapad-2025” military drills near Borisov, Belarus September 15, 2025. REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov Purchase Licensing Rights
But it has unnerved some neighbouring countries after the drone incursion into Poland as Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds towards its fourth year. Warsaw has temporarily closed its border with Belarus as a precaution.
Long a staunch Russian ally, President Alexander Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarus to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and has since allowed Russia to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
TRUMP COURTS BELARUS PRESIDENT LUKASHENKO
Trump, who has suggested that the drone incursion may have been the result of a mistake, last week lifted sanctions on Belarus’s national airline Belavia, allowing it to service and buy components for its fleet, which includes Boeing aircraft.
He did so after Lukashenko – who regularly talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was given a friendly hand-signed letter from Trump by Coale – agreed to free 52 prisoners, including journalists and political opponents.
Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenikov personally greeted the two U.S. officers, who shook his hand and, speaking in Russian, thanked him for inviting them.
“We will show whatever is of interest for you. Whatever you want. You can go there and see, talk to people,” the minister told the Americans, who declined to speak to reporters afterwards.
Russian Northern Fleet frigate Admiral Golovko launches a Zircon hypersonic missile during a strategic exercise with Belarus, in the Barents Sea, in this image released September 14, 2025. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia said on Sunday that it had fired a Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic cruise missile at a target in the Barents Sea and that Sukoi Su-34 supersonic fighter-bombers had carried out strikes as part of joint military exercises with Belarus.
Russia’s “Zapad”, or West, joint strategic exercise with Belarus began on Sept. 12 aiming to improve military command and coordination in the event of an attack on either Russia or Belarus, the defence ministry said.
Moscow and Minsk have said the exercises are exclusively defensive and that they do not intend to attack any NATO member, though the U.S.-led military alliance announced an “Eastern Sentry”, operation after the incursion of Russian drones into Poland on Sept. 9-10.
Russia’s defence ministry released footage of the Northern Fleet’s Admiral Golovko frigate firing a Zircon hypersonic missile at a target in the Barents Sea. The footage showed a missile being launched vertically from the frigate and then powering off at an angle into the horizon.
“According to objective monitoring data received in real time, the target was destroyed by a direct hit,” the ministry said.
The ministry said that long-range anti-submarine aircraft of the Northern Fleet’s mixed aviation corps were also involved in the exercise. It said Su-34 crews practiced a bombing strike against ground targets.
U.S. and Chinese officials concluded a first day of talks in Madrid on Sunday on their strained trade ties, a looming divestiture deadline for Chinese short-video app TikTok, amid Washington’s demands that its allies place tariffs on imports from China over its purchases of Russian oil.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters as he left the central government palace: “We’ll start again in the morning.”
Talks between delegations led by Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, at the baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz, which houses Spain’s foreign ministry ended after about six hours.
They mark the fourth time in four months that the delegations have met in European cities to try to keep a fractured U.S.-China trade relationship from collapsing under President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
They last met in Stockholm in July where they agreed in principle to extend for 90 days a trade truce that sharply reduced triple-digit retaliatory tariffs on both sides and restarted the flow of rare-earth minerals from China to the United States.
Trump has approved the extension of current U.S. tariff rates on Chinese goods, totaling about 55%, until November 10.
TIKTOK DEADLINE EXTENSION LIKELY
Trade experts said there was little likelihood of a substantial breakthrough in the talks hosted by Spain.
The most likely result of the Madrid talks is seen as another extension of a deadline for the popular TikTok app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations by September 17 or face a U.S. shutdown.
A source familiar with the Trump administration’s discussions on TikTok’s future said the deadline would be extended for a fourth time since Trump took office in January.
TikTok has not been discussed in previous rounds of U.S.-China trade talks in Geneva, London or Stockholm. But the source said the issue’s public inclusion as an agenda item on the Treasury’s announcement of the talks gives the Trump administration political cover for another extension.
“I’m not expecting anything substantive between the U.S. and China unless and until there is a one-on-one meeting between Trump and (Chinese President Xi Jinping). Setting that up is really what these talks are all about,” said William Reinsch, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
Senior U.S. and Chinese led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang meet to discuss trade and economic issues and TikTok, in Madrid, Spain, September 14, 2025. United States Treasury/Handout via Reuters Purchase Licensing Rights
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in such a meeting, but Reinsch said that the Chinese would not agree to one until they know the outcome, and are pushing for further easing of U.S. export controls on chips and other high-tech goods.
“This meeting is an opportunity to measure each other’s positions and to learn more about each side’s red lines,” Reinsch said.
Wendy Cutler, a former USTR trade negotiator and head of the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, said she too expected more substantial “deliverables” to be saved for a potential Trump Xi meeting later this year, perhaps at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Seoul at the end of October.
These may include a final resolution on TikTok, and a lifting of restrictions on Chinese purchases of American soybeans and reduction of fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods, she added.
“Frankly, I don’t think China is in any rush to do an agreement where they don’t get substantial concessions on export controls and lower tariffs, which are their key priorities,” she said. “And I don’t see the United States in a position to make major concessions on either, unless there’s some breakthrough on its demands to China.”
RUSSIAN OIL PRESSURE
The Treasury has said the Madrid talks also would cover joint U.S.-Chinese efforts to combat money laundering, a reference to its longstanding demands that China clamp down on illicit shipments of technology goods to Russia that aid its war in Ukraine.
Bessent urged Group of Seven allies on Friday to impose “meaningful tariffs” on imports from China and India to pressure them to stop buying Russian oil, a move aimed at bringing Moscow into Ukraine peace negotiations by curbing its oil revenues.
The G7 finance ministers said on Friday they discussed such measures and agreed to speed up discussions to use frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine’s defense.
Bessent and Greer said in a separate statement that G7 allies should join the United States in imposing tariffs on imports from countries that buy Russian oil.
The man arrested in the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk is not cooperating with authorities, but investigators are working to establish a motive for the shooting by talking to his friends and family, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday.
Cox said the accused gunman, Tyler Robinson, 22, would be formally charged on Tuesday. He remains in custody in Utah.
Investigators have yet to piece together why Robinson allegedly scaled a rooftop at Utah Valley University during an outdoor event and shot Kirk in the neck at long range on Wednesday.
Kirk, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and co-founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, was killed by a single rifle shot during the event attended by 3,000 people in Orem, about 40 miles south (65 km) of Salt Lake City.
The killing fuelled fears of a spike in political violence in the United States and an ever-deepening divide between the left and the right.
Robinson has not confessed to investigators, Cox told the ABC program “This Week.”
“He is not cooperating, but all the people around him were cooperating, and I think that’s very important,” the Republican governor said.
One person who is apparently talking to investigators is Robinson’s roommate, who was also a romantic partner, Cox said, citing the FBI. Cox described the roommate as “a male transitioning to female,” and said the roommate has been “incredibly cooperative.”
Reuters has not been able to locate the roommate, or representatives for the roommate, to seek comment. Reuters could not determine who is serving as Robinson’s legal representative.
Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” program whether the roommate’s gender identity is relevant to the investigation, Cox said, “That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now … It’s easy to draw conclusions from that, and so we’ve got the shell casings, other forensic evidence that is coming in – and trying to piece all of those things together.”
Investigators found messages engraved into four bullet casings, which included references to memes and video game in-jokes. An affidavit filed by authorities in the case described these messages. One of the inscriptions, according to the affidavit, read: “hey fascist! CATCH!” followed by a combination of directional arrows, an apparent reference to a sequence of button presses that unleashes a bomb in a popular video game.
Another casing, according to the affidavit, read, “If you read This, you are GAY Lmao,” short for “laughing my ass off.”
Kirk’s charged rhetoric, which often involved anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant comments, attracted legions of conservatives, but also engendered strong feelings from liberals and drew widespread criticism.
A police mugshot shows Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the fatal shooting of U.S. conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S., in this photo released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on September 12, 2025. Utah Department of Public Safety/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read less
Robinson, a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College, part of Utah’s public university system, was taken into custody at his parents’ house, about 260 miles (420 km) southwest of the crime scene after a 33-hour manhunt.
INVESTIGATORS SEARCH FOR MOTIVE
Relatives and a family friend alerted authorities that he had implicated himself in the crime, Cox said previously.
While Robinson was raised by religious parents in a deeply conservative region of the state, “his ideology was very different than his family,” Cox said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, without going into specifics.
State records show Robinson was a registered voter but not affiliated with any political party. A relative told investigators that Robinson had grown more political in recent years and had once discussed with another family member their dislike for Kirk and his viewpoints, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Robinson was “not a fan” of Kirk’s, Cox said on Sunday.
The killing has stirred outrage among Kirk’s supporters and condemnation of political violence across the ideological spectrum.
Trump has blamed “the radical left” for Kirk’s death, despite a lack of evidence, even as he and his allies have often invoked violent rhetoric against their opponents.
“The problem is on the left,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “A lot of people that you would traditionally say are on the left … (are) already under investigation.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who faced an arson attack in April, said Trump had an obligation to lower the temperature.
“Violence transcends party lines — and the way to address it and have true peaceful debate is for leaders to speak and act with moral clarity. That needs to start with the President,” he said on social media.
Cox assigned some blame to social media, saying it has played a “direct role” in every political assassination attempt in recent years.
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the militant group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called the last bastion of the militant Palestinian group.
Hamas’ political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and rebuild the coastal strip. Only 20 are believed to be alive.
“What’s happened has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
Once there, Rubio visited the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem. He was expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Western Wall visit was “reaffirming America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital,” according to a statement from the State Department.
In late 2017, during his first term as president, Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and subsequently moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said in a post on X on Sunday that the agency had stopped services at the Beach camp clinic, which he said is the only health care available in the enclave north of Wadi Gaza.
Water and sanitation services are now at half capacity, Lazzarini said, adding that 10 UNRWA buildings have been struck in Gaza City in the past four days.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
U.S. officials described Tuesday’s strike against Hamas members in Qatar, a close U.S. ally, as a unilateral escalation that did not serve U.S. or Israeli interests. Rubio and U.S. President Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visit the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, September 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool Purchase Licensing Rights
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state, a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that normalised the UAE’s relations with Israel.
Aid agencies say an Israeli takeover of Gaza City would be catastrophic for a population already facing widespread malnutrition.
Two more Palestinians have died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry said on Sunday, raising the death toll from such causes to at least 422 people, including 145 children.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the U.N. says far more is needed.
Israel says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has urged people to stay.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the centre and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many of those people are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah al-Kafarna, who is among the displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
When Shahnaz went into labour, her husband Abdul called a taxi to take them to the only medical facility accessible to them.
“She was in a lot pain,” he says.
A 20-minute drive away, the clinic was in Shesh Pol village in Afghanistan’s north-eastern Badakhshan province. It was where their two older children were born.
Abdul sat next to Shahnaz comforting her as they drove over gravel tracks to reach help.
“But when we reached the clinic, we saw that it was closed. I didn’t know it had shut down,” he said, his face crumpling with agony.
The clinic in Shesh Pol is one of more than 400 medical facilities that closed down in Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, after the Trump administration cut nearly all US aid to the country earlier this year, in a drastic and abrupt move following the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
A single-storey structure with four small rooms, white paint peeling off its walls, the Shesh Pol clinic has USAID posters tacked up everywhere with information and guidance for pregnant women and new mothers.
It doesn’t look like much but in Badakhshan’s mountainous, unforgiving terrain, where a lack of access has been a major reason for historically high maternal mortality rates, the clinic was a critical lifeline, part of a wider programme implemented during the tenure of the US-backed government in the country, to reduce maternal and newborn deaths.
It had a trained midwife who assisted around 25-30 deliveries every month. It had a stock of medicines and injections, and it also provided basic healthcare services.
Other medical facilities are simply too far from Abdul’s village, and it was not without risk for Shahnaz to travel on bumpy roads. Abdul also didn’t have money to pay for a longer journey – renting the taxi cost 1,000 Afghani ($14.65; £12.70), roughly a quarter of his monthly income as a labourer. So they decided to return home.
“But the baby was coming and we had to stop by the side of the road,” Abdul said.
Shahnaz delivered their baby girl in the car. Shortly after, she died, bleeding profusely. A few hours later, before she could be named, their baby also died.
“I wept and screamed. My wife and child could’ve been saved if the clinic was open,” said Abdul. “We had a hard life, but we were living it together. I was always happy when I was with her.”
He doesn’t even have a photo of Shahnaz to hold on to.
There’s no certainty the mother and baby would’ve survived if they’d been treated at the clinic, but without it, they didn’t stand a chance, underlining the undeniable impact of US aid cuts in Afghanistan.
For decades, America has been the largest donor to Afghanistan, and in 2024, US funds made up a staggering 43% of all aid coming into the country.
The Trump administration has justified withdrawing it, saying there were “credible and longstanding concerns that funding was benefiting terrorist groups, including… the Taliban”, who govern the country. The US government further added that they had reports stating that at least $11m were “being siphoned or enriching the Taliban”.
The report that the US State Department referenced was made by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). It said that $10.9m of US taxpayer money had been paid to the Taliban-controlled government by partners of USAID in “taxes, fees, duties, or utilities”.
The Taliban government denies that aid money was going into their hands.
“This allegation is not true. The aid is given to the UN, and through them to NGOs in provinces. They identify who needs the aid, and they distribute it themselves. The government is not involved,” said Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha.
The Taliban government’s policies, especially its restrictions on women, the harshest in the world, have meant that after four years in power, it is still not recognised by most of the world. It’s also a key reason donors have been increasingly walking away from the country.
The US insists no one has died because of aid cuts. Shahnaz and her baby’s deaths are not recorded anywhere. Neither are countless others.
The BBC has documented at least half a dozen first-hand, devastating accounts in areas where USAID-supported clinics have shut down.
Right next to Shahnaz’s grave, villagers who had gathered around us pointed to two other graves. They told us both were of women who died in childbirth in the past four months – Daulat Begi and Javhar. Their babies survived.
Not far from the graveyard, we met Khan Mohammad whose wife, 36-year-old Gul Jan, died in childbirth five months ago. Their baby boy Safiullah died three days later.
“When she became pregnant, she would go to the clinic for check-ups. But midway through her pregnancy it shut down. During the delivery she had a lot of pain and blood loss,” Khan Mohammad said. “My children are sad all the time. No one can give them the love of a mother. I miss her every day. We had a sweet and loving life together.”
A roughly five-hour drive from Shesh Pol, in Cawgani, another village where a USAID-backed clinic closed down, Ahmad Khan, the grief-stricken father of Maidamo showed us the room in their mud and clay home where she died giving birth to baby Karima.
“If the clinic had been open, she might have survived. And even if she had died, we would not have had regrets knowing the medics tried their best. Now we’re left with regret and pain. America did this to us,” he said, tears rolling down his face.
In another home a few lanes away, Bahisa tells us how terrifying it was to give birth at home. Her three other children were born in the Cawgani clinic.
“I was so scared. In the clinic, we had a midwife, medicines and injections. At home I had nothing, no painkillers. It was unbearable pain. I felt like life was leaving my body. I became numb,” she said.
Her baby girl, named Fakiha, died three days after she was born.
The closure of clinics in villages has resulted in a surge of patients at the maternity ward of the main regional hospital in the provincial capital Faizabad.
Getting to it, through Badakhshan’s treacherous landscape is risky. We were shown a horrifying photo of a newborn baby, who was delivered on the way to Faizabad, and whose neck snapped before he got to the hospital.
We had visited the hospital back in 2022, and while it was stretched then, the scenes we saw this time were unprecedented.
In each bed, there were three women. Imagine having gone into labour, or just having gone through a miscarriage, and not even having a bed to yourself to lie in.
It’s what Zuhra Shewan, who suffered a miscarriage, had to endure.
“I was bleeding severely and didn’t even have a place to sit. It was really hard. By the time a bed is free, a woman could die bleeding,” she said.
Dr Shafiq Hamdard, the director of the hospital, said: “We have 120 beds in the hospital. Now we’ve admitted 300 to 305.”
While the patient load is swelling, the hospital, too, has faced sharp cuts in its funding.
“Three years ago our annual budget was $80,000. Now we have $25,000,” Dr Hamdard said.
By August this year, there had been as many maternal deaths recorded as there were for the whole of last year. Which means that at this rate, maternal mortality could increase by as much as 50% over last year.
Newborn deaths have already increased by roughly a third in the past four months, compared with the start of the year.
Razia Hanifi, the hospital’s head midwife, says she’s exhausted. “I have been working for the past 20 years. This year is the toughest, because of the overcrowding, the shortage of resources and the shortage of trained staff,” she said.
But no reinforcements are coming because of the Taliban government’s restrictions on women. Three years ago, all higher education, including medical education was banned for women. Less than a year ago, in December 2024, training for midwives and female nurses was also banned.
At a discreet location, we met two female students who were midway through the training when it was closed. They didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisal.
Anya (name changed) said they both were in graduate courses at university when the Taliban took over. When those were closed in December 2022, they began midwife and nursing training, as it was the only path left to getting an education and a job.
“When that was also banned, I became depressed. I was crying day and night, and I wasn’t able to eat. It’s a painful situation,” she said.
In a livestreamed speech, Erika Kirk thanked US President Donald Trump, US Vice President JD Vance and supporters who had “shown their love” for her husband. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was a top podcaster, culture warrior and ally of Trump.
After years of complaints from the right about “cancel culture” from the left, some conservatives are seeking to upend the lives and careers of those who disparaged Charlie Kirk after his death. They’re going after companies, educators, news outlets, political rivals and others they judge as promoting hate speech.
A campaign by public officials and others on the right has led just days after the conservative activist’s death to the firing or punishment of teachers, an Office Depot employee, government workers, a TV pundit and the expectation of more dismissals coming.
This past weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that American Airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk’s assassination.
“This behavior is disgusting and they should be fired,” Duffy said on the social media site X.
As elected officials and conservative influencers lionize Kirk as a warrior for free expression who championed provocative opinions, they’re also weaponizing the tactics they saw being used to malign their movement — the calls for firings, the ostracism, the pressure to watch what you say.
Such tactics raise a fundamental challenge for a nation that by many accounts appears to be dangerously splintered by politics and a sense of moral outrage that social media helps to fuel. For his part, Trump on Sunday suggested he was already using the government to look into his political adversaries when asked if he would investigate them after Kirk’s death.
“They’re already under major investigation, a lot of the people that you would traditionally say are on the left,” Trump told reporters.
The aftermath of Kirk’s death has increasingly become a test of the public tolerance over political differences. Republicans are pushing not only to punish the alleged killer but those whose words they believe contributed to the death or dishonored it. At the same time, some liberals on social media have criticized those, such as actress Kristin Chenoweth, who expressed sympathy online over Kirk’s death.
“This pattern that we’ve seen for decades seems to be happening much more now and at this moment than it ever has before,” said Adam Goldstein of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He dates the urge to persecute people for their private views on tragedies at least to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “If there was ever time to support the better angels of our nature, it’s now.”
Goldstein noted that it’s unpopular speech, like people praising the assassination, that stands as the greatest test of acceptance of the First Amendment — especially when government officials get involved. “The only time you’re really supporting free speech is when it’s unpopular,” Goldstein said. “There’s no one out there trying to stop people from loving puppies and bunnies.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, has cautioned that the motive for the assassination has not been confirmed. He said the suspect in custody clearly identifies with the political left and had expressed dislike of Kirk before the shooting. But he and other authorities also say the suspect was not known to have been politically engaged.
Kirk was seen as an architect of President Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, helping to expand the Republican outreach to younger voters. That means many conservatives see the remarks by liberals as fomenting violence, rather than as acts of political expression.
“I think President Trump sees this as an attack on his political movement,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on NBC as he noted the two assassination attempts against Trump as well as Kirk’s killing. “This is unique and different. This is an attack on a movement by using violence. And that’s the way most Republicans see this.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is running for governor, called on social media for the firings of an assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University and professors at Austin Peay State University and Cumberland University.
All three lost their jobs for comments deemed inappropriate for expressing a lack of sympathy, or even for expressing pleasure, in the shooting of Kirk. One said Kirk “spoke his fate into existence.”
Some NFL teams chose on Sunday to hold a moment of silence for Kirk. Football teams have in the past chosen to memorialize victims after school shootings or an attack on a house of worship. They have also marked notable deaths of public figures, weather-related disasters and international crises such as Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023.
Because conservatives previously felt canceled by liberals for their views, Trump on his first day back in office signed an executive order prohibiting everyone in the federal government from engaging in conduct that would “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”
In February at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance criticized the preceding Biden administration for encouraging “private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth” regarding the pandemic. He assailed European countries for censoring political speech.
“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,” Vance said at the time.
Still, the Trump administration has also cracked down on immigrants and academics for their speech.
Goldstein noted that Trump’s State Department in the minutes after Kirk’s death warned it would revoke the visas of any foreigners who celebrated Kirk’s assassination. “I can’t think of another moment where the United States has come out to warn people of their impending cancellation,” Goldstein said.
The glimmer of bipartisan agreement in the aftermath of the assassination was in a sense that social media was fueling the violence and misinformation in dangerous ways.
Taylor Swift is in attendance at her fiancé Travis Kelce’s first home game of the 2025-26 NFL season.
The pop superstar quietly snuck into the the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles game Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Page Six can confirm.
Swift got to her seat by walking behind a large screen to her suite, a rare move for the singer who is normally photographed on her way into the stadium.
Another video appeared to show a glimpse of Swift’s mom, Andrea, walking behind the screen as well.
Taylor Swift snuck into fiancé Travis Kelce’s first home game of the 2025-26 NFL season. Getty Images
Reps for Swift did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
The tight end and his teammates’ first game of the season took place last Friday in São Paulo, Brazil, which saw the Los Angeles Chargers win 27-21.
Swift was not at that matchup, nor was she at the VMAs two days later.
The pop superstar and the football player, both 35, began dating in the summer of 2023.
The couple went public with their relationship at one of his home games in September of that year.
On Aug. 10, immediately after Swift recorded her debut on Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, he proposed in the garden-esque backyard of his Leawood, Kan., estate.
Follow Page Six’s Taylor Swift live updates for the latest news, photos, fan theories and more
The athlete presented the singer-songwriter with an old mine brilliant-cut diamond ring that he he helped design.
Ahead of his game on Sunday, Kelce told Erin Andrews he shed some tears during his proposal and “can’t wait to spend the rest of my life” with Swift.
Swift waited about two weeks before announcing the engagement.
“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married 🧨,” she and Kelce captioned a joint Instagram post on Aug. 26 that featured several photos from the moment he got down on one knee.
“They were about to go out to dinner, and he said, ‘Let’s go out and have a glass of wine.’… They got out there, and that’s when he asked her, and it was beautiful,” Kelce’s dad, Ed Kelce, later dished of the big surprise.
Ed went on to reveal that his son asked Swift’s dad, Scott Swift, “for permission” to marry his daughter about a month prior to popping the question.
Ivanka Trump stepped out in a show-stopping gown for a gala night with husband Jared Kushner on Saturday.
The businesswoman turned heads in a semi-sheer silver Georges Hobeika Couture design at Michael Rubin’s REFORM Alliance Casino Night in Atlantic City, N.J.
Previously seen on Nicole Scherzinger on the red carpet earlier this year, the sparkling style featured a scooped neckline and draped bodice.
Ivanka Trump wore Georges Hobeika Couture gown to Michael Rubin’s REFORM Alliance Casino Night in Atlantic City, N.J., on Saturday. Getty Images for REFORM Alliance
She accessorized minimally with matching silver heels and a black woven Bottega Veneta clutch.
Trump, 43, styled her blond locks straight for the occasion, while Kushner sported a classic black suit with a bow tie.
The duo appeared in good spirits sitting at a table with Jay-Z, Beyoncé and other attendees.
Trump was also photographed at a casino table with Rubin.
The first daughter is known to put on fashionable displays for events, recently pulling out all the stops for Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos’ wedding week in Venice, Italy.
She stunned in a strapless pink Tony Ward gown with a sequined floral pattern while heading to the couple’s ceremony in June.
The following day, she slipped into a little black dress from Carolina Herrera for Sánchez and Bezos’ farewell bash.
Last weekend, she kept it casual in a black bikini while soaking up the sun on a yacht with her pal Gisele Bündchen.
Trump often gives glimpses of her outfits via Instagram while documenting everything from her Bahamas vacation to her “summer Sundays.”
Job anxiety is a concern among fresh graduates, but the new graduate industry traineeships are not a clear-cut choice for young jobseekers.
Office workers walking in Singapore’s central business district. (File photo: iStock/3yephotography)
After applying to more than 150 jobs, AN, a 24-year-old computer science graduate, found herself in a dilemma familiar to many fresh graduates – hold out for a stable job, or consider an internship that pays less but promises a few months of industry experience.
With no offers in hand despite months of effort, she took on a part-time data role paying S$1,000 (US$780) a month while continuing to apply. After half a year of searching, she landed a full-time software developer job in September.
Nevertheless, the lengthy hunt for employment was a demoralising experience, said Ms N, who wanted to be identified by her initials only.
After a three-and-a-half-year slog earning a computer science degree at the Singapore Institute of Management, she was expecting good prospects upon graduation.
“As a fresh grad, you have all these ideas of like, I can’t wait to start my first job and do really well, and have all these things to show for myself,” she said.
“But no, you can’t even do that. The only comforting factor is that I know many, many people are going through the same thing as me.”
So when the new government-sponsored graduate industry traineeships, also known as GRIT, was announced in August, she had mixed feelings about the programme.
From October, the traineeship scheme will offer fresh graduates up to 800 traineeships in the private and public sectors.
It is an initiative of the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce that was set up in April to help businesses and workers deal with the impact of the United States’ tariffs.
These traineeships will last from three to six months and pay a monthly allowance of S$1,800 to S$2,400, with 70 per cent co-funded by the government.
The scheme aims to help fresh graduates transition into full-time employment by allowing them the opportunity to gain experience and skills that future employers are seeking.
But not all jobseekers who CNA spoke to were certain which path to take.
If the option for traineeships had been available during Ms N’s six-month job search, she might not have applied.
“This is a long time without a proper income,” she said, pointing out that the allowance is below a typical starting salary. She also felt the scheme would benefit from a “clear pathway to full-time conversion”.
“If companies hosting traineeships were required or encouraged to consider trainees for permanent roles, at least this would give fresh grads more confidence that they’re not just stuck in a cycle of temporary stints, making it more of a step towards stable employment.”
GROWING JOB ANXIETY
A CNA straw poll of more than 100 recent graduates last month found that intense competition from their peers was the top concern, followed by the limited job openings and low starting salaries.
The choice between continuing a seemingly fruitless job search and accepting a temporary internship or traineeship is a real one for graduates – even in fields such as tech, where demand for talent is still robust.
Over the past month, CNA also interviewed 10 computer science or computer engineering undergraduates and recent graduates to dive deeper into their job-related anxieties and their experiences searching for a job.
Statistically, the fresh graduate employment outcomes for computer science graduates remains fairly strong, according to the most recent Graduate Employment Survey.
The proportion of computer science bachelor’s degree holders in full-time permanent employment six months after graduation was 87.8 per cent in 2024, which is comparable to other fields, though it fell marginally from the 91.9 per cent in 2023.
Nevertheless, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng last month cited feedback from graduates that despite the availability of jobs, many employers are also looking for individuals with years of relevant working experience to fill them.
“But graduates cannot obviously obtain the required experience if they are not offered the opportunity in the first place,” he said.
The undergraduates and recent graduates CNA spoke to felt that internship and job applications had become more competitive now, compared to when they started their university education.
“Everybody was freaking out. Everyone was trying to get any internship, any job, any kind of certification,” Ms N said of her final year in university.
Jobseekers like SW, 27, who similarly asked to be identified by his initials, found it frustrating that work experience is required even for junior roles.
He graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 2023 with a degree in computer engineering. The Singaporean found a job in an investment firm in China but left after a year as he found it a poor fit.
This year, he started a part-time masters programme in maritime studies to learn how to apply his software development skills to the sector. He is simultaneously applying for full-time jobs.
He said he was hearing back from fewer companies now compared to right after he received his bachelor’s degree. He estimated receiving four replies for every 10 applications he sent now, compared to six to seven replies back then.
“It’s still harder than I thought to find a job right now,” he said, despite having some work experience under his belt.
He feels that the new traineeship scheme could be a good starting point.
He said the scheme was “attractive” with a decent allowance, but wanted to find out more about the participating organisations and roles available before deciding whether to apply.
CAN TRAINEESHIPS CLOSE THE GAP?
The government had previously introduced government-supported traineeships in times of economic uncertainty.
The SGUnited Traineeship was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported training stints of up to six months that paid S$1,500 to S$2,500 a month.
From June 2020 to March 2022, more than 12,500 trainees went through the programme. Close to nine in 10 found employment within six months after their traineeship, said Ms Gillian Woo, director of Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) enterprise programmes division.
WSG did not provide a breakdown of whether the trainees who found employment were hired by their host organisations or other companies.
Statistics available from midway through the programme show that at the end of August 2021, 2,300 out of 7,200 trainees were employed by their host organisations and 3,500 were hired by other companies after ending their traineeships.
Former SGUnited trainees felt the programme was good for gaining experience, but some said it could be improved with clearer criteria for full-time employment coupled with effective mentorship.
Psychology graduate Wei Yongji, 29, was a trainee for half a year in 2021. He earned S$2,300 a month as a programme executive in a government agency, which did not hire him afterwards.
Mr Wei said that while his work was meaningful, he felt that six months was too short to learn much and that there was a lack of autonomy.
“It’s not like we were doing purely (menial tasks) or admin work, but at the same time, it felt like there was quite a limit to what we were doing.”
Financially, he felt that his lower traineeship salary also partially affected his monthly salary at his first full-time job in the related social impact sector earning S$3,100 a month.
Under a traineeship, there is no employment relationship between the company and the trainee, so benefits like Central Provident Fund (CPF) payments and leave entitlement are not legally required.
The lack of CPF contributions added up for Mr Wei. And when he and his partner wanted to apply for a Build-To-Order flat, they did not meet the employment criteria for a housing grant as they were both on traineeships.
He suggested that host organisations be upfront about the possibility of converting a traineeship to full-time employment in their job postings, adding that this would have influenced his decision of where to apply.
Mr Wei, who now works at Access Singapore, a social mobility charity that provides disadvantaged students with career exposure opportunities, said his experience in a traineeship felt like being an “extended intern”.
He felt that the new graduate industry traineeship scheme was cast in a similar mould to the SGUnited one. “If it is just an extended internship, then we can’t really call it a traineeship, a career springboard.”
TRAINEESHIPS, INTERNSHIPS AND MORE
Access Singapore’s founder Clarence Ching, 31, agreed that an internship would have similar outcomes to a traineeship.
“In other jurisdictions, what traineeships mean is that it is a strong stepping stone towards your future careers,” he told CNA. In his view, the new traineeship scheme would likely not do this.
Mr Ching felt that a traineeship should have added value through structured elements like workshops on confidence building and how to prepare for a career.
He also called for clearer employment and learning outcomes: “For example, if you do this, this, this, this – then the company will hire you.”
When Mr Ching made this argument in a LinkedIn post last month, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development Alvin Tan responded in the comments section that traineeships give fresh graduates skills and exposure, and “they do not necessarily need to or should be employed by their host organisations”.
“Traineeships are an option,” Mr Tan said in his comment, adding that graduates can also choose to take up apprenticeships, internships, work-study programmes or full-time employment.
Given the number of options available, some, like former SGUnited trainee Bernice Leong, 28, felt that it was essential for young people entering the workforce to have a clearer grasp on the pros and cons of each pathway.
“It would be nice if fresh grads now have an understanding of how this GRIT scheme is different from just a regular internship,” she said. This would enable them to make an informed decision between a traineeship and other opportunities.
Ms Leong was paid S$3,500 a month during her six-month traineeship at a statutory board. She told CNA she would not have accepted the offer if it was within the stipulated S$1,500 to S$2,500 range.
During her traineeship, she benefited from the mentorship from her manager who gave her close guidance.
She was told there was no possibility of full-time employment. But towards the end of her stint, her employer managed to find the headcount to hire her.
Another former SGUnited trainee, Terence Tian, 31, also converted his traineeship to a full-time offer in three months.
A business diploma holder at the time, he was paid S$1,800 a month and said the lack of employee benefits was not ideal since his working hours and responsibilities were similar to a full-time employee.
“But given the poor job market at the time, it was still better than being unemployed. At least I could apply what I had learned in school, gain experience, and have some financial support,” he said.
The stint met his expectations, leading to real work exposure and a full-time job. He felt the new scheme would also be a good initiative giving fresh graduates “a stepping stone into the working world”.
BETTER THAN A PROLONGED JOB HUNT
In any case, having a traineeship scheme would mean that jobseekers could be picking up work experience in the time that they are looking for a full-time job, as opposed to spending all their time on a prolonged unsuccessful job search.
The latter can deal a blow to confidence and make it harder to land a job, said Mr Wei, the former SGUnited trainee.
“You are not getting the results, and then you feel, maybe I’m not that good. Then actually you give up and you go to the gig economy.”
Computer science students and graduates told CNA that a tepid job market has added to the pressure to stack internships and made some avoid job-hopping, as they believe that they need to stand out in an oversaturated job market.
Thai coffee is having its moment, with demand for specialty local beans surging. But the industry faces multiple challenges including poor yields due to climate change, rising costs and intense competition.
Chatree Saeyang, a veteran coffee farmer, inspecting his plantation in Chiang Mai province. (Photo: CNA/Jack Board)
As mist rolls in along a mountain ridge high above Chiang Mai, Chatree Saeyang climbs up steep wooden stairs to his rustic village cafe, a hideaway in the clouds for coffee drinkers.
Chatree, 39, is a third-generation farmer and a tinkerer.
Littered behind the cafe counter is an assemblage of coffee paraphernalia for his caffeinated creations. As his espresso machine whirs, the headbanded master also starts to prepare a pour-over coffee from beans he grew, fermented and roasted himself.
He knows which trees produced which fruit and how that will translate to the cup. His specialty coffee is celebrated, part of a national movement increasingly prizing organic, artisanal processes.
Yet the natural ecosystem that fosters the practices of farmers like Chatree faces unprecedented challenges.
Thailand’s coffee industry is being reshaped by a paradox. Climate change is stressing highland farms and pushing production downward, even as a booming cafe culture in the country’s urban hubs drives record domestic demand.
With prices rising and imports surging to fill the gap, Thailand’s coffee scene is undergoing a rapid transformation marked by fierce competition, bold innovation and a growing push for sustainability.
Farmers sit at the start of the chain.
Chatree’s mature forest plantation sits in Khun Chang Kian village, recognised as one of Thailand’s earliest coffee growing regions and located about an hour’s drive through windy mountain roads from the downtown of Chiang Mai.
Chatree’s family has grown the crop for five decades, and his deep experience on this land tells him things are changing here.
The rain is becoming erratic, he observes, and the trees bend and shape to their environment.
It will play out when their cherries are ready to pick in a few months’ time; their flavour will change and if the conditions are not right, there will be fewer of them to process.
“Less yield means less money. But the coffee plants are tough like us; they have to adapt to survive in the changing conditions,” he said.
“Global warming certainly has an impact, but it won’t be the end for coffee. There is still a future.”
CLIMATE CHANGE HITTING COFFEE INDUSTRY
Chatree’s optimism is at odds with global trends. Extreme weather is playing havoc with farmers’ ability to produce arabica coffee – a typically more expensive variant compared to robusta, with complex flavours and preferred by artisanal cafes.
Productivity has plummeted. In 2023, Thailand produced only 15,651 tonnes of coffee beans – about two-thirds of it arabica – where output in the past once hit more than 86,000 tonnes in 2001.
A combination of rising temperatures, inconsistent and damaging rainfall events, prolonged droughts and pests is increasingly jeopardising yields.
Land under cultivation has also dropped as more farmers shifted to monoculture of crops like maize or those with higher value, like durians.
“The effects go beyond lower yields. It also causes quality to drop — the crop no longer meets the standards we used to expect,” said Jiraporn Inthasan, a master trainer in regenerative agriculture at Maejo University in Chiang Mai.
“In 20 years we might not have arabica in Thailand anymore. It won’t be possible,” she said.
Thailand is not alone in its climate struggles. Brazil and Vietnam, two of the world’s biggest coffee producers, suffered disastrous growing seasons in 2024, contributing to global coffee prices hitting a 50-year high in February.
There are industry-wide fears that many small-scale farmers will abandon cultivation and new farmers will be reluctant to choose coffee. This type of production is important; smallholders are responsible for growing 70 per cent of the world’s coffee.
Key coffee-growing areas are right in the climate hitting zone. The crop is mostly grown in a region known as the Coffee Belt – between 20 degrees north and 30 degrees south of the equator. That is also a part of the world among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
“It’s serious. I’d even call it severe,” said Naruemon Taksaudom, the founder of HILLKOFF, a business focusing on coffee innovation, training and value‑chain development.
In the hills of Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai, PANA Coffee, a company that covers every step in processing coffee from seed to cup, saw about 11 hectares of its plantations lost to a forest fire last year.
The year before, it lost a “lot of crops” due to unseasonal rain, said its founder Kompit Panasupon.
It was a reminder of the challenge everyone faces, he said, when dealing with the fragilities of crop-growing amid climate change.
“Everyone is feeling the effects right now. It’s a big problem that we all have to be serious about. And it’s not just about coffee. It’s basically every agriculture-related business and every farmer’s job,” Kompit said.
Adaptation is possible through investments in climate-resilient varieties and the more widespread adoption of crop diversification and agroforestry. But the clock is ticking as the planet heats further.
A DEMAND THAT CANNOT BE STOPPED
Back when coffee cultivation began in Thailand in the late 1960s, Thais hardly drank coffee. Initially, the arabica crop was introduced to the northern highlands and promoted as part of an alternative development model to replace the illicit cultivation of opium.
The sector has evolved and in 2025, the broader domestic market is valued at 65 billion baht (US$2 billion), according to Thailand’s ministry of commerce.
From 1995 to pre-pandemic 2020, annual consumption of coffee in the country increased by more than tenfold. Thais now consume an average of 340 cups of coffee every year.
Internationally, the market was estimated to be worth US$245 billion last year, according to Precedence Research, and is projected to grow by about 4.5 per cent per year to US$382 billion by 2034.
The organic segment is expected to register the fastest growth in the coffee market during the forecast period, the research found.
Within that, Thailand is carving out its niche, not as a major volume player, but rather as a producer of high-quality, specialty and smallholder produced coffee. It is pivoting towards value.
Specialty coffee in Thailand accounts for only about 10 per cent of quantity – at around 5,000 tonnes annually – but for 20 per cent of total value. It is a cash cow for those who are able to navigate its nuances and complexities in an increasingly challenging growing environment.
While “specialty coffee” is a technical industry term that has evaluation requirements and a scoring set for attributes like aroma, flavour, acidity, body, balance and aftertaste, in Thailand it is more commonly used to describe coffee grown by smallholder farmers, with traceability and served in third-wave cafes.
While some Thai coffee undergoes technical grading, “specialty” is often a looser cultural label.
“Thailand has been lucky: Consumers welcomed coffee culture, and demand – along with interest in new coffee varieties and flavour profiles – grew faster than supply,” said Naruemon.
In the ever-sprawling city of Chiang Mai, there are signs of that demand.
Last year, 1,700 new coffee shops opened in Chiang Mai, while 400 closed in the same period, delivery and lifestyle platform LINE MAN Wongnai reported.
Akha Ama Coffee Roasters is among this next generation of cafes driving demand for Thai coffee. Even before its 8am opening time, customers are already peering over the chain-link fence blocking the entrance.
More than a retail location, co-founder Lee Ayu Chuepa wants it to be a social enterprise committed to sustainability and promoting the efforts of indigenous hilltribe communities who grow the coffee.
Lee is also promoting Thai coffee overseas; an Akha Ama roastery opened in Tokyo last year.
“We could not stop the demand. It definitely will grow and that’s probably a good thing,” he said.
He said consumers want to know where their coffee comes from; and he can offer both that story and an anchor of support to his people.
“We’re finding a balance between generations. Our families have really old wisdom about doing agriculture, so we blend those skills with modern techniques and young people are finding a job that can sustain their living,” Lee said.
Not all farmers have such options. Specialty coffee production remains an outlier activity that requires an investment in skills, knowledge, equipment and, often, marketing.
“Most of the farmers up in the hills are hill‑tribe communities or smallholders who don’t have the time to hand‑sort beans. So larger companies step in to buy their coffee and then develop the branding themselves. Ninety per cent are primarily concerned with one thing: How to maximise their yield,” Naruemon said.
But she acknowledged that demand for specialty coffee has become an opportunity for farmers to lift their quality of life if done right.
“It becomes a virtuous circle. That’s my perspective: Healthy soil, good yields, better quality, and healthier lives,” she said.
PANA Coffee is one company trying to connect smallholder farmers and consumers.
It is attempting to do specialty coffee at scale and has made major investments in infrastructure at its sprawling complex on the outskirts of Chiang Mai city to ramp up processing of organic high-end beans.
The company’s philosophy is to lift the entire industry from seed to cup, to improve livelihoods, value and enjoyment of coffee, Kompit said.
PANA runs an initiative called Project Shade that involves 22 different grower groups spanning multiple provinces to help farmers implement organic practices into their operations.
“Thailand doesn’t produce enough coffee for ourselves. So, there’s still room to grow. Whether that’s enough land to grow, that’s another story. But I really believe that with the existing land, and if more farmers embrace shared, grown organic practice, they can produce a lot more specialty grade coffee,” he said.
In addition, the company runs education courses through an academy to upskill coffee professionals and also invites farmers to taste their own coffee – a rarity for many.
“Then when they go back, it’s like a paradigm shift for them, like, ‘Oh, if I do this, if I do that, my coffee will taste like this, and more people will want to buy it’,” he said.
“Basically, it’s exposure to what the consumers like that allows people who grow coffee to know what to do with their crops, and it’s like building a bridge.”
For Lee, he sees the changes starting to manifest in local communities: Young people are staying in the mountains instead of seeking jobs in the city, or returning home with new skills and enthusiasm.
“You look at the other jobs in agriculture, not many people are proud to do them. But in coffee, you feel like a pioneer and we’re proud to do it,” he said.
“I think this is a game changer for Thailand, if we can keep growing the quality.”
FROM COMMODITY TO LUXURY PRODUCT?
Coffee roasteries and specialty cafes around the country are being forced to walk a fine line between serving a burgeoning trend and making their business work in a period defined by inflationary costs, a sluggish local economy and limited supply of beans on the market.
The rise in the global price in coffee has been profound over the past decade, but especially this year.
Arabica coffee has increased in cost by 63 per cent from 2015 to 2024, when it averaged US$5.63 per kilogram. In February this year, it topped US$9 per kg.
Robusta – higher in caffeine and usually used for instant coffee or blends – has seen similar trends and nearly a threefold increase in price since 2020.
As yields have dropped in Thailand, the scramble to access beans of high quality, to suit what customers increasingly want, has gone full tilt.
Cafes are competing for the same domestic supplies and are having to secure coffee through contracts years into the future.
“It’s so competitive. It’s almost silly at this point. You have to make a commitment to pay for coffee that is not even on the trees yet. And for some people, it might be a huge risk,” said Han Wang, an artisanal coffee roaster and co-founder of PHIL Coffee in Bangkok.
Thailand will also need to import approximately 80,000 tonnes of coffee beans, instant coffee and other coffee products this year to meet local demand, the government said in March.
Coffee from non-ASEAN markets, which would include popular source countries in Africa and South America, attracts an import duty of up to 90 per cent.
Roasteries and retailers are the ones bearing the raised costs, said Wang. The high levels of competition makes it difficult to significantly increase the price of a cup of coffee, he explained.
“The only way to counteract the import duties is to improve the local coffee. It’s actually way better than, like, two decades ago. It’s actually crazy good now,” he said.
“But then, we still face a problem of quantity, in terms of local production.”
As thousands of cafes open each year in Thailand, the tough market conditions means closure rates are high. LINE MAN Wongnai reported that 43 per cent of Thai cafes are shuttering within their first year.
JENNA Ortega has gone topless for an ultra-sexy look at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night.
The Wednesday actress left little to the imagination as she rocked a massive jeweled necklace that covered up just enough of her bare chest as she made her way down the Emmys red carpet.
Jenna Ortega attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, CaliforniaCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Besides the bejeweled piece, which was custom-designed by Givenchy, Jenna, 22, was not wearing anything else for her risky top.
The crystal jewels were strategically placed to cover part of her chest, but a lot of skin was still visible for the nearly-naked look.
She completed the outfit with a black maxi skirt that also kept it sexy with a thigh-high slit.
The young Hollywood starlet rocked her signature darker makeup, complete with a smoky eye and burgundy lipstick.
She pulled her hair back into a ponytail as her long, wavy bangs framed her face.
Fans were floored by the look, which some are saying is Jenna’s “sultriest” one yet.
“OH MY GOD JENNA i was not prepared to be gagged like this,” one Emmys viewer wrote.
“Obsessed is an understatement holy f**k she’s so hot,” another exclaimed.
“That stomach. That face. Jenna Ortega the woman that you are,” a third said alongside a row of heart-eye emoji’s.
“This top is a SERVE and her face card NEVER declines. Get it mama!!! Already my #BestDressed,” one more said.
While Jenna is not nominated tonight, she is there to promote season 2 of her hit Netflix show, Wednesday.
The Palm Springs, CA native was nominated for her role as Wednesday Addams at the 2023 Emmy Awards.
Season 2 of the series was released in early September – making it ineligible for the 2025 Emmy nominations deadline.
SEEING STARS
Besides Jenna, many more of the largest stars in Hollywood made their way down the red carpet at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles for TV’s big night.
Selena Gomez strutted down the carpet with her fiancé Benny Blanco, wearing a form-fitting red dress with a long train.
Sydney Sweeney is a presenter at the ceremony and sported a strapless ruby gown that showed off her cleavage.
Severance creator Ben Stiller was joined by his wife Christine Taylor, as they both looked stunning as they posed for photos at the venue.
Dancing With The Stars star Derek Hough looked dapper in his black tie double-breasted ensemble.
Meanwhile, Walton Goggins flaunted his chest in a thin white shirt and matching jacket on the carpet.
The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge rocked a skintight black gown, with matching full-length gloves, and her blonde hair in an updo.
Comedian Megan Stalter shocked viewers when she opted for an extremely casual look.
The Hacks star donned Levi jeans, a white Hanes t-shirt, which she declared in an interview.
She paired the simple fit with ballerina flats, a black shoulder bag with the handwritten message “Cease Fire” on the front, sunglasses, and her brunette hair falling straight down.
Kathy Bates, who’s nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Matlock, also drew attention with her ensemble.
AT LEAST 15 people were killed in a devastating fireball crash in a Mexican highway, officials confirmed.
The deadly smash unfolded after a truck packed with workers crashed into a car and a taxi, erupting in flames.
At least 15 people were killed in a horror crash in MexicoCredit: Yury Tamayo
They were driving on a road linking the towns of Merida and Campeche, in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, when tragedy happened.
Shocking footage captured the tragic aftermath of Saturday’s crash, showing a vehicle engulfed in flames and thick black smoke.
The head-on impact caused the truck to erupt in flames, leaving 14 people – including the driver – charred or crushed inside, Diario de Yucatán reported.
Another victim died at the scene, bringing the death toll to 15.
The local outlet reported that three more were pulled out alive and rushed to nearby hospitals.
Witnesses told Diario de Yucatán of the gruesome scene, with people trapped in the burning wreckage as others tragically laid lifeless on the road.
Firefighters, paramedics and state police raced to put out the flames and rescue survivors.
Meanwhile, the National Guard and forensic teams secured the crash site.
Authorities have not yet released the identities of the victims or the exact cause of the crash.
The local outlet said the collision ranks as the worst road tragedy in Yucatán in 50 years.
The previous deadliest crash was in 1979, when a bus overturned, killing 11 and injuring 43.
Governor Joaquin Diaz Mena offered condolences to grieving families.
“We express our solidarity and support to the affected families during this painful moment,” he said in a statement on X.
He added: “Since the first report, emergency, security, and health services are attending to the situation to provide immediate assistance.”
Just days ago, a train slammed into a double decker bus – leaving ten dead and dozens injured.
The speeding freight train T-boned a coach full of people at a grade crossing in Atlacomulco, 80 miles northwest of Mexico City.
Footage showed the entire bus folding and being carried along by the train, which continued for hundreds of metres.
CHARLIE Kirk’s suspected killer was spotted kissing his transgender partner just two weeks before the assassination, The Sun can reveal.
Tyler Robinson, 22, had reportedly been living with his unidentified lover at a home in Utah.
Robinson is accused of killing Donald Trump ally Charlie KirkCredit: Getty
The partner is said to be fully cooperating with the FBI on its investigation into the shooting of the conservative activist Kirk.
Robinson’s neighbour Josh Kemp, 18, confirmed the alleged gunman was in a relationship with his roommate who he described as “weird”.
Kemp said: “I saw them holding hands. They drove off in Tyler’s car. It was about two weeks ago.
“They looked like they were a couple and he was dressed all in black.
“I thought he was weird because of the way he walked and I’ve never seen anyone dressed like that. He was wearing a mask.
“I believed he was transitioning because I heard them talking about a doctor’s appointment.”
The 22-year-old suspect recently moved into a smart condo with a wreath on the door in a complex which includes a hot tub, swimming pool, fitness centre and walking trails.
The property is five miles from his family home, and there is a vehicle parked in the numbered space.
Sources told the New York Post that the partner was transitioning from male to female.
Text messages and other communications the transgender individual exchanged with Robinson reportedly helped cops catch the accused assassin.
It comes after authorities revealed on Friday that a “roommate” had helped the investigation by revealing messages from a contact named “Tyler”.
The same contact described bullet casings with similar “meme” messages found to those at the scene, and discussed the “need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point”.
Kirk, the 31-year-old Trump ally and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday while addressing students at Utah Valley University.
The last question he was ever asked was: “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?”
Kirk was one of the most popular young conservative figures in America – and his death was the latest in a storm of political violence that has swept the US.
Utah governor Spencer Cox called the attack a “dark chapter” and a “watershed moment” for American politics.
And it comes off the back of shocking cases such as the attempted assassination of President Trump last July, and the killing of Democrat state rep Melissa Hortman.
With no official motive – both sides are now scrambling to distance themselves from college dropout Robinson as people try to piece together his politics.
But in the most definitive statement yet, Gov. Cox told the Wall Street Journal: “It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”
The picture emerging of the assassin paints him as quiet and geeky – seemingly not someone who was overtly politically engaged.
Friends describe him as loving video games, spending time on Reddit, and at the press conference yesterday it was confirmed he used the chat service Discord.
Robinson, 22, who was raised a Mormon, was taken into custody on Thursday night near his family home in southern Utah.
The shooting of Kirk was immediately dubbed a “political assassination” – and quickly saw Trump and his allies rage against the “radical left”.
The former student comes from a Trump-supporting family and had a conservative and gun-loving upbringing, but one pal said he was “left wing”.
And meanwhile messages he allegedly wrote on bullets have been linked to both anti-fascist causes and online meme culture.
The connections to the irreverent humour led some to speculate he could have been linked to the alt-right Groyper movement.
Millions of children in West and Central Africa are being forced out of attending school due to worsening insecurity. Despite efforts to combat banditry and conflict the crisis continues, particularly in North Nigeria.
More and more children across Africa are being forced out of school and sent to work in dangerous locations like mineshafts insteadImage: Safidy Andrianantenaina/UNICEF
A September 2025 report by the UN has revealed that nearly 15,000 schools were closed in West and Central Africa as of mid-2025.
The situation is particularly prevalent in Nigeria and Cameroon, where insecurity and conflict has forced millions to relocate from their original places of abode.
According to the UN, insecurity in the region has disrupted education for “more than 3 million children” though experts believe the reality is widely underreported.
Busola Rafiat Ojo-oba, a social worker and a gender-based violence specialist in Lagos, believes the actual number hovers around “over 5 million school children,” with nearly 500 schools closed in Nigeria alone.
“In a country [where] poverty is multidimensional and people will not be able to break the cycle of poverty anytime soon, the number of out-of-school children and the rate of unemployment is skyrocketing, because teachers and school administrators cannot continue teaching,” she told DW.
Many children pushed out of education system
The UN report indicates that throughout the region, “[b]etween June 2024 and June 2025 alone, the number of closed schools rose from 14,364 to 14,829, disrupting the education of more than 3 million children.”
“Many children have been out of school for years,” the report further indicated.
Efe Johnson, a Youth Leader and Rights Advocate based in the Nigerian capital Abuja, says that although the overall rate of such school closures may have declined in recent months, the impact of previous closures continues to put the education of many school children in jeopardy.
“In the Northeast for example, so many schools shut down at the height of the [Boko Haram] insurgency. And the reality is that a lot of those schools never reopened, and they probably never will. Many children who were pushed out of the system never went back. They’ve just grown up outside the system,” Johnson told DW.
Experts however also believe that more sinister elements might be at play: In the case of boys, many fear that some might be recruited as child fighters while with girls, there is the concern of teenage pregnancies keeping some from returning to school.
Either way, the developments of the last decade have had some devastating effects on education, with no apparent end in sight.
Families fearing for their children
The doors of many schools in some major population areas like Anka, Bukuyyum, Maru, Shinkafi, Tsafe and Zurmi remain shut — all located in Zamfara State in northwest Nigeria.
Some schools, like the Government Day Secondary School, remain operational but many children attend their lessons in fear, which also is causing a decline in attendance, explains Umar Rabat, a teacher at the school.
“The kidnapping and banditry have created a lot of fear, so families — especially those with daughters — will feel like it’s safer to just keep them at home than risk them being abducted on their way to school,” he explained.
Ojo-oba agrees, saying that families are too busy adjusting their lives to cope with the situation every day, causing some parents to take drastic measures, including keeping their children, especially females, out of school.
“Parents can’t risk receiving that call to say their children are being kidnapped or held hostage. In addition to this fact, in the middle of insecurity their needs will revolve around food, shelter, clothing and safety. So, education will not be on the forefront of their needs,” she added.
Limited government intervention
Umar meanwhile further highlights precautions that have been taken by authorities in areas with inadequate security, such as motorcycles and vehicles being provided to security personnel and community guards to reinforce safety with day and night patrols.
Some other government interventions have included the relocation of students from conflict-prone areas to safer localities.
Especially with internally displaced populations (IDPs), the Nigerian government has also established a national framework of mini camps, built to allow children to continue their education.
However, some experts say these efforts are by far not enough to get Nigeria’s education system back on track:
“They are mostly short-lived because if funding runs out or the program stalls, what’s next?” says Efe.
COVID-era solutions to the rescue
In Nigeria’s West African neighbor, Ghana, at least 44 schools have also been closed with nearly 5,000 pupils displaced due to conflicts in the country’s Savannah Region.
Think tank Africa Education Watch describes conflict as a “destructive factor in basic education,” with its executive director, Kofi Asare, saying that part of the problem is the fact that teachers are vacating their posts over fear for their own lives.
“In Ghana as we speak, teachers have fled Gbinyiri, which is a community in the Savannah Region, where conflict in the past three weeks alone has killed over 30 and displaced 5,000 pupils, denying them access to basic education.”
Asare adds that therefore there is a dire need for authorities across West and Central Africa to implement the Education and Emergency Plan once more, which was adopted by West African countries during COVID-19; he finds that this plan provides a framework for the deployment of learning to occur on virtual technologies, as conflict is only bound to continue.
Voter turnout was 58.5%, much higher than the 51.9% from the last local elections in 2020Image: Revierfoto/IMAGO
North Rhine-Westphalia is CDU’s ‘powerhouse’ — state premier
North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wüst of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party called his state “the powerhouse of the CDU.”
Wüst wrote on X after initial projections on Sunday evening showed that his party is set for victory in Germany’s most populous state.
The result also demonstrates that the center-right party in North Rhine-Westphalia is “the pacesetter for strong election results for the CDU throughout Germany,” Wüst said.
SPD co-leader disappointed by NRW election results
Bärbel Bas, the co-chairperson of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), said she is disappointed at her party’s showing in local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday.
Bas, who is also the federal Labor Minister, acknowledged to regional public broadcaster WDR that the party was unable to “stop the downward trend.”
“The results do not make me happy, of course,” she added.
The SPD is projected to finish second, with around 22% of the vote.
However, Bas insisted that the outcome is not the disaster for the SPD that had been predicted ahead of the vote.
“We must, of course, ask ourselves how we can get out of this slump,” said Bas, who added that the performance of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) should be a concern for all democratic parties.
The SPD has struggled at the ballot box recently. February’s federal election was the party’s worst result since 1887.
Germany beats Turkey to win EuroBasket title
Germany’s men’s basketball team won its second ever European title after defeating Turkey in the EuroBasket 2025 final in Riga on Sunday night.
The reigning world champions beat the Turks 88-83 thanks to a strong showing from NBA star Dennis Schröder, who was named the MVP of the tournament.
Legacy of racist Nuremberg Laws still lingers in Germany
Who is German — and what exactly makes someone German? Germans have been arguing about these issues for centuries.
The constitution, called the Basic Law, is clear: a German is anyone with a German passport.
Citizenship cannot be revoked, and discriminating against citizens on the basis of their religion, origin or language violates the Basic Law’s fundamental values.
This is one of the lessons learned from the Nazi regime’s reign of terror from 1933 to 1945, which systematically disenfranchised, terrorized and murdered Germany’s Jewish population in particular. Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, disabled people and political opponents, among others, were also targeted and were denied their German identity.
Thieves steal almost all ripe grapes from 2 vineyards
Nearly all of the ripe grapes have been stolen from two vineyards covering an area of around 8,000 square meters in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate .
The theft is estimated to cost two independent winemakers in the village of Gundheim “several thousand euros,” police said in a statement.
The village is near the city of Worms, which is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt am Main.
The grape varieties affected are Riesling and Sauvignon blanc.
Authorities said the alleged perpetrators had “acted professionally and with considerable logistical effort.”
“Due to the amount of stolen goods, it must be assumed that at least one larger vehicle or several means of transport were used,” police said.
Anyone witnessing suspicious people or vehicles near the vineyards between September 6 and Sunday has been asked to contact the police.
AfD is now a ‘major party’ — Chrupalla
Tino Chrupalla, the co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with Alice Weidel, hailed the initial forecasts, which predict that his far-right party has more than tripled its share of votes in the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.
“We are a major party and we all bear a great responsibility for Germany,” he posted on X.
Top CDU lawmaker Spahn hails NRW vote boost, warns over far-right gains
The outcome of North Rhine-Westphalia’s local elections gives the federal ruling coalition a lift, according to CDU parliamentary leader Jens Spahn. The coalition led by Friedrich Merz consists of the conservative CDU/CSU block and the center-left SPD.
“The strong result in NRW is the reward for good local work and gives the coalition in Berlin a tailwind,” said the native of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
Spahn described the outcome of the municipal vote as motivation for “calm, pragmatic work,” which he said voters clearly value. But he warned that the surge of the far right, illustrated by the increasing support for the AfD, must be a wake-up call. According to the lawmaker, this shows that issues like poverty-driven migration, welfare abuse and failed integration “must not be taboo” and require concrete action.
Following the Sunday vote in Germany’s NRW state, projections indicate the CDU will secure 34.2% support, roughly matching its historically poor 34.3% in 2020. The SPD followed with 22.6%, down 1.7 points. The AfD more than tripled its 2020 result, reaching 16.4%.
Germany’s Green Party suffer heavy losses in local elections
Following the NRW vote, the Green Party is due to win 11.7% of the vote — a massive drop compared to 20% they won in the 2020 municipal election.
On Sunday, the Greens federal co-chair Felix Banaszak said the party would have to wait and see “where we end up.”
He described the poor result as a sign of the current mood, saying ecological and progressive politics are facing headwinds, not only in Germany but elsewhere.
Banaszak said the Greens are in a difficult position that is partly of their own making.
He also acknowledged mistakes made by the previous ruling coalition led by former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which also included the Green Party.
Banaszak said a party does not lose eight percentage points “if it did everything right.”
The names of Kulman Ghising, Om Prakash Aryal, Rameshore Khanal, and Bala Nanda Sharma have been sent to Nepal’s President as Nepal’s interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki finalises her Cabinet.
Kulman Ghising is credited with eliminating load-shedding nationwide. (Image: Facebook)
Nepal’s interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki has finalised several names for her Cabinet, with recommendations already sent to the President’s Office, sources at Sheetal Niwas (Rashtrapati Bhawan) said. Among them is Kulman Ghising, the former Nepal Electricity Authority chief credited with power sector reforms, who is expected to take charge of the Energy Ministry.
Alongside Ghising, senior lawyer Om Prakash Aryal has been recommended for Home, former Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal for Finance, and retired Lieutenant General Bala Nanda Sharma for Defence.
Sources close to Karki said discussions on the remaining ministerial portfolios will be held later. Sheetal Niwas indicated that the swearing-in ceremony could take place as early as Monday.
Other expected appointments include former national cricket captain Paras Khadka for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Aseem Man Singh Basnet, founder of ride-sharing platform Pathao Nepal, for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.
Kulman Ghising is best known for ending years of daily power cuts during his tenure at the Electricity Authority. He’s a popular figure, who was one of the contenders proposed by sections of protesting Gen Z groups as the interim head of government.
Sushila Karki, who assumed office on Sunday just days after the fall of KP Sharma Oli’s government, has pledged to serve only six months before handing over authority to a newly elected Parliament. “My team and I are not here to taste power. We won’t stay for more than 6 months. We won’t succeed without your support,” she said in her first address to the nation.
Cops called the violence they faced ‘wholly unacceptable’
AT LEAST 25 protesters have been arrested in London after 150,000 people turned up to a Tommy Robinson rally in the capital.
Violence erupted across the capital with 26 riot cops injured, including four seriously, after being punched, kicked and attacked with projectiles, the Met police confirmed.
Protesters taking part in a ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally are held back by police officers in central LondonCredit: EPA
One was left with broken teeth as another was sent to hospital for a possible broken nose and concussion.
Surging crowds headed to Whitehall, central London, this afternoon for the “Unite the Kingdom” march as the numbers far exceeded what the police had been expecting.
More than 1,600 officers had been deployed to the capital on Saturday afternoon, with the Met calling in hundreds of officers from across the country.
Cops faced “significant aggression” as protesters descended on London.
Projectiles were launched as clashes broke out as certain individuals tried to enter a designated “safe space” and reach counter Stand Up To Racism protesters.
A statement from the Met said: “When officers intervened to block their path they were assaulted with kicks and punches.
“Bottles, flares and other projectiles were also thrown and concerted attempts to get past barriers were made.”
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist added: “Officers went into today’s operation knowing it would be busy and potentially challenging.
“There is no doubt that many came to exercise their lawful right to protest, but there were many who came intent on violence.
“They confronted officers, engaging in physical and verbal abuse and making a determined effort to breach cordons in place to keep everyone safe.
“The violence they faced was wholly unacceptable.
“26 officers were injured, including four seriously – among them broken teeth, a possible broken nose, a concussion, a prolapsed disc and a head injury.
“The 25 arrests we have made so far is just the start. Our post-event investigation has already begun.
“We are identifying those who were involved in the disorder and they can expect to face robust police action in the coming days and weeks.”
Dozens of Robinson’s pals spoke at the rally including Ant Middleton, Laurence Fox and Katie Hopkins.
Elon Musk even appeared via video link as he congratulated Robinson for “putting together an amazing event”.
Asked by Robinson why he was supporting the event, South African-born Musk said: “I’m of primarily British heritage, British ancestry.
“I want Britain to be greater than it ever has been, I want Britain to remain Britain, there’s something beautiful about being British.
“What I see happening is a destruction of Britain, initially slow erosion but a rapidly increasing erosion with massive uncontrolled migration.
“The Government has failed in its duty to protect the people.”
It ended just after 6:35pm – running over by 35 minutes – as Robinson urged the crowds to thank the police as they left.
Thousands left peacefully but dozens remained for some time at the scene around Nelson’s Column.
Afterwards Robinson posted on X as he claimed millions attended the march.
Cops said the real number sat somewhere in between 110,000 to 150,000.
The far-right activist continued: “We came, we saw, we conquered.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio headed to Israel on Saturday, amid tensions with fellow U.S. allies in the Middle East over Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar and expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Speaking to reporters before departure, Rubio reiterated that the U.S. and President Donald Trump were not happy about the strikes.
Rubio said the U.S. relationship with Israel would not be affected, but that he would discuss with the Israelis how the strike would affect Trump’s desire to secure the return of all the hostages held by Hamas, get rid of the militants and end the Gaza war.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them. We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” he said.
“There are still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately, all at once. And there is still the hard work ahead once this ends, of rebuilding Gaza in a way that provides people the quality of life that they all want.”
Rubio said it had yet to be determined who would do that, who would pay for it and who would be in charge of the process.
After Israel, Rubio is due to join Trump’s planned visit to Britain next week.
Israel’s nearly two-year-long campaign has killed more than 64,000 people in the Palestinian enclave, according to local authorities. It has sparked a hunger crisis and led to allegations that Israel is committing genocide, including this month by the world’s biggest group of genocide scholars.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to members of the media, before departing for Israel at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., September 13, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool Purchase Licensing Rights
Israel launched its campaign after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and resulted in the capture of 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Hamas still holds 48 hostages, and Qatar has been one of the mediators, along with the U.S., trying to secure a ceasefire deal that would include the captives’ release.
On Tuesday, Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha. U.S. officials described it as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests.
The strike on the territory of a close U.S. ally sparked broad condemnation from other Arab states and derailed ceasefire and hostage talks brokered by Qatar.
On Friday, Rubio met with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House, underscoring competing interests in the region that Rubio will seek to balance on his trip. Later that day, U.S. President Donald Trump held dinner with the prime minister in New York.
Rubio’s trip comes ahead of high-level meetings at the United Nations in New York later this month. Countries including France and Britain are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood, a move opposed by Israel.
Horses graze in Plauru, Romania, September 5, 2023. REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Romania scrambled fighter jets on Saturday when a drone breached the country’s airspace during a Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure near the border, the defense ministry said.
Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu said the F-16 pilots came close to taking down the drone as it was flying very low before it left national airspace toward Ukraine.
A threat of drone strikes also prompted Poland to deploy aircraft and close an airport in the eastern city of Lublin on Saturday, three days after it shot down Russian drones in its airspace with the backing of aircraft from its NATO allies.
Romania, a European Union and NATO state which shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly since Russia began waging war on its neighbor.
On Saturday, it scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and later two Eurofighters – part of German air policing missions in Romania – and warned citizens in the southeastern county of Tulcea near the Danube and its Ukrainian border to take cover, the defense ministry said in a statement.
It added the jets detected a drone in national airspace, which they followed until it dropped off the radar 20 km southwest of the village of Chilia Veche.
Mosteanu told private television station Antena 3 that helicopters will survey the area near the border to look for potential drone parts, “but all information at this moment indicates the drone exited airspace to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media platform X that data showed the drone breached about 10 kilometers into Romanian territory and operated in NATO airspace for around 50 minutes.
“It is an obvious expansion of the war by Russia – and this is exactly how they act,” he said. “Sanctions against Russia are needed. Tariffs against Russian trade are needed. Collective defense is needed.”
NATO announced plans to beef up the defense of Europe’s eastern flank on Friday, after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace, the first known shots fired by a member of the Western alliance during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Richard Marles, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, speaks during an announcement at the Royal Australian Navy base HMAS Kuttabul, in Sydney, Australia, September 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The United States will be able to use planned defence facilities in Western Australia that are to help deliver nuclear-powered submarines under the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday.
Australia will spend A$12 billion ($8 billion) to upgrade facilities at the Henderson shipyard near Perth, as part of a 20-year plan to transform it into the maintenance hub for its AUKUS submarine fleet, the government said on Saturday.
The AUKUS pact, sealed by Australia, Britain and the U.S. in 2021, aims to provide Australia with attack submarines from the next decade to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.
President Donald Trump’s administration is undertaking a formal review of the pact led by Elbridge Colby, a top Pentagon policy official and public critic of the agreement.
Asked on Sunday if the U.S. would be able to use dry docks at the facility for its nuclear-powered submarines, Marles said, “This is an AUKUS facility and so I would expect so.”
“This is about being able to sustain and maintain Australia’s future submarines but it is very much a facility that is being built in the context of AUKUS,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television. “I would expect that in the future this would be available to the U.S.”
The centre-left Labor government made an initial investment of A$127 million last year to upgrade facilities at the shipyard, which will also build the new landing craft for the Australian army and the new general-purpose frigates for the navy, supporting around 10,000 local jobs.
Under AUKUS – worth hundreds of billions of dollars – Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine.
Before the Virginia-class submarines, the facility will receive “a rotation of U.S. and UK vessels”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday.
“This will provide for a significant benefit for our allies, which is part of the AUKUS arrangement,” Albanese told a press conference in Perth.
The Republican and Democratic heads of a U.S. congressional committee for strategic competition with China expressed strong support for AUKUS in July.
F-35 fighter jets taxi on the runway at the former Roosevelt Roads military base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, September 13, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo Purchase Licensing Rights
Five U.S. F-35 aircraft were seen landing in Puerto Rico on Saturday after President Donald Trump last week ordered 10 of the stealth fighters to join a military buildup in the Caribbean to counter drug cartels amid rising tensions with Venezuela.
The F-35s were seen landing at the former Roosevelt Roads military base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, by Ricky Arduengo, a contract photographer working for Reuters. U.S. helicopters and Osprey aircraft as well as other U.S. transport aircraft and military personnel have been seen at the base in recent days.
The latest sightings come after a surprise visit to Puerto Rico this week by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth along with the top U.S. general amid escalating tensions with Venezuela.
Asked about the aircraft, a Pentagon duty press officer said: “We have no force posture changes to announce currently.”
Sources told Reuters last week that the Trump administration ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to conduct operations against drug cartels.
In announcing the plan last week to send more aircraft to the region, Trump said the United States was not talking about regime change in Venezuela.
Last week, the U.S. military killed 11 people in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics in the first known operation since the Trump administration’s recent deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.
Venezuela has said none of the 11 people killed were drug traffickers.
A poster of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is displayed at a memorial following the fatal shooting of Kirk, at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., September 12, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Machowicz/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
After the fatal shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, U.S. Republicans have a warning for Americans: Mourn him respectfully or suffer the consequences.
Over the past several days, Democratic and Republican leaders have widely condemned the murder of Kirk, a 31-year-old activist and Trump world celebrity known for his hard-right views and pugnacious debating style.
A smattering of commentators – including ordinary people joking about and sometimes celebrating Kirk’s death to lawmakers and pundits dwelling on his history of bigoted rhetoric – has also surfaced, only to be targeted in organized campaigns.
At least 15 people have been fired or suspended from their jobs after discussing the killing online, according to a Reuters tally based on interviews, public statements and local press reports. The total includes journalists, academic workers and teachers. On Friday, a junior Nasdaq employee was fired over her posts related to Kirk.
Others have been subjected to torrents of online abuse or seen their offices flooded with calls demanding they be fired, part of a surge in right-wing rage that has followed the killing.
Some Republicans want to go further still and have proposed deporting Kirk’s critics from the United States, suing them into penury or banning them from social media for life.
“Prepare to have your whole future professional aspirations ruined if you are sick enough to celebrate his death,” said conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, opens new tab, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump and one of several far-right figures who are organizing digital campaigns on X, the social media site, to ferret out and publicly shame Kirk’s critics.
U.S. lawmaker Clay Higgins said in a post on X, opens new tab that anyone who “ran their mouth with their smartass hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man” needed to be “banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER.” The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on the same site that he had been disgusted to “see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action.”
Republicans’ anger at those disrespecting Kirk’s legacy contrasts with the mockery some of the same figures – including Kirk – directed at past victims of political violence.
For example, when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was clubbed over the head by a hammer-wielding conspiracy theorist during a break-in at their San Francisco home shortly before the 2022 midterm elections, Higgins posted a photo making fun of the attack. He later deleted the post.
Loomer falsely suggested, opens new tab that Paul Pelosi and his assailant were lovers, calling the brutal assault on the octogenarian a “booty call gone wrong.” Speaking to a television audience a few days after the attack, a grinning Kirk called for the intruder to be sprung from jail.
“If some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail this guy out,” he said.
WEBSITE “EXPOSE CHARLIE’S MURDERERS” REGISTERED
The campaign to fire Kirk’s critics has not slowed. Calls to run people out of jobs have flooded across X. A newly registered site, “Expose Charlie’s Murderers,” has 41 names of people it alleged were “supporting political violence online” and claims to be working on a backlog of more than 20,000 submissions.
A Reuters review of the screenshots and comments posted to the site shows that some of those featured joked about or celebrated Kirk’s death. One was quoted as saying, “He got what he deserved” and others were quoted providing variations on “karma’s a bitch.” Others, however, were critical of the far-right figure while explicitly denouncing violence.
Still others appear to have done little more than point out that a longtime gun control foe had been shot to death. At least three accurately quoted Kirk’s 2023 comments in which he told a crowd that some gun deaths were “worth it,” saying that the annual drumbeat of firearms-related killings in the United States was “a prudent deal” in exchange for the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
One person who was featured on the site said their employer had been bombarded by phone calls, with callers threatening not to let up until they were fired or disciplined. The person said they plan to avoid the office in the coming days.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered this week’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar, he took a major gamble in his campaign to pound the group into submission.
With signs growing that the mission failed, that gamble appears to have backfired.
Netanyahu had hoped to kill Hamas’ senior exiled leaders to get closer toward his vision of “total victory” against the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and pressure it into surrendering after nearly two years of war in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, Hamas claims its leaders survived, and Netanyahu’s global standing, already badly damaged by the scenes of destruction and humanitarian disaster in Gaza, took another hit.
The airstrike Tuesday has enraged Qatar, an influential U.S. ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, and drawn heavy criticism across the Arab world. It also has strained relations with the White House and thrown hopes of reaching a ceasefire into disarray, potentially endangering the 20 hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza.
But while the strike marks a setback for Netanyahu, the Israeli leader shows no sign of backing down or halting the war. And with his hard-line coalition still firmly behind him, Netanyahu faces no immediate threat to his rule.
Netanyahu’s hope for an ‘image of victory’ for his government
Five low-level Hamas members and a Qatari security guard were killed in the strike. But Hamas has said the intended target, senior exiled leaders meeting to discuss a new U.S. ceasefire proposal, all survived. The group, however, has not released any photos of the leaders, and Qatar has not commented on their conditions.
If the airstrike had killed the top leadership, the attack could have provided Netanyahu an opportunity declare Hamas’ destruction, said Harel Chorev, an expert on Arab affairs at Tel Aviv University.
“It’s all very symbolic and it’s definitely part of the thing which allows Netanyahu at a certain point to say ‘We won, we killed them all,’” he said.
Israel’s fierce 23-month offensive in Gaza has wiped out all of Hamas’ top leadership inside the territory. But Netanyahu has set out to eradicate the group as part of his goal of “total victory.”
That is now looking increasingly unlikely, making it even harder for Netanyahu to push a ceasefire through his hard-line coalition.
Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition have cornered Netanyahu, threatening to topple his government unless Israel pushes ahead with an expanded operation in Gaza City, despite serious misgivings by many in the military leadership and widespread opposition among Israel’s public.
A successful operation in Qatar could have allowed Netanyahu to placate the hard-liners, even though it would have eliminated the very officials responsible for negotiating a possible ceasefire.
Burning the channel with Qatar
Israel has had the ability to target Hamas leaders in Doha from the start of the war but did not want to antagonize the Qataris while negotiations took place, Chorev said.
Qatar has helped negotiate two previous ceasefires that have released 148 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s military has rescued just eight hostages alive, and retrieved the bodies of 51 hostages.
While Israel has complained that Qatar was not putting pressure on Hamas, it had continued to leave that channel open — until Tuesday.
“Israel, by the attack, notified the whole world that it gave up on the negotiations,” Chorev said. “They’ve decided to burn the channel with Qatar.”
Asked if ceasefire talks would continue, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that after the strike, “I don’t think there’s anything valid” in the current talks. But he did not elaborate and stopped short of saying Qatar would end its mediation efforts.
How Netanyahu hopes to win the release of the remaining hostages remains unclear.
On Thursday, Sheikh Mohammed accused Israel of abandoning the hostages.
“Extremists that rule Israel today do not care about the hostages — otherwise, how do we justify the timing of this attack?” Sheikh Mohammed told the U.N. Security Council.
Nonetheless, he said his country was ready to resume its mediation without giving any indication of next steps. On Friday, Sheikh Mohammed met in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was scheduled to visit Israel this weekend in a sign of how the Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies.
Straining ties with the US
Netanyahu, who has received ironclad support from the U.S. since President Donald Trump returned to office, appears to have strained ties with his most important ally.
Trump said he was “very unhappy” about the airstrike and assured the Qataris such an attack would not happen again.
Trump, however, has not said whether he would take any punitive action against Israel or indicated that he will pressure Netanyahu to halt the war.
Netanyahu, in the meantime, remains undeterred and threatened additional action if Qatar continues to host the Hamas leadership.
The message to Hamas is clear, he said Thursday: “There is no place where we cannot reach you.”
Little impact on the war in Gaza
Israel is pressing ahead with its expanded offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City. The military has urged a full evacuation of the area holding around 1 million people ahead of an expected invasion.
“Netanyahu’s government is adamant to go on with the military operation in Gaza,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Israel has brushed off calls to halt the war from the United Nations, the European Union and a growing number of major Western countries who plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. Security Council later this month, she said.
The only one who might be able to change this trajectory is Trump, she added, by telling Israel “enough is enough.”
India Today visited casinos near the India-Nepal border in cities like Dhangadhi and Kanchanpur, where the aftermath of recent violent protests is clearly visible. Several of these facilities were targeted during the unrest, and were vandalised and looted.
Nepal is slowly emerging from five days of violent protests that have left at least 50 people dead and caused widespread damage across several cities. While the protests initially targeted government offices and infrastructure, the unrest soon spread to private businesses, including one of Nepal’s most prominent and lucrative sectors: the casino industry.
Casinos in Nepal, particularly those located near the India-Nepal border in cities like Dhangadhi and Kanchanpur, catering primarily to Indian tourists and foreign nationals as local Nepali citizens are not permitted to gamble, have been vandalised and looted.
In Kanchanpur, one of the city’s biggest casinos was stormed by a large crowd during the peak of the unrest. The mob reportedly forced entry into the building, damaged slot machines and gaming tables, looted cash and valuables, and caused extensive destruction across multiple areas of the facility, including the dance floor and restaurant sections.
The remnants of broken furniture, shattered mirrors and disconnected electrical systems are visible throughout the property, which now remains sealed off.
The recent turmoil has also put a heavy economic toll. In Dhangadhi, where India Today visited the site of a major casino, the building stands locked and deserted. There is no activity inside and security guards are not letting anyone near the premises.
These establishments, often housed within or attached to large hotels, play a significant role in the tourism economy of the region. However, following the wave of unrest, many of these casinos have either been vandalised or ransacked and all have now been shut down indefinitely.
According to local sources, the casinos has been closed since the protests turned violent. Business owners and hotel operators in the area have expressed concern over safety, especially after reports emerged that a mob had attacked and set fire to the Hilton Hotel nearby, a property closely linked to one of the largest casinos in the region.
Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu, which alone reported damages exceeding Rs 8 billion, My Republica news portal reported, quoting a HAN statement.
Additionally, Nepal’s hotel industry, a key pillar of its tourism-driven economy, has incurred losses exceeding Rs 25 billion following widespread vandalism, looting and arson during the recent student-led anti-government protests, according to a media report released Friday.
Nearly two dozen hotels across major cities including Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara, Butwal, Bhairahawa, Jhapa, Biratnagar, Dhangadhi, Mahottari and Dang-Tulsipur were damaged during the unrest. Both domestic and international hotel brands were affected.
According to the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), many of the damaged properties will remain closed until significant repairs and reconstruction are completed, putting the jobs of more than 2,000 hotel workers at risk.
Meanwhile, the appointment of Sushila Karki as Nepal’s first woman interim Prime Minister has brought some hope of political calm. However, the road to recovery for the tourism and casino sectors is expected to be long.
Normalcy is gradually returning to Kathmandu and other areas of Nepal. During a visit to the capital this morning, India Today observed vehicles, including public transport, moving freely, indicating that daily activities are slowly resuming.
India, after finding cross-border links to the Pahalgam attack, launched Operation Sindoor and attacked multiple terror sites in Pakistan and PoK, including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s headquarters in Muridke.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit is quietly orchestrating the reconstruction of its demolished headquarters, Markaz Taiba in Muridke of Pakistan’s Punjab, following its destruction by the Indian Air Force on May 7 during Operation Sindoor, according to the dossier prepared by India’s intelligence agencies that NDTV exclusively accessed.
At 12:35 am Pakistan Standard Time, Indian Mirage aircraft penetrated deep into Punjab province to strike three core structures within the 1.09-acre Markaz Taiba campus. The targets included a red multi-story block used for cadre accommodation and weapons storage, and two yellow-painted buildings known as Umm-ul-Qura, which served as training facilities and senior commander residences.
Only skeletal remnants remained standing, with analysts praising the Indian strike as the most severe blow dealt to Lashkar’s infrastructure since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Demolition And The Road To Rebirth
By August 18, LeT deployed heavy machinery, razing the already crippled structures. HUMINT-sourced video reveals rubble-strewn grounds and cadres supervising clearance.
Demolished red building
On September 4, the yellow Umm-ul-Qura block was reduced to dust. Three days later, the red building followed suit.
The group now eyes February 5, 2026 – Kashmir Solidarity Day – as the symbolic deadline to inaugurate the reconstructed complex, timed with its annual convention. Intelligence suggests that the rebuilt Markaz will once again serve as the epicentre of training, indoctrination, and operational planning.
Leadership In Command
The reconstruction drive is being personally overseen by Maulana Abu Zar, the director of Markaz Taiba, LeT’s chief trainer, revered as Ustad ul Mujahiddin and Yunus Shah Bukhari, the commander with operational oversight.
The outfit temporarily relocated its training wings to Markaz Aqsa in Bahawalpur and later to Markaz Yarmouk in Patoki, Kasur district, under Abdul Rashid Mohsin, a trusted aide of deputy chief Saifullah Kasuri.
Pakistan’s Pivotal Role
According to the dossier, Islamabad publicly pledged financial assistance for LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) facilities that were destroyed during Operation Sindoor.
In August, LeT received PKR 4 crore (around Rs 1.25 crore) from the Pakistani government as seed money. Insiders estimate that the total cost of restoration will exceed PKR 15 crore (around Rs 4.7 crore).
The revelation lays bare the double standards of Pakistan’s counterterrorism posture. While posturing at global forums as a victim of extremism, the state actively bankrolls outfits waging bloodshed across the border.
Fundraising Under Humanitarian Guise
To plug the financial gap, LeT has also launched a fundraising campaign disguised as flood relief operations.
Cadres, often flanked by Pakistani Rangers, stage photo opportunities distributing token supplies before diverting the bulk of donations to Muridke’s resurrection.
The pattern is eerily familiar. After the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), LeT (then fronting as Jamaat-ud-Dawa) raised billions in the name of humanitarian aid. Subsequent investigations revealed that 80 per cent was funnelled into terror infrastructure, including the construction of Markaz Abbas in Kotli, which was also destroyed during Operation Sindoor.
The Proxy War Endures
Despite Operation Sindoor’s tactical success, LeT’s rapid rebound demonstrates its enduring resilience. The group’s planned unveiling of a rebuilt Markaz by February 2026 serves as both defiance and propaganda, reaffirming its centrality in Pakistan’s proxy war against India.
LeT’s mushrooming proxy fronts – The Resistance Front (TRF), People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), Kashmir Tigers, and the Mountain Warriors of Kashmir (MWK) – allow Islamabad plausible deniability while maintaining a constant stream of anti-India violence.
The case of Muridke epitomises the entrenched nexus between Pakistan’s state apparatus and terror outfits. Far from curtailing terror, Islamabad’s funding, facilitation, and indifference ensure that groups like LeT not only survive but expand.
The “New York Declaration” seeks to breathe new life into the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Former German Foreign Minister and President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly Annalena Baerbock speaks during a General Assembly meeting to vote on two states solution to the Palestinian question at United Nations headquarters (UN) on Sep 12, 2025 in New York City. (Photo: AFP/ANGELA WEISS)
The UN General Assembly voted Friday (Sep 12) to back the “New York Declaration”, a resolution which seeks to breathe new life into the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict – without the involvement of Hamas.
The text was adopted by 142 votes in favour, 10 against – including Israel and key ally the United States – and 12 abstentions. It clearly condemns Hamas and demands that it surrender its weapons.
Although Israel has criticised UN bodies for nearly two years over their failure to condemn Hamas’s attack on Oct 7, 2023, the declaration, presented by France and Saudi Arabia, leaves no ambiguity.
Formally called the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, the text states that “Hamas must free all hostages” and that the UN General Assembly condemns “the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October”.
It also calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution”.
The declaration, which was already endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries, also goes further than condemning Hamas, seeking to fully excise them from leadership in Gaza.
“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” the declaration states.
The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on Sep 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to formally recognise the Palestinian state.
“SHIELD” AGAINST CRITICISM
“The fact that the General Assembly is finally backing a text that condemns Hamas directly is significant,” even if “Israelis will say it is far too little, far too late,” Richard Gowan, UN Director at the International Crisis Group, told AFP.
“Now at least states supporting the Palestinians can rebuff Israeli accusations that they implicitly condone Hamas,” he said, adding that it “offers a shield against Israeli criticism.”
In addition to Macron, several other leaders have announced their intent to formally recognise the Palestinian state during the UN summit.
The gestures are seen as a means of increasing pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Oct 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
The New York Declaration includes discussion of a “deployment of a temporary international stabilisation mission” to the battered region under the mandate of the UN Security Council, aiming to support the Palestinian civilian population and facilitate security responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority.
More than 20 others were injured in the night-time attack on the Thayet Thapin village in Kyauktaw township, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army, said an armed group and local media reports.
Debris is seen after an alleged army airstrike hit two private schools in Thayet Thapin village in Kyauktaw township in Rakhine state, Myanmar, Friday, Sep 12, 2025. (AP Photo)
An airstrike by Myanmar’s military on two private schools in a village in Myanmar has killed at least 18 people, most of them students, an armed group and local media reports said Friday (Sep 12).
More than 20 others were injured in the night-time attack on the Thayet Thapin village in Kyauktaw township, the area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army in the western Rakhine state, they said. The military has not announced any attack in the area.
Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told The Associated Press that a jet fighter dropped two bombs on Pyinnyar Pan Khinn and A Myin Thit Private High Schools.
He said most of the victims were “17 to 18-year-old students from the private schools.”
The situation in the village could not be independently confirmed, with access to the internet and cellphone service in the area mostly cut off.
Kyauktaw, 250 kilometres southwest of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February last year.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1, 2021, triggering widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.
More than 7,200 people are estimated to have been killed by security forces since then, according to figures compiled by non-governmental organisations.
The military government has recently stepped up airstrikes against the armed pro-democracy People’s Defence Force. The resistance forces have no effective defense against air attacks.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
It began its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and has now gained control of a strategically important regional army headquarters and 14 of Rakhine’s 17 townships.
Wai Hun Aung, who directs relief work in Rakhine, told the AP that those killed in the airstrike were among 30 to 40 boarders from the schools.
Robinson, 22, had no criminal history. A schoolmate described him as “just a regular student with an interest in music”, while a family member told investigators he had become more political in recent years.
A police mugshot shows Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the fatal shooting of US conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, in this photo released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on Sep 12, 2025. (Photo: Handout via REUTERS/Utah Department of Public Safety
Eighteen-year-old Tyler Robinson seemingly had a bright future ahead of him.
The Utah teen had scored in the top percentile on his college entrance exam and earned himself a four-year scholarship to Utah State University in Logan. His proud mother posted a video on Facebook in which her firstborn son, the oldest of three, read aloud the school’s letter offering him the grant.
“He’s so excited to start his journey and it’s going to be so amazing for him!” she wrote in another post.
Four years later, authorities say, Robinson fired a rifle shot on Tuesday (Sep 9) from atop a building at another university campus, killing conservative influencer Charlie Kirk and triggering a new round of national anxiety over rising political violence.
Investigators are still working to understand what allegedly led Robinson to that rooftop. Officials have not yet identified a precise motive for the shooting, though they offered some clues on Friday morning in announcing his arrest.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox told reporters that a family member interviewed by law enforcement said Robinson had recently mentioned Kirk’s scheduled appearance at Utah Valley University, where he was shot.
“They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints he had,” Cox said, without offering further details.
Robinson had also become more political in recent years, the family member told investigators, and authorities said he had engraved what appeared to be anti-fascist messages on bullet casings they found with the suspected murder weapon.
Robinson, now 22, was arrested for aggravated murder and other charges. He has no criminal history, according to state records reviewed by Reuters.
He was a registered voter but was not affiliated with a political party, according to voter records. He is listed as an “inactive” voter, which indicates he did not cast a ballot in last year’s presidential election, when Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris.
At the time of the shooting, Robinson was living at his parents’ house in Washington, a farming and residential community of approximately 28,000 near Zion National Park in southwestern Utah.
Robinson’s grey Dodge Challenger – the vehicle that authorities say he drove to the site of the shooting on Tuesday – was parked on Friday outside the two-story stucco home, in a relatively new housing development built among alfalfa fields.
Dozens of media members were gathered outside, along with half a dozen police cars parked along the street. Officers were stopping reporters from approaching the home.
A neighbour, Steven Green, said he knew the family from attending the same Mormon church down the street.
“Great family, good kids,” he said, though he added he did not know Tyler Robinson well.
Canaan Timothy, 21, said he was in the year below Robinson at high school. Robinson, he said, was just a regular student with an interest in music, who hung out with members of the school band.
“I knew him in passing. Just your average kid,” said Timothy, who lives two blocks from the Robinson family. “Tyler, he was quiet, but not too quiet.”
Robinson was arrested late on Thursday without incident after a family friend called authorities and said Robinson had either confessed or implied that he was responsible for Kirk’s murder, officials said.
ATTENDED UNIVERSITY BRIEFLY
Robinson graduated in 2021 from Pine View High School in St George, Utah. A video online of the commencement ceremony shows him carrying his diploma on stage as attendees cheer.
He briefly attended Utah State University in Logan for one semester that fall, the school confirmed to Reuters.
It was not immediately clear why he left, but Dixie Technical College, part of Utah’s public university system, confirmed that he is a third-year student in the school’s electrical apprenticeship program.
A Facebook post from his mother said Robinson had earned a score of 34 in high school on the ACT college entrance exam, which would put him in the top 1 per cent of test takers, according to the Princeton Review test preparation company.
He has two younger brothers, according to his parents’ Facebook posts. His mother listed her job online as a social worker at a non-profit healthcare company, while his father is the principal of a company that makes stone countertops, according to state records.
His mother’s Facebook posts over the years – most of which were deleted on Friday – mostly doted on her family, documenting trips to Alaska, the Caribbean and Disneyland; celebrating school plays, Halloween costumes and adopted pet rabbits; expressing pride as the three boys moved up in school.
Polls predict strong gains for the far-right Alternative for Germany in the country’s most populous state this weekend. That makes the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia a concern for the government in Berlin.
Almost a quarter of Germany’s 81 million people live in North Rhine-Westphalia Image: Revierfoto/dpa/picture alliance
It is “only” local elections. But it is the first election in Germany since the nationwide government took office in May. The coalition includes the conservative Christian Democratic Union and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
“It is effectively a litmus test for the federal government,” Oliver Lembcke, a political scientist at the Ruhr University Bochum, told DW of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on September 14.
The Social Democrats in particular face a further decline in their former heartland, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gaining in the polls.
The election is also meaningful because the western state is Germany’s most populous, with 18 million residents. Its economic and societal diversity also makes it a microcosm of the country. It contains large cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, plus rural areas, industry and services as well as agriculture. The structural change in the Ruhr district transitioning from coal and steel production toward the service sector, is a development reflected in many areas. In NRW, one in every four residents has an immigration background, the same as Germany overall.
A test for Chancellor Merz
The local elections are widely seen both as a test case for the federal government of Merz, who hails from NRW, but also for state Premier Hendrik Wüst and his state government.
Fifty-year-old Wüst (CDU) has been governing with the Green Party since 2022 and has been tipped as a possible successor to 69-year-old Friedrich Merz. While they have had their disagreements in the past, this week the two men are now demonstrating unity.
The election results will impact not only the two politicians and their CDU party, but also the Social Democrats and SPD Labor Minister Bärbel Bas, who hails from the Ruhr Valley town of Duisburg. That region has always been considered to be the SPD’s home turf, the “heart of social democracy.”
Feeling let down by politics
On September 14, city and municipal councils, county councils, mayors and district administrators will be voted in — about 20,000 seats in total. In local government elections, individuals often play a more important role than parties: Local representatives are on the ground, dealing with grassroots issues, for example, schools, local public transport and the local economy. That is why people sometimes vote for a different party than in the federal elections, which focus on “big picture” policies.
However, it is already clear: Many people in NRW are dissatisfied with the state of their communities, especially with the infrastructure, said Oliver Lembcke: “Streets, bridges, local transport, schools — people are very quickly dissatisfied, especially if they feel those in power are not taking care of it.”
But it is not all about local problems. “We are also seeing on the campaign trail that topics which are matters for the federal government also play a part: especially immigration; being overwhelmed by immigration, the integration demands of immigration.” Fixing these problems are not necessarily the domain of local politics, but “they still matter for this election,” according to Lembcke.
Far-right AfD catching up in the West
According to the polls, the Social Democrats must expect the heaviest losses, especially in the cities of the Ruhr area, such as Gelsenkirchen or Duisburg, while the far-right AfD is likely to gain in strength there. These industrial areas were the traditional strongholds of the SPD. In the previous local elections 5 years ago, the AfD received only about 5% of the vote, in the February 2025 general election, that had gone up to 20% in some towns in the Ruhr Valley. Now, pollsters predict a strong showing, but expect results to be below the AfD’s results in eastern Germany, which are well over 30%.
Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil of the SPD warned his fellow party members during the election campaign: “We need to address people’s concerns.” Many workers in the steel, chemical or automobile industries fear for their jobs.
Political scientist Oliver Lembcke points out that the AfD connects housing shortages, high rents or bad schools with immigration. “This connection is what the AfD thrives off; that is its winning topic. The SPD is losing here the most because it — in many ways rightly — does not see these connections so strongly and also rejects them on principle. However, they tend to gloss over the issues rather than address them.”
Despite this, Lembcke thinks that the AfD will probably not gain a mayoral position, for which the absolute majority of over 50% of the vote is required. “The other parties will unite behind the most promising candidate and thereby prevent mayoral posts from going to the AfD,” Lembcke predicts. “But in county councils and the parliaments of the municipalities, we will see growth of the AfD representation.”
Great dissatisfaction with the federal government
The mood in NRW aligns with the results of the latest nationwide ARD Deutschlandtrend survey from September 3. These numbers are also unsettling for the federal governing parties in Berlin.
According to that poll, only 22% of voters are satisfied with the work of Friedrich Merz’s federal government. Perception of the AfD’s competence to solve problems has risen significantly in many different fields, including economic policy, foreign policy, and financial policy. With regard to refugee and asylum policy, for the first time, those surveyed thought the AfD was the most competent party of all.
Earlier this year, Friedrich Merz confidently announced that an economic upswing was coming and would be felt by the summer. However, the economy hasn’t come out of recession, while the number of unemployed has now risen to more than 3 million for the first time in 10 years.
Strong results for the AfD in NRW could put pressure on the governing coalition in Berlin, especially when it comes to questions of immigration, internal security and social issues. It would also confirm a political polarization in western Germany, which until now was predominantly in the eastern states, where the AfD is significantly stronger than in the west.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz seems to want to cover himself against possible bad results in NRW: “Local elections are local elections,” he said during a recent visit to the state, downplaying the national significance of the vote, arguing that while they are held against a backdrop of state and national politics, the results in local elections depend on the popularity of the individual candidates on the ground.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s son is getting married to a Brazilian pop star next summer, and the guest list is shaping up to be a motley crew of disaffected dynasties and political rivals — including Donald Trump and Brazil’s Marxist leader.
Conor Kennedy, 31 — Kennedy’s eldest son, who once dated Taylor Swift — is set to marry Giulia Be, 26, in the US in June.
Conor Kennedy and Giulia Be have scheduled their wedding for June, 2026, and plan to invite both Donald Trump and Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Getty Images
Be made the announcement this week in an interview with Brazilian media after announcing that the wedding, originally scheduled for November in Sao Paulo, had been postponed until after the release of her new album.
“Conor’s father has his list of invitees, and Conor and I have ours,” said the Latin Grammy nominated singer, whose real name is Giulia Bourguinon Marinho.
“If Trump’s on that list, then Lula is also on the list.”
Be supported the Marxist leader’s campaign in 2022, according to Brazilian media reports.
The guest list could lead to some serious tension following this week’s Supreme Court decision in Brazil to convict former president and Lula rival Jair Bolsonaro of leading a coup, with his supporters descending on the Brazilian capital to attempt to overturn Lula’s election victory in 2022.
The former army captan was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison Thursday. Trump has said he is “very unhappy” with the conviction.
Following his mother Mary Richardson Kennedy’s suicide in 2012, Conor began dating Swift.
He had just turned 18, and the megastar, then 23, was reportedly so smitten she bought a seven-bedroom house in the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Swift later sold the home after the summer romance ended.
Conor and Be, who live in Los Angeles, announced their engagement last year in a series of Instagram posts and a video.
The “Loose Girl” singer captioned one of the posts showing off her diamond engagement ring, “Easiest ‘Yes’ of all time.”
Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika, has officially broken her silence on the conservative pundit’s fatal shooting.
The former Miss Arizona addressed the nation via a YouTube livestream on Friday night, remembering him as the “perfect” father and husband.
Erika began by thanking law enforcement and first responders who were present on the day of Charlie’s passing as well as those who protected their Turning Point USA team.
She went on to tearfully thank President Donald Trump as well as Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, before jumping into her speech.
Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika, broke her silence on her husband’s death on Friday via a YouTube livestream. Turning Point USA
“Two days ago, my husband Charlie went home to see the face of his savior and his God. Charlie always said that when he was gone, he wanted to be remembered for his courage and for his faith,” Erika started.
After acknowledging the couple’s faith and the “worldwide outpouring” of support she’s received in light of her husband’s death, she went on to send a pointed message to Charlie’s alleged killer.
“The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” she said.
“They should all know this: if you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you have just unleashed on this country,” Erika continued, adding that “the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.”
“No one will ever forget my husband’s name and I will make sure of it,” she vowed. “My husband’s mission will never end”
She then recalled how she broke the news of her husband’s death to their 3-year-old by telling her that he was on a “work trip with Jesus.”
She closed by addressing her husband, promising to “never let [his] legacy die” and said “I can’t wait to see you again, one day.”
Erika signed off, offering a final thank you and a “God bless” to Charlie’s fans.
Charlie, who founded the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, died on Sept. 10 after he was shot during his speaking engagement at Utah Valley University. He was 31.
His appearance at the college was apart of his “American Comeback Tour,” which was traveling to multiple college campuses across the country. In her address, Erika promised that the tour will go on as planned.
Celebrities and public figures alike all mourned Charlie’s death on social media including Trump.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” he wrote on his Truth Social account soon after Charlie’s death was confirmed.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us,” the president wrote.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton allegedly used a private email account that was at one point hacked by a “foreign entity,” an FBI search warrant affidavit released Friday revealed.
The 41-page document – used by federal investigators to justify the raid of Bolton’s Maryland home last month – suggests the hacking incident gave the FBI reason to believe the former Trump administration official mishandled classified records.
The Post previously reported that Bolton allegedly used his personal email account to send “highly sensitive” documents to his family while working in the White House.
The FBI is investigating allegations Bolton mishandled classified information. AP
“Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity,” reads a section of the affidavit, where investigators explained the probable cause for the searches.
The roughly 10 pages detailing the hacking incident are completely redacted. It’s unclear which foreign nation may have been responsible.
FBI Director Kash Patel recently reopened a dormant probe into Bolton’s alleged use of a private email account to send classified national security documents to his wife and daughter before he was fired by President Trump in September 2019, The Post reported last month.
The probe was initially opened in 2020, and continued into the Biden administration, which froze the investigation.
Bolton, 76, has not been arrested and is not currently charged with any crimes.
The sensitive emails Bolton allegedly sent to his family members were obtained by the US intelligence community when it retrieved them from an adversary government’s spy agency, sparking the initial probe into the longtime diplomat, the New York Times and NBC News have reported.
The hacked emails collected by the US intelligence community appear to show that Bolton mishandled classified information, according to the outlets.
“While Bolton was a national security adviser, he was literally stealing classified information, utilizing his family as a cutout,” a senior US official told The Post last month.
The search warrant affidavit also notes that the manuscript for Bolton’s 2020 book, “The Room Where it Happened,” appeared to contain “significant amounts” of classified information, including top-secret level material, when it was reviewed by a National Security Council (NSC) official before publication.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook attends the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 2025 Jackson Hole economic symposium, “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy” in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S., August 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A loan estimate for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor accused of mortgage fraud by the Trump administration, shows that Cook had declared the property as a “vacation home,” according to a document reviewed by Reuters.
The document, dated May 28, 2021, was issued to Cook by her credit union in the weeks before she completed the purchase and shows that she had told the lender that the Atlanta property wouldn’t be her primary residence. The document appears to counter other documentation that Cook’s critics have cited in support of their claims that she committed mortgage fraud by reporting two different homes as her primary residence, two independent real-estate experts said.
Reuters was unable to reach Cook for comment. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing regarding her properties, which also include a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and an investment property in Massachusetts.
Administration officials led by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have used mortgage documents from her Atlanta and Michigan properties to accuse Cook of claiming both as her “primary residence.” The allegedly false claims of residence, which could improve mortgage and tax implications for a homeowner, led Pulte to refer the matter to the Department of Justice, prompting a federal investigation and an order by President Donald Trump to dismiss her.
Cook, who remains at the Federal Reserve, has sued the president to resist her dismissal. Reuters was unable to determine whether Pulte or administration officials are aware of Cook’s Atlanta loan estimate. Spokespeople at the FHFA, the agency led by Pulte, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The documents cited by Pulte, opens new tab include standardized federal mortgage paperwork which stipulates that each loan obtained by Cook for the Atlanta and Michigan properties is meant for a “primary residence.” But documentation reviewed by Reuters for the Atlanta home, filed with a court in Georgia’s Fulton County, clearly says the stipulation exists “unless Lender otherwise agrees in writing.” The loan estimate, a document prepared by the credit union, states “Property Use: Vacation Home.”
The document appears to help Cook’s case, said two real-estate experts who aren’t involved in representing her. That’s because it indicates that during the loan-application process, she told the lender she intended to use the property as a vacation home.
The lender, Washington-based Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
In another point that could help Cook’s case, she never requested a tax exemption for the Georgia home as a primary residence, according to property records and a Fulton County tax official.
A separate document reviewed by Reuters, related to a federal form completed by Cook as she obtained security clearance for her role at the Federal Reserve, shows that in December 2021 she also declared the Atlanta property as a “2nd home.” Though unrelated to the mortgage, the declaration on that document, a supplement to a U.S. government national security form known as SF-86, is consistent with the claim on her Atlanta loan summary.
Surrounding the accusations against Cook is a battle over Trump’s effort to wield more control over the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States and an independent institution meant to be free of political meddling. Trump has often criticized Fed governors because of their reluctance to cut interest rates since he returned to the White House earlier this year.
South Korean workers who returned home on Friday after being detained for a week by U.S. immigration authorities described their horror over the raid at their workplace in the state of Georgia and their relief at being reunited with their families.
“It was like a military operation,” said one of the workers of the September 4 raid at the car battery plant that is owned by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution, adding the authorities had deployed across the site in less than 10 minutes.
Like many others who spoke to Reuters after their charter plane landed at Incheon airport, he declined to give his name due to the sensitivity of the matter.
A second worker said U.S. government agents had arrived at the site in helicopters and armoured vehicles and had separated workers according to visa type, arresting those on the ESTA visa-waiver programme or with a B-1 business traveller visa.
Workers’ phones were confiscated, and some were unable to inform their families back home until their eventual release.
In total, some 475 workers – including more than 300 South Korean nationals – were detained at the plant, in the biggest single-site operation conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its history.
U.S. officials said the workers were engaged in activities beyond the scope of their visa authorisation or had overstayed their visas.
RELIEF AND ANGER
“I am really relieved now,” said Hwang In-song, the brother of a detained engineer. “I was so worried and couldn’t sleep well for a week.”
The anxiety of the detainees and their families increased further when diplomatic wrangling over the terms of their release delayed their departure.
A South Korean worker who was detained in a huge immigration raid last week at the site of a U.S. car battery project involving Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution in the U.S. state of Georgia, hugs a family member in the long term parking lot at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, September 12, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon Purchase Licensing Rights
“I didn’t know when I would actually be able to leave. That was the hardest part,” said one of the workers.
Asked about life at the detention center in Folkston, Georgia, where they were held, he said: “It was the worst.”
Others complained about the quality of the food and said the water smelt of bleach.
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to Reuters’ questions about the allegation of poor conditions at the facility.
A view shows oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Group of Seven nations’ finance ministers discussed in a call on Friday further sanctions on Russia and possible tariffs on countries that they consider “enabling” its war in Ukraine, as the U.S. called on its allies to impose tariffs on purchasers of Russian oil.
Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne chaired the G7 meeting, which was held to discuss further measures to increase pressure on Russia to end its war against Ukraine, according to a statement from Canada, the head of the rolling G7 presidency.
The ministers agreed to speed up discussions to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defense, and discussed a “wide range of possible economic measures to increase pressure on Russia, including further sanctions and trade measures, such as tariffs, on those enabling Russia’s war effort,” the statement said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told finance ministers during the call that they should join the U.S. in imposing tariffs on countries that purchase oil from Russia, Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a separate statement following the meeting.
“Only with a unified effort that cuts off the revenues funding Putin’s war machine at the source will we be able to apply sufficient economic pressure to end the senseless killing,” Bessent and Greer said.
Bessent and Greer welcomed commitments made during the call to increase sanctions pressure and explore using immobilized Russian sovereign assets to benefit Ukraine’s defense, according to the joint statement.
Earlier in the day, a U.S. Treasury spokesperson called on G7 and European Union allies to impose “meaningful tariffs” on goods from China and India to pressure them to halt their purchases of Russian oil.
President Donald Trump has imposed an extra 25% tariff on imports from India to pressure New Delhi to halt its purchases of discounted Russian crude oil, bringing total punitive duties on Indian goods to 50% and souring trade negotiations between the two democracies.
But Trump has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports over China’s purchases of Russian oil, as his administration navigates a delicate trade truce with Beijing.
Seven technology companies are being probed by a US regulator over the way their artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots interact with children.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requesting information on how the companies monetise these products and if they have safety measures in place.
The impacts of AI chatbots to children is a hot topic, with concerns that younger people are particularly vulnerable due to the AI being able to mimic human conversations and emotions, often presenting themselves as friends or companions.
The seven companies – Alphabet, OpenAI, Character.ai, Snap, XAI, Meta and its subsidiary Instagram – have been approached for comment.
FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson said the inquiry will “help us better understand how AI firms are developing their products and the steps they are taking to protect children.”
But he added the regulator would ensure that “the United States maintains its role as a global leader in this new and exciting industry.”
Character.ai told Reuters it welcomed the chance to share insight with regulators, while Snap said it supported “thoughtful development” of AI that balances innovation with safety.
OpenAI has acknowledged weaknesses in its protections, noting they are less reliable in long conversations.
The move follows lawsuits against AI companies by families who say their teenage children died by suicide after prolonged conversations with chatbots.
In California, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine are suing OpenAI over his death, alleging its chatbot, ChatGPT, encouraged him to take his own life.
They argue ChatGPT validated his “most harmful and self-destructive thoughts”.
OpenAI said in August that it was reviewing the filing.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to the Raine family during this difficult time,” the company said.
Meta has also faced criticism after it was revealed internal guidelines once permitted AI companions to have “romantic or sensual” conversations with minors.
The FTC’s orders request information from the companies about their practices including how they develop and approve characters, measure their impacts on children and enforce age restrictions.
Its authority allows broad fact-finding without launching enforcement action.
The regulator says it also wants to understand how firms balance profit-making with safeguards, how parents are informed and whether vulnerable users are adequately protected.
Shushila Karki is widely regarded as having a clean image
Nepal’s former Supreme Court chief justice Sushila Karki has become the country’s interim prime minister after deadly anti-corruption protests ousted the government.
The 73-year-old was sworn in during a brief ceremony, becoming the first woman to lead the impoverished Himalayan nation after a deal was reached with protest leaders.
More than 50 people were killed in clashes with riot police during this week’s mass protests sparked by a ban on social media platforms.
The ban was lifted on Monday – but by then protests had swelled into a mass movement. Angry crowds set fire to parliament and government buildings in the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday, forcing Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign.
Earlier on Friday, President Ram Chandra Poudel’s press adviser had confirmed to the BBC that Karki would take the oath of office that evening.
The agreement between the president and the protest leaders was reached after days of consultations. Legal experts were also involved.
Parliament was dissolved late on Friday and it was announced that general elections would be held on 5 March next year.
Karki is expected to appoint ministers to her cabinet within a few days.
She is widely regarded as having a clean image, and her leadership of the interim government is being supported by student leaders from the so-called “Gen Z” movement.
But her cabinet will face multiple challenges, including restoring law and order, reconstructing parliament and the other key buildings that were attacked, reassuring the Gen Z protesters who want change – and others in Nepal who are fearful its young democracy and constitutional order could be derailed.
Another key task will be to bring those responsible for violence to justice.
Karki’s appointment is a compromise resulting from talks that were brokered by Nepal’s army chief this week. Elated Gen Z supporters are expressing their happiness on social media, and many see this as the next step in the new political course they want the country to take.
On Tuesday, Karki visited the protest site in Kathmandu where 19 people were killed in clashes with police the day before. She also met some of the injured who were being treated in hospital.
The new PM was born in a family with close contacts with the Koirala political dynasty, from the country’s largest democratic party Nepali Congress, and later married the then-leader Durga Subedi.
She has said that her husband’s support played a major role in her journey from a lawyer to Nepal’s chief justice in 2016.
But Karki has not been free from controversy, having faced an impeachment incident during her nearly 11-month tenure as chief justice.
Nepal’s army is still patrolling the streets of Kathmandu as the country reels from its worst unrest in decades. Restrictions were only briefly lifted to allow residents to buy essential items.
Ukraine insists on the return of children who were forcibly transferred from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia, saying this a ceasefire condition.
In 2022, children in Berlin protested against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine Image: Hannibal Hanschke/AP Photo/picture alliance
Fourteen-year-old Sasha from Mariupol in southeast Ukraine had tears in his eyes when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told his story during her State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
He was only 11 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his homeland in 2022. After the storming of Mariupol, Russian soldiers took him and his mother to a “filtration camp.” Russia has set up such camps in the territories it occupies to subject Ukrainians to ideological screening before transferring them to Russia.
Sasha was separated from his mother in the camp and taken to occupied Donetsk. He was able to call his grandmother, Liudmila, who lives in an area under Ukrainian control. She brought Sasha back, but his mother’s fate remains unknown.
Sasha and his grandmother were guests of honor during von der Leyen’s speech, in which she emphasized that theirs was not an isolated case. Russia denies that Ukrainian children were abducted.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities have abducted tens of thousands of children from their homes in occupied Ukrainian territories and either placed them in orphanages or handed them over to adoptive families in Russia.
The fate of these children became the focus of recent peace talks. The Ukrainian government has made the return of deported children to Ukraine a prerequisite for a possible ceasefire and a long-term peace deal.
However, Russia denies that the children were abducted and deported. In June, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, claimed that Ukraine was “staging a show on the topic of lost children.” He even said that Russian soldiers had “rescued” these Ukrainian children.
Mounting pressure on Russia over abducted children
In August, 38 countries, the Council of Europe and the European Union issued a joint statement demanding Russia return the children, provide information on their whereabouts and well-being and “cease to alter” their identity. US First Lady Melania Trump, wife of US President Donald Trump, wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterating the call, and US senators have made similar demands.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported in August that it had taken months of lobbying for the repatriation of Ukrainian children from Russia to cross the Trump administration’s radar. In April 2025, 40 faith leaders in the US appealed to Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to help return the children.
A bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic senators put forward a resolution in March calling for the return of the children and insisting that the US should provide support to Ukraine in this matter.
Conflicting numbers of Ukrainian children
The US Senate resolution from March spoke of at least 20,000 children, though the Ukrainian president’s “Bring Kids Back” initiative mentions 19,546 children whose names are known. Verifying the figures is difficult because the Ukranian government keeps the list confidential.
“It’s not only about the personal data of minors in need, but about their safety,” Myroslava Kharchenko, a lawyer with the NGO Save Ukraine, which is strongly involved with the campaign to bring back repatriated children, told DW.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that the list of 19,546 children is “fake.” In a recent interview, the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, said that the list was based on figures from reports of children with whom contact had been lost since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Even some members of the Bring Kids Back initiative unofficially have doubts about the list. “It’s probably based partly on lists from boarding schools in the occupied territories and partly on research from open sources and social networks. Some of the children may have moved to Russia with their parents, and some of them have since moved to Europe,” a representative of an international organization, who asked to remain anonymous, told DW.
Since children from the occupied territories have ended up in Russia in different ways, compiling a uniform list is challenging. The Ukrainian authorities recorded the first cases as early as 2014, when children from boarding schools in the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas were taken to Russian recreation camps.
In early February 2024, just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the “People’s Republics” called on the Kremlin to evacuate all orphanages. Around 500 children ended up in different parts of Russia.
They were followed by other minors, from Mariupol, for example. Like Sasha, some of them were separated from their parents in “filtration camps.”
In early 2023, the Ukrainian government said that there were 4,390 Ukrainian children from special children’s institutions in the territories under Russian control. It said that they were orphans and children deprived of parental care.
According to Kharchenko, roughly the same number of children were in family-like orphanages. She pointed out that, in legal terms, the Ukrainian state was responsible for these children.
Putin simplifies procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship
In May 2022, before he signed “accession treaties” and formalized the illegal annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine in September of the same year, Putin simplified the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for orphans and children without parental care from these regions.
Consent from biological parents or legal guardians in Ukraine was no longer required. This exception was partly justified on humanitarian grounds, as Russian citizenship enabled access to social benefits, medical care and education. Lvova-Belova explained in an interview that Putin had ordered that Ukrainian children without legal guardians be placed in Russian foster families.
Journalists and researchers suspect that many more Ukrainian children were handed over to Russian families than is currently estimated. The Ukrainian government says this is a war crime and act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children. In April, the Council of Europe welcomed this decision.
Though Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and rejects all the allegations, it did react to the arrest warrants against Putin and Lvova-Belova. In 2023, Russia stopped transferring Ukrainian children en masse — at least officially. Instead, Lvova-Belova has said that Russia is promoting the return of children to Ukraine — but only on condition that they are personally handed over to blood relatives. That applies to parents, if they have regained custody, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Kharchenko said that DNA tests were increasingly required.
Save Ukraine is currently helping to bring back between 60 and 70 children to Ukraine each month. Relatives first need to obtain custody under Ukrainian law and then travel to Russia, where they have to go through the same bureaucratic process again.
“Russian law is quite strict when it comes to the adoption of children by foreigners,” Kharchenko explained. “And the deported children have all been granted Russian citizenship already.”
The Ukrainian leader said that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot stop his war machine “unless he is forced to fundamentally change his personal goals.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to urge China to use its influence with Russia to stop its offensive in UkraineImage: Ukraine Presidency/Ukrainian Pre/Planet Pix/ZUMA/picture alliance
US signals commitment to defending NATO territory after Russian drone incursion
Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, on Friday told the UN Security Council that the United States would “defend every inch of NATO territory,” as the Council discussed a Russian drone incursion into Poland earlier this week.
The incident has set off alarm bells among European leaders who have called the incident an intentional Russian escalation.
The 19 drones were shot down by NATO aircraftearly Wednesday. It is the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that Russian military hardware has been destroyed on the territory of a NATO member state.
“These actions, now with the addition of violating the airspace of a US ally — intentionally or otherwise — show immense disrespect for good-faith US efforts to bring an end to this conflict,” Shea told the Council.
Russia has denied sending the drones into Poland and maintains it was attacking Ukraine at the time of the drone incursions.
“There were no targets marked on Polish territory,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, adding that it would have been “physically impossible” for the drones used in the strikes to have reached Polish territory.
“We know that it was not a mistake,” Poland’s Secretary of State Marcin Bosacki told the Council. He showed photos of a downed drone, pointing out Russian lettering on parts of it.
Shea’s statement also lamented Russia’s increased strikes on Ukraine following a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month. Trump has signaled frustration with Russia as he tries to mediate an end to the war.
The US also signed a joint statement, read by Bosacki ahead of the Security Council meeting, on Friday that expressed concern about the drone incursion, accused Moscow of violating international law, while calling on Russia to stop “its war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy warns Putin wants to occupy all of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to occupy all of Ukraine, as US mediation efforts have thus far failed.
At a press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said, “Putin’s goal is to occupy all of Ukraine. And no matter what he tells anyone, it is clear that he has set the war machine in motion to such an extent that he simply cannot stop it unless he is forced to fundamentally change his personal goals.”
The Ukrainian leader also called on allies to urge China to use its influence with Russia to stop its offensive in Ukraine.
“China certainly has the ability to make the Russians stop killing. But the world has seen no effort by China to apply that to Russia,”
Zelenskyy said.
NATO launches operation ‘Eastern Sentry’ to protect eastern flank
NATO chief Mark Rutte said that the alliance will be launching a new operation “Eastern Sentry” to protect its eastern flank after Russian drones entered Polish airspace.
“Our assessment of the incidents on Wednesday is ongoing and whether or not Russia’s actions were deliberate, Russia violated NATO airspace,” Rutte said about the incident.
“Whether intentional or not, it is dangerous and unacceptable,” he added.
Rutte said that Russia’s attack on Polish airspace was the most significant violation of NATO airspace, though not the first. Similar violations have occurred in Estonia, Romania, Latvia, and Lithuania in the past.
Trump running out of patience with Putin
US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s sort of running out and running out fast, but it does take two to tango,” Trump told Fox News when asked about Russia’s refusal to end the war.
He hinted that Russia might face tougher sanctions because of the war and suggested that Ukraine should compromise as well.
“It’s amazing. When Putin wants to do it, (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy didn’t. When Zelenskyy wanted to do it, Putin didn’t. Now Zelenskyy wants to and Putin is a question mark. We’re going to have to come down very, very strong,” Trump added.
Kremlin accuses Europe of ‘hindering’ peace talks
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were “on pause,” blaming Europe.
“Our negotiators have the opportunity to communicate through channels. But for now, it is probably more accurate to talk about a pause,” he said.
“The Russian side remains ready to pursue the path of peaceful dialogue. But the fact that the Europeans are hindering this is indeed true,” he added.
US President Donald Trump’s efforts for a deal to end the fighting have failed to materialze.
European leaders had gone to the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of Trump’s summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, to push for security gurantees for Kyiv.
Ukraine also wants uropean troops to be deployed to the country as a peacekeeping force.
Meanwhile, Moscow maintained a series of hardline demands, including that Ukraine fully cedes the eastern Donbas region.
Germany summons Russian envoy over Poland airspace incursion
The German Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Russian ambassador in Berlin to protest the violation of Polish airspace with by Russian drones, two days after the incident.
The action was “dangerous” and “unacceptable,” the ministry said.
“NATO stands united to defend our alliance territory and our security,” the ministry wrote on social media platform X.
Germany joins other EU countries, including France and the Netherlands, in summonening Russian envoys over the incident.
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he shared Warsaw’s assessment that “the Russian government’s claim that this was a coincidence or an oversight, so to speak, is not credible.”
NATO: No immediate military threat against allies from drills
The AFP news agency is reporting, citing an unnamed NATO official, that the alliance sees no military threat in Russia and Belarus’ joint military exercivse.
“We call on Russia and Belarus to act in a predictable and transparent manner in line with their international commitments,” the official was quoted as saying. “We do not see any immediate military threat against any NATO ally.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich are due to give a joint news conference at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters at 5 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT).
In response to the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace, NATO is launching a new operation called “Eastern Sentry” to protect its members who are vulnerable to Russia.
NATO’s top commander, Alexus Grynkewich (left), stated that the alliance would defend every inch of its territory Image: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/IMAGO
NATO chief Mark Rutte announced on Friday that the alliance is launching a new operation, “Eastern Sentry,” to protect its eastern flank in response to Russian drones entering Polish airspace.
“Our assessment of the incidents on Wednesday is ongoing and whether or not Russia’s actions were deliberate, Russia violated NATO airspace,” Rutte said about the incident.
“Whether intentional or not, it is dangerous and unacceptable,” he added.
Rutte said that the Russian drone incursion in Poland on Wednesday was the most significant violation of NATO airspace, though not the first. Similar violations have occurred in Estonia, Romania, Latvia, and Lithuania.
The new mission is set to involve a range of assets integrating air and ground bases. It will involve “allies, including Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Germany, and others,” Rutte said.
Speaking alongside Rutte, NATO’s top commander, Alexus Grynkewich, said the alliance would defend every inch of its territory.
“Poland and citizens from across the Alliance should be assured by our rapid response earlier this week and our significant announcement here today,” he said.
Grynkewich said Eastern Sentry was designed to be a flexible operation that would strengthen defenses along NATO’s entire eastern flank. This area extends from Finland and the Baltic states in the north to Romania and Bulgaria in the south.
Two separate incidents this week in DR Congo have killed at least 193 people. Dozens are missing as rescue work continues.
Boat capsizings are common in DR Congo Image: Justin Kabumba/AP Photo/picture alliance
Two separate boat accidents in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week have killed at least 193 people, authorities said Friday.
The accidents occurred on Wednesday and Thursday at locations in the northwestern Equateur province, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) from each other.
What do we know about the boat accidents?
One boat carrying nearly 500 passengers capsized after catching fire while traveling on the Congo River near Malange village, Lukolela territory, on Thursday evening, the Ministry of Social Affairs said.
In a report, the ministry said 209 survivors had been rescued, while 146 people were missing.
The boat drifted downstream as it burned, the report said, adding that the fire had destroyed the vessel’s cargo and ignited 15 homes on the riverbank.
Naval personnel and volunteers from the local community were assisting in search and rescue operations, which were still ongoing on Friday.
On Wednesday, at least 86 people — most of them students — died after a motorized boat capsized at the confluence of the Nsolo and Great Maringa rivers in Basankusu territory, according to state media.
Several people were still missing, although it was unclear how many. State media said eight survivors were rescued from the water by local residents.
The accident was caused by “improper loading and night navigation,” according to the report, which is “formally prohibited,” civil society activist Akula Mboyo said.
The “New York Declaration” outlines steps towards a Palestinian state and an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. Israel has rejected the resolution. Follow DW for the latest.
The resolution calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement” Image: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/picture alliance
Israel rejects UN resolution on two-state solution
Israel rejected a UN declaration that outlines steps towards a two-state solution between Israel and Palestinians.
In a post on X, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said the declaration demonstrated the General Assembly was a “political circus detached from reality.”
“In the dozens of clauses of the declaration endorsed by this resolution, there is not a single mention that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Marmorstein wrote.
Hamas is designated as a terror organization by Israel, the US, EU, Germany and others.
“The resolution does not advance a solution of peace, on the contrary, it encourages Hamas to continue the war,” he continued.
The document called for Hamas to end its rule in the Palestinian enclave and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority with the support of a temporary international stabilization mission.
It also called for the release of Israeli hostages. In turn, Israel is called on to cease settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and end its military strikes on the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed there “will never be a Palestinian state,” as he signed off on the controversial expansion of a Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Spain, Israel trade accusations after Netanyahu ‘genocidal threat’ claim
Tensions between Madrid and Jerusalem escalated after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of issuing a “genocidal threat” against Israel.
“I don’t think Netanyahu is exactly the person entitled to lecture anyone while committing the atrocities he is committing in Gaza,” Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles told Antena 3 television in response.
The dispute stems from Sanchez’s Monday announcement of measures to “put an end to the genocide in Gaza,” including an arms embargo, a ban on fuel shipments for the Israeli military and restrictions on imports from illegal settlements.
“Spain does not have nuclear bombs. Nor does it have aircraft carriers or large oil reserves. We alone cannot stop the Israeli offensive, but that does not mean we will stop trying,” Sanchez said.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires in Madrid, Dana Erlich, to protest comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Albares called in Erlich to “categorically reject the false and slanderous statements from the Israeli prime minister’s office.”
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office claimed those remarks amounted to a “blatant genocidal threat on the world’s only Jewish state.” Spain’s foreign ministry swiftly rejected the allegation as “false and slanderous,” stressing that “the Spanish people are friends of the people of Israel as of the people of Palestine.”
Rubio to visit Israel ahead of French push for Palestinian recognition
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel on Saturday to show support before French-led efforts to recognize a Palestinian state, the State Department said.
Rubio will meet Israeli leaders to reaffirm “our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
Dozens reported killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City
Palestinian medical sources say that Israeli airstrikes on Friday have killed at least 35 people across the Gaza Strip, most of them in northern Gaza City. The reports could not be independently verified.
One strike on a house in northern Gaza City was said to have killed 14 people, and many others were believed to be trapped under rubble.
The Israeli military said it would investigate and released a list of areas for Gaza City residents to evacuate ahead of an operation to seize control of the city. Suggested destinations include Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, aa well as several neighborhoods of Khan Younis in the south.
UN backs resolution urging two-state solution for Israel and Palestine
The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution supporting a declaration that calls for “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, without the involvement of Hamas.
The seven-page declaration stems from a July UN conference hosted by Saudi Arabia and France on the decades-long conflict. The United States and Israel boycotted the meeting.
The resolution passed with 142 votes in favor, 10 against, and 12 abstentions.
US unveils biggest sanctions yet on Yemen’s Houthis
The United States has announced new sanctions against 32 individuals, entities and four vessels linked to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, in what the Trump administration called its largest action against the Iran-aligned group.
The US Treasury said the measures aim to disrupt the Houthis’ fundraising, smuggling and attack operations. Targets include several China-based firms accused of moving military-grade components and other companies that arrange shipments of dual-use goods, along with petroleum smugglers and Houthi-linked shipping firms.
Netherlands to boycott Eurovision if Israel competes
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS says Netherlands will skip next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, citing the “ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza.”
The Netherlands joins a growing list of countries threatening to pull out of the 2026 contest in Vienna, including Ireland and Spain.
The complaint said Tesla relies heavily on H-1B visa holders for technical roles. In 2024 alone, Tesla reportedly hired approximately 1,355 visa workers while laying off more than 6,000 US employees, the majority believed to be American citizens.
Taub alleged he was discouraged from applying for a position after being told it was H-1B only. (File Photo)
A lawsuit filed against Tesla, the electric vehicle company led by Elon Musk, alleges the company systematically prefers H-1B visa holders over American citizens when hiring and firing employees to save on labour costs. The proposed class-action complaint was submitted Friday in San Francisco federal court and accuses Tesla of violating federal civil rights laws.
According to the complaint, Tesla’s alleged bias disproportionately affects US citizens, particularly in highly skilled roles that the company often fills with H-1B visa holders. The lawsuit claims that this practice allows Tesla to pay lower wages to visa-dependent employees compared with American workers performing similar duties.
ALLEGED BIAS AGAINST AMERICAN APPLICANTS
The lawsuit was brought by software engineer Scott Taub and human resources specialist Sofia Brander. Both individuals say Tesla refused to hire them after finding they would not require employment sponsorship, indicating that they were US citizens.
Taub alleged he was discouraged from applying for a position after being told it was H-1B only. He claimed the company excluded him from an interview for a second role.
Brander, who had previously worked at Tesla as a contract employee, said she was denied interviews for two positions despite her prior experience with the company.
“While visa workers make up just a fraction of the United States labour market, Tesla prefers these candidates over US citizens, as it can pay visa-dependent employees less than Americans performing the same work–a practice known in the industry as wage theft,” the complaint states.
ELON MUSK’S H-1B RELIANCE
The complaint said Tesla relies heavily on H-1B visa holders for technical roles. In 2024 alone, Tesla reportedly hired approximately 1,355 visa workers while laying off more than 6,000 US employees, the majority believed to be American citizens.
The lawsuit also quoted a social media post by Musk from December 27, 2024, in which the Tesla CEO acknowledged his own reliance on the H-1B system. Musk wrote that the visa had been critical for him and other key individuals who helped build companies such as SpaceX and Tesla.
Brittany Mahomes appeared to address Charlie Kirk’s assassination with a cryptic social media post.
On Thursday, the Kansas City Current co-owner reposted via her Instagram Story quotes by author Sharon McMahon that read, “Hate will not get us out of this mess.”
“Your feelings might lie and try to tell you otherwise, but hate doesn’t know how to heal or build, only how to harm and destroy.”
Mahomes has not confirmed whether the post is about Kirk, the right-wing activist who was shot dead while at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Her reps also did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Brittany Mahomes shared a post that appeared to be in response to Charlie Kirk’s killing. Instagram/Brittany Mahomes
However, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been a subtle supporter of the Republican party — although she has never publicly stated for whom she voted.
In August 2024, she was called out for “liking” a “Make America Great Again” post on Instagram.
She said in response at the time, “To be a hater as an adult, you have to have some deep rooted issues you refuse to heal from childhood.
“There’s no reason your brain is fully developed and you hate to see others doing well.”
Chris Pratt wrote via X shortly after the shooting, “Praying for Charlie Kirk right now, for his wife and young children, for our country. We need God’s grace. God help us.”
Tim Allen also chimed in online, “On this sad and day remembering 9-11. I add a somber prayer for Charlie Kirks family. This is a very dark moment.”
CHARLIE Kirk’s heartbroken widow Erika Frantzve was seen for the first time since her husband’s shocking assassination.
The 31-year-old former Miss Arizona arrived in Phoenix on Thursday night alongside Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha.
US Vice President JD Vance, his wife Usha and Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Frantzve exit Air Force Two Credit: Reuters
Wearing dark sunglasses and clutching a rosary, brave Erika descended Air Force Two hand-in-hand with Usha before watching the conservative firebrand’s coffin be transferred to a hearse.
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot in the neck Wednesday by a sniper who opened fire from a rooftop 200 yards away as he launched his “American Comeback” tour at Utah Valley University.
Vance, who cancelled plans to attend a 9/11 commemoration at Ground Zero, personally arranged for Kirk’s casket to be flown to Arizona and stood at Erika’s side throughout the heartbreaking journey.
Earlier on Thursday, the 41-year-old vice president helped carry Kirk’s wooden casket onto Air Force Two during a private ceremony at Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base in Salt Lake City.
Mum-of-two Erika and second lady Usha watched in silence as the coffin was placed aboard.
Vance paid tribute to Kirk in a moving post on X, calling him a true friend.
He wrote: “Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers.
“After every event, he would give me a big hug, tell me he was praying for me, and ask me what he could do.”
He recalled their unlikely first exchange in 2017 after a TV appearance, describing Kirk as “fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind”.
“When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right –as he usually was – he was generous. With Charlie, the attitude was never, ‘I told you so.’ But: ‘welcome,’” Vance said.
Vance revealed Kirk had even campaigned for him before he ran for the Senate, saying: “no reason to do this, no expectation that I’d go anywhere… He did it because we were friends, and because he was a good man.”
Erika, who married the Turning Point USA founder in 2021, had been in Utah with Kirk’s parents when the assassination unfolded.
The couple shared two young children.
President Trump told reporters Thursday he had spoken at length with the devastated widow.
“I spoke to Erika, his wife. And we had a long talk,” Trump said.
“And she’s devastated. She is absolutely devastated, as you can imagine.”
Trump confirmed he will attend Kirk’s funeral, calling it an “obligation,” and announced the conservative firebrand would be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
And on Friday morning, Trump revealed a suspect in Kirk’s assassination is in custody after being turned in by his own father.
Speaking on Fox & Friends, the President said cops have a “high degree of certainty” they have the “person they are looking for,” adding: “They have somebody that they think did it.”
Trump explained the dad, urged by a church minister, drove his son to police HQ after the sniper evaded capture for more than 24 hours.
He added: “They drove into the police headquarters. He’s there now.”
The President cautioned he was “always subject to be corrected” but said it was looking “real good.”
It comes as chilling CCTV footage released by the FBI shows the assassin sprinting across the roof of UVU’s Losee Center seconds after firing the fatal shot.
The grainy clip captures the suspect — described as a male who “appears to be of college age” — racing across the roof before lowering himself over the edge, leaping down, and blending into the crowd of students.
He left behind a palm print, footwear impression, and forearm imprints before vanishing into a wooded area, where investigators later recovered a high-powered bolt action rifle believed to be the murder weapon.
TYLER Robinson has been identified as the suspect behind the shocking assassination of right wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
The 22-year-old has been pictured for the first time today after being arrested in connection to the horror shooting.
Robinson’s mugshot has now been released Credit: Utah County Jail
His name was reported by multiple US media sources as Donald Trump sat down with Fox & Friends this morning.
During that interview, the President said cops had a “high degree of certainty” they got the “person they are looking for”.
Little is known about Robinson at this time, but it is understood he was a student at Utah State University.
Pictures from social media shed some light on the suspect, who was reported to dislike Charlie Kirk.
They also include a snap of a Halloween costume showing him “riding” Donald Trump.
Robinson had reportedly “become more political in recent years” according to his family, and had made his disdain for Kirk clear at home.
One video on Facebook shows him reading a letter that had been selected to receive a scholarship at the college.
It has been confirmed at an FBI press conference he is 22 years old, meaning he will have been born in 2002 or 2003.
The presser also confirmed that he is from Utah, where he had lived in a $600,000 six-bedroom home.
After a lengthy manhunt to chase down a suspect linked to Kirk’s shooting, Robinson was identified earlier today.
Some sources have reported that his own dad turned him in to cops.
But the Utah governor suggested it was a family friend.
In his Fox interview, Trump said that “someone very close” to the suspect had turned him in.
Robinson’s dad was involved with law enforcement, according to reports.
Sources have told the press that Robinson confessed to him, who then tipped off the authorities.
Messages were found inscribed onto bullet casing from unused ammunition.
One read: “Oh, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao” in reference to a popular Italian anti-fascist song sung during World War II.
Others include disturbing messages such as “If you read this, you are gay lmao”.
Speaking at a press conference following Robinson’s apprehension, Utah governor Spencer Cox said a family member revealed the suspect “had become more political in recent years”.
Upon learning that Charlie Kirk was coming to town, they had “talked about why they didn’t like him”.
Investigators had interviewed one of his college roommates during their probe.
They said he had made a “joke” on the platform Discord.
Cox went on: “The content of these messages included messages affiliated with the contact Tyler stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel.”
XI Jinping’s largest and most advanced warship was spotted cruising past Taiwan – in China’s latest warning of an impending invasion.
The menacing carrier, dubbed the Fujian, steamed through the Taiwan Strait – issuing a chilling reminder to the West that the island nation must come under Chinese control.
China’s aircraft, the Fujian, was seen sailing through the Taiwan Strait on Friday Credit: AP
It comes as Beijing continues to pump out baseless propaganda claiming the self-governing island is part of China’s territory.
The behemoth aircraft carrier made the daring trip for the first ever time on Friday, the CCP said.
They added that the colossal vessel was doing “sea trials” ahead of its commissioning and was en route to the South China Sea.
Beijing claimed the carrier was not targeting anyone else, while state TV made similar claims.
The Fujian sailed southwest alongside two guided-missile destroyers.
The US Navy and other Western nations occasionally send warships through the strait in order to deter China’s territorial ambitions.
The red scare was seen as Xi Jinping’s newest effort to send a message to the rest of the world – that Taiwan will one day become part of China.
Although the US does not formally recognise Taiwan’s government, it does provide weaponry for its defence.
The White House also encourages that any differences between the two nations should be settled diplomatically.
Taiwan and China split in the civil war that brought the communists power in 1949.
The defeated Nationalist government fled to Taiwan and set up its own government on the island.
Beijing claimed last week it was on high alert after the Canadian frigate Quebec and the Australian destroyer Brisbane sailed through the strait.
It accused the two ships of provocative actions and claimed the journey heightened security risks.
Japan’s military said it spotted China’s latest carrier for the first time on Thursday afternoon.
The convoy was reportedly sailing about 200 kilometres from the disputed Senkaku islands, which are named the Diayou islands in China.
Both Japan and China claim the remote and uninhabited stretches of land.
It comes after President Xi Jinping wheeled out his flashy new hypersonic nukes, laser cannons and robot dogs among a slew of other impressive weapons at his major military parade in Beijing earlier this month.
With the world watching, Xi smiled as he walked flanked by Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin as the latest weapons were put on show.
The parade – marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2 – was a big chance for Xi to flaunt his military might on the world stage.
An endless row of tanks, drones, armoured trucks, missiles and both sea and air planes were all shown off to both the Chinese people and the country’s rivals.
But some are still doubting the true nature of Beijing’s weaponry and their ability to even use them on the battlefield.
PRESIDENT Donald Trump announced that the National Guard will be deployed to another city in the United States.
Trump revealed the next city on the list for his administration’s crackdown on crime during a television appearance on Friday morning.
St. Louis, Missouri is also one of the places Trump wants to deploy the National Guard (Stock Image)Credit: Getty
“Maybe I’ll be the first to say it right now again. We’re going to Memphis,” he said during an appearance on Fox & Friends on September 12, describing the Tennessee city as “deeply troubled.”
“We’re going to Memphis, I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out,” he said during the interview.
“We’re bringing the military too if we need it.”
According to Trump, both the governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, and the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, a Democrat, are “happy” with this development.
“The mayor is happy, he’s a Democrat mayor. The mayor is happy, and the governor of Tennessee. The governor’s happy,” Trump said.
“We’re gonna fix that just like we did Washington.”
He said, “Memphis is a great music city, home of Elvis and everything.”
According to Trump, he spoke with the head of Union Pacific, who is also on the board of FedEx, about which US cities he would like to see the National Guard deployed in next.
“He said, ‘Sir, Memphis would be good,'” Trump said.
“He’s on the board of FedEx. He said, ‘When I walk to my hotel, they won’t allow me to do it. They put me in an armored vehicle with bulletproof glass to take me one block.”
Memphis, Tennessee was listed on the FBI Crime Data Explorer as one of the highest nationally for its homicide rates in the year 2024.
It also ranks the highest for violent crime rates, sitting at 9,400.3 out of 100,000 residents.
But Memphis is not the only southern city that was suggested to Trump as his next target.
“I said to him, ‘Where else should we go?’ He said, ‘Sir, please, do me a favor. St. Louis has been so badly hit, it’s been hard. Very, very hard,'” Trump said of the Union Pacific boss, suggesting the city had been hit badly by crime and was ripe for similar intervention.
He claimed that corporate leaders flagged St. Louis as a growing problem, foreshadowing that it could be next in line for the National Guard sweep.
Trump also dropped a nod to Chicago, Illinois, telling Fox & Friends hosts he “would have preferred going to Chicago” instead of Memphis.
The president has previously said Chicago is one of the nation’s most violent cities and has pleaded for federal intervention.
But local politicians blocked him from taking action.
Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on August 30, 2025, blocking city police from working with National Guard troops or federal agents.
“Let’s not lie to the public, you and I both know you have no authority to take over Chicago,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said to Trump on X last month.
TRUMP’S WAR ON CRIME
On August 11, 2025, Trump announced a crackdown and deployed troops in Washington, DC.
This crackdown on the first day alone made a total of 23 arrests, consisting of homicide, firearms, and drug possession with intent to distribute.
His crackdown in DC led to over 2300 arrests as reported by Fox News.
Soccer Football – FIFA Club World Cup – Final – Chelsea v Paris St Germain – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S. – July 13, 2025 A Chelsea fan waves a flag as they celebrate after winning the FIFA Club World Cup IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Vincent Carchietta/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Chelsea were hit with 74 charges by the Football Association on Thursday after the London club were accused of breaching regulations covering football agents, intermediaries and third-party investment in players spanning more than a decade.
The FA did not elaborate on the charges but Chelsea said the matters were ‘self-reported’ by the club after the change in ownership in May 2022.
“The conduct that is the subject of the charges ranges from 2009 to 2022 and primarily relates to events which occurred between the 2010-11 to 2015-16 playing seasons,” the FA said in a statement.
At the time, the London club was owned by Roman Abramovich, but the Russian billionaire put Chelsea up for sale in 2022 following sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich, who bought the club in 2003, completed the sale to an investment group led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
“During a thorough due diligence process prior to completion of the purchase, the ownership group became aware of potentially incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions and other potential breaches of FA rules,” Chelsea said in a statement.
“Immediately upon the completion of the purchase, the club self-reported these matters to all relevant regulators, including the FA.
“The club has demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the club’s files and historical data.
“We will continue working collaboratively with the FA to conclude this matter as swiftly as possible.”
The FA said Chelsea have until September 19 to respond to the charge.
A source at the club told Reuters they had opened their books to the FA so England’s soccer governing body can make educated judgements on the historical payments.
The source could not reveal the nature of the charges or the irregular payments as it is an ongoing legal matter but confirmed they were related to the men’s team.
Chelsea are also hoping the FA takes their transparency into account if the alleged breaches result in sanctions which could range from fines, points deductions or even transfer bans.
PREVIOUS PUNISHMENTS
FIFA had handed Chelsea a transfer ban in 2019 after they were found guilty of breaching rules regarding 29 overseas players under the age of 18.
In July 2023, European soccer body UEFA had reached a settlement with Chelsea over the submission of incomplete financial information, related to “historical transactions” between 2012-2019.
At the time, the owners said they had proactively reported instances of potentially incomplete financial reporting to UEFA.
Two weeks later, the Premier League said it was investigating potential financial rule breaches at Chelsea under Abramovich’s ownership.
The Times reported that the inquiry encompasses multi-million-pound payments to undisclosed offshore entities, with connections to football intermediaries.
Reiterating India’s stance on the Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar said that India favours an “early end to hostilities and a durable solution for the Ukraine conflict”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India favours an “early end to hostilities and a durable solution for the Ukraine conflict”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and conveyed India’s concern over recent developments affecting Poland’s security.
In a post on X shared on Thursday, Jaishankar said: “Spoke to Foreign Minister @sikorskiradek of Poland today. He shared his concern about recent developments pertaining to Poland’s security.”
Reiterating India’s stance on the Ukraine conflict, he said that India favours an “early end to hostilities and a durable solution for the Ukraine conflict”.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced the deployment of three Rafale fighter jets to Poland in response to recent Russian drone incursions, saying the move was aimed at strengthening NATO’s eastern flank and protecting European security.
In a post on X, Macron said, “Following the Russian drone incursions into Poland, I have decided to deploy three Rafale fighter jets to contribute to the protection of Polish airspace and of NATO’s Eastern Flank together with our Allies.”
In the photographs, a young man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses was captured in a stairwell of a building.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Utah authorities have released new photos of the “person of interest” in connection with the murder of conservative activist and President Donald Trump’s close ally, Charlie Kirk, at Utah Valley University.
In the photographs, a young man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses was captured in a stairwell of a building. He was seen carrying a black backpack and wearing a shirt with what appeared to be an American flag printed on it.
“We are asking for the public’s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” the FBI’s Salt Lake City office said on X on Thursday, while sharing four new images of the suspect.
The shooter who assassinated Kirk and then vanished off a roof and into the woods remained at large more than 24 hours later.
What We Know About Suspected Shooter
The screenshots were taken from the campus’s surveillance footage from before Kirk was shot dead, the Utah Department of Public Safety said.
According to authorities, the suspect is believed to be a college-aged individual. The FBI has announced a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for Kirk’s murder.
Officials said they are working “around the clock” to locate the individual as the manhunt for the killer continues. Authorities also recovered a “high-powered bolt action rifle”– the weapon believed to be used in the deadly shooting. It was found in a towel in the wooded area near where the shooting took place, according to Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent Robert Bohls.
A spent cartridge was recovered from the chamber, and three other rounds were loaded in the magazine. The weapon and ammunition were being analysed by law enforcement at a federal lab.
He further stated that a “footwear impression” and “a forearm imprint” have also been found, which are also in the process of being studied.
“I can tell you this was a targeted event”, Bohls commented on the attack.
Earlier, police said Kirk was killed by a single bullet fired from the roof of the school’s Losee Centre, a campus building 100-200 yards (roughly 90-180 metres) from the event area.
But they had yet to name a suspect or cite a motive in the killing they were treating as the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States across the ideological spectrum.
Charlie Kirk’s Murder
The attack, carried out in broad daylight as Kirk spoke about social issues from a university courtyard, was captured on grisly videos that spread on social media.
The videos show Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, speaking into a handheld microphone when suddenly a shot rings out. Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running away.
The shooter, who investigators believe blended into the campus crowd because of a “college-age” appearance, fired a single shot from the rooftop where they were perched before jumping off.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center right, and his daughter attend a completion and operation ceremony of Kangdong Greenhouse Farm in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 15, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
Likely in her early teens and bearing a close resemblance to her mother, the daughter of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un is increasingly viewed as his likely heir.
The girl, believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, was in the spotlight again as she accompanied her father on his high-profile China trip, his own first visit to a major gathering of world leaders and her first known trip abroad.
Video and images carried by North Korean state media showed her right behind her father and ahead of Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as they got off a train in Beijing, clapping as officials at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing bowed to her father, and standing near him as he was seated with senior officials in a meeting room inside his train.
South Korea’s spy agency said Sept. 11 that it assesses that the trip solidified her status as her father’s likely heir.
She is believed to be 12 or 13 years old. Not much else is known about her, but her repeated appearances at high-profile events with her father have prompted speculation that she’s being groomed as North Korea’s next leader.
China trip is analyzed intensively
In a closed-door briefing for lawmakers, the South Korean National Intelligence Service said Kim Jong Un was believed to have brought his daughter to China to help her acquire overseas experience and cement her status as his likely heir, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon, who attended the meeting.
The spy agency cited coverage of her appearances in China in the country’s main state TV station and newspaper, which target the ordinary citizens, according to lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who was also present at the meeting.
Her name and age are unconfirmed
North Korean state media outlets have never published her name, referring to her as Kim Jong Un’s “respected” or “most beloved” child.
The belief that she is named Ju Ae is based on an account by former NBA champion Dennis Rodman, in which he recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s baby daughter during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013.
Her exact age is unconfirmed but South Korean intelligence officials believe she was born in 2013.
In 2023, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers it assessed Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju also have an older son and a younger third child whose gender is unknown.
She’s being increasingly showcased in her father’s events
Kim Jong Un allowed his daughter to be seen in public for the first time during a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2022. Photos in state media showed Kim Ju Ae wearing a white coat and red shoes as she watched a soaring missile from a distance and walked hand-in-hand with her father.
Her carefully-crafted appearances have included missile tests, military parades, and the launch of a naval destroyer in April.
Kim Jong Un has recently expanded his daughter’s public appearances beyond military events to include some of his most ambitious economic projects and cultural events, including the opening of a beach resort in June.
Protesters stage a rally against the detention of South Korean workers during an immigration raid in Georgia, near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. The signs read “A tariff bomb and workers confinement.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
President Donald Trump’s push to revitalize American manufacturing by luring foreign investment into the U.S. has run smack into one of his other priorities: cracking down on illegal immigration.
Hardly a week after immigration authorities raided a sprawling Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, detained more than 300 South Korean workers and showed video of some of them shackled in chains, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned that the country’s other companies may be reluctant to take up Trump’s invitation to pour money into the United States.
The detained South Koreans were released Thursday and most were flown home.
If the U.S. can’t promptly issue visas to the technicians and other skilled workers needed to launch plants, then “establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,” Lee said Thursday. “They will wonder whether they should even do it.”
The raid and subsequent diplomatic crisis show how the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals are running up against its efforts to bring in money from abroad to drive the U.S. economy and create more jobs. Moves like workplace immigration enforcement and visa restrictions could risk alienating allies that are pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. to avoid high tariffs.
South Korea is already a big investor in the US
Trump’s economic agenda is built around using hefty tariffs on imports, including a 15% levy on South Korean products, as a cudgel to force manufacturing to return to the U.S. He’s repeatedly said foreign companies can escape his tariffs if they produce in America. South Korea, already a top investor, pledged to invest $350 billion in the U.S. when the two sides announced a trade deal in July.
It made more investments in new construction, such as factories, on previously undeveloped land than any other country in 2022. Last year, it ranked 12th in the world with $93 billion in total American investment — including acquisitions of existing companies, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
But the dramatic roundup of South Koreans and others working to set up the battery plant threatens to put a chill on the investment push. Indeed, Trump seems to be trying to undo the damage.
While demanding that foreign investors “LEGALLY bring your very smart people,” Trump also promised to “make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so.”
“President Trump will continue delivering on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement Thursday.
For now, the South Koreans are furious and immigration experts are puzzled. It’s been common practice for decades for foreign companies — such as the Japanese and German carmakers that have built factories in the American Midwest and South — to send technical specialists from their home countries to help open plants in the United States. Most of them train U.S. workers, then go home.
“Japanese managers, senior engineers, other technical experts had to come to the United States to set this stuff up,” said Lee Branstetter, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University who’s studied Japanese auto plants in the U.S.
American companies do the same thing, sending U.S. workers overseas temporarily to get operations started.
Some experts call it a baffling, ‘performative’ raid
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched the roundup last week at a manufacturing site that state officials have touted as Georgia’s largest economic development project.
“It’s really baffling to me why this raid would have occurred,” said Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Industrial Performance Center. “The existence of these workers shouldn’t have been a surprise.”
U.S. immigration officials could have audited the workers’ documents without the drama, retired immigration lawyer Dan Kowalski said, adding that “raiding and arresting and putting them in chains and shackles is 100% performative.”
It had to do with “wanting to look tough — arresting as many foreigners as possible for the photo-op,” said Kowalski, who is now a writer and editor.
U.S. work visa categories make it a challenge to bring in foreign workers quickly and easily, said Kevin Miner, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta.
Some run on a highly competitive lottery system, are for seasonal workers and have a cap, or are restricted to managers and executives. Other short-term visas have strict limits on employment.
After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said they agreed to set up a joint working group for discussions on creating a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their staff to work in the United States.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also plans to visit Seoul this weekend.
An active-duty Navy chief saw four tic-tac shaped UFOs off the coast of California while working on the USS Jackson — and convinced a doubting radar officer the craft were real with an undeniable “checkmate.”
US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins witnessed multiple UFOs on radar on the evening of February 15, 2023 — observing the first one emerge seamlessly out of the ocean, he said.
“What am I seeing?” recounted Chief Wiggins, who spoke to The Post on behalf of himself as an individual and not as a representative of the Navy. “From my observations, it did in fact come from the water.”
US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins during the congressional hearing on Tuesday where he became the first active duty Naval officer to publicly testify about a UFO sighting. Youtube
“It was first seen on radar and once I saw it on radar, I wanted to confirm visually what I was seeing on radar if it was clouds and atmospherics and something else.”
Wiggins then moved out to the core bridge wing of the USS Jackson and went through his mental checklist of things the object could be — but was convinced by an odd maneuver it made that it was not standard human technology.
“It [was] rising into the air high enough to where I’m like, alright, that’s definitely: A. too fast and B. not something I’ve seen before,” the 21-year Navy veteran said.
The keen-eyed officer saw three other objects moving in coordination roughly 8 nautical miles away from the USS Jackson — then reported the unknown objects to a tactical officer and rushed to observe the craft on a Sapphire radar.
A video recording of the Sapphire radar tracking was published by George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell on the Weaponized Podcast in April.
“From the video, that’s what you get, you see that original Tic-Tac object that I visually saw off the port bridge wing,” Wiggins said.
The clip showed an oval-shaped black spot on the radar moving up and down with apparent ease — and then rendezvousing with three other similarly shaped crafts.
“In utilizing the Saphire system, you’re able to see silhouettes and heat signatures of different objects. So, in relation to the tic-tacs – once it went away at near instantaneous speed, we had some skeptics in ICC-1,” Wiggins said of the other Navy men on the bridge.
At least one of the radar operators claimed the object was likely a plane, but Wiggins said he knew what he saw.
Then an actual plane passed by on the radar and its form was clearly visible, unlike the tic-tac-like figures they had just observed.
“About 30, 45 seconds pass, and I see an incoming or a passing by commercial aircraft. And so I tell the CSM, slew into that aircraft around the same location, and lo and behold, you see the air signature coming off the back. You see the wings perfectly. You see the tailwing. The side wings. You see the shape of the nose of the aircraft. You see it perfectly.”
Surveillance cameras captured the accused, identified as 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, retrieving a machete before charging at the victim, Chandra Mouli ‘Bob’ Nagamallaiah, outside the Downtown Suites motel. In the video, the suspect can be seen sprinting behind Nagamallaiah, grabbing him and launching a violent assault amid piercing screams.
A 50-year-old Indian-origin motel manager was brutally beheaded in Dallas, Texas, in the US, on Wednesday after a dispute with a co-worker. The killing took place in front of his wife and his 18-year-old son in broad daylight.
The most chilling details emerged through CCTV footage, now central to the investigation. Surveillance cameras captured the accused, identified as 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, retrieving a machete before charging at the victim, Chandra Mouli ‘Bob’ Nagamallaiah, outside the Downtown Suites motel. In the video, the suspect can be seen sprinting behind Nagamallaiah, grabbing him and launching a violent assault amid piercing screams.
Graphic Footage Warning: Visuals can be disturbing. Viewers’ discretion advised.
Horrific Graphic Visual. 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, Indian American, was beheaded at a Dallas motel on Wednesday morning. The police have arrested suspect as 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez. It is also a factual truth in American societies that racism and… https://t.co/iKL07xDnl5
Another clip shows Nagamallaiah desperately fleeing toward the motel office where his wife and 18-year-old son were present. The attacker pursued him inside, ignoring their desperate attempts to intervene. In front of his terrified family, Cobos-Martinez slit Nagamallaiah’s throat, an act that left his family horrified.
Accused Seen Walking With Victim’s Severed Head
Perhaps the most disturbing sequence comes from footage in the parking lot. The victim’s severed head is seen rolling several feet before the accused returns into frame. He is seen wiping his hands, casually lifting the head and placing it against a wall. The video then shows him walking calmly toward the road even as emergency vehicles arrive, while panicked pedestrians run from the scene.
Police later confirmed that the argument stemmed from a broken washing machine. Cobos-Martinez, with prior arrests in Houston for auto theft and assault, allegedly grew furious after Nagamallaiah asked someone else to translate instructions instead of addressing him directly.
Accused Arrested
The suspect has since been arrested and charged with capital murder, reported PTI. He is being held without bond and prosecutors have indicated he could face either life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty if convicted.
G7 finance ministers will debate new US proposals for tougher economic measures on Russia, as Washington urges allies to escalate pressure and accelerate Europe’s shift from Russian energy.
G7 leaders at the Summit at Kananaskis in June this year. (Photo: PTI)
The Donald Trump administration in the US will pressure G7 countries to hit India and China with sharply higher tariffs for buying Russian oil in an attempt to force Moscow into peace talks with Ukraine, British daily Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the plans.
The suggested tariff levels are said to be between 50 and 100 percent. Finance ministers from the G7 — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — are scheduled to discuss the proposal in a video call on Friday.
This follows President Trump’s earlier appeal this week for the European Union to implement similar tariffs.
“Chinese and Indian purchases of Russian oil are funding Putin’s war machine and prolonging the senseless killing of the Ukrainian people. Earlier this week, we made it clear to our EU allies that if they are serious about ending the war in their own backyard, they need to join us and impose meaningful tariffs that will be rescinded the day the war ends,” the US Treasury department spokesperson told Financial Times.
Canada, which holds the G7 presidency, confirmed the meeting, saying it would consider “further measures to increase pressure on Russia and limit their war machinery”.
The push comes as Washington steps up pressure on allies to align with Trump’s “Peace and Prosperity Administration” initiative aimed at bringing Russia to the negotiating table. The US administration believes that exerting economic pressure on India and China, Russia’s largest oil buyers, could significantly weaken Moscow’s economy.
Last month, the Trump administration raised tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent, — 25 per cent reciprocal duty and a 25 per cent punitive levy tied to India’s Russian oil purchases. In April, Trump also hiked tariffs on Chinese imports but partially rolled them back in May after facing a sharp market backlash.
Last week, Donald Trump called on the European Union to hit China and India with tariffs of up to 100 per cent to force Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. The US president made the demand during a meeting between US and EU officials, discussing options to increase economic pressure on Russia.
The European Union, however, remains hesitant. Officials are wary of slapping steep tariffs on two of their biggest trading partners, citing economic risks and the likelihood of retaliation from Beijing. Instead, Brussels is pushing to accelerate its 2027 deadline for phasing out Russian energy imports, while also considering tighter sanctions.
(Left to right) David St Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel of the fictional Squatney band Spinal Tap, pictured in 1984
Spinal Tap have never had much luck with drummers.
As fans of the parody British rock band will know, their original sticksman, John “Stumpy” Pepys, died in what was described in the original 1984 mockumentary as “a bizarre gardening accident”.
His replacement, Eric “Stumpy Joe” Childs, fared no better. He died having choked on (someone else’s) vomit, while the next man behind the kit, Peter “James” Bond, also perished in mysterious circumstances. He exploded on stage, taking the rock ‘n’ roll death cliche to its natural comic conclusion.
Now, more than 40 years after the release of This Is Spinal Tap – the film that would go on to inspire many other deadpan, fake documentaries including The Office – the band are back together for a sequel which finds them in search of a new drummer, to help them fulfil a freshly triggered contractual obligation: one last gig in New Orleans.
“We looked everywhere [for a drummer] but people knew our history somehow and they said, ‘no thank you’,” says frontman David St Hubbins, played by Michael McKean, but speaking to us in character alongside his two bandmates.
The film sees drum heroes Questlove, Lars Ulrich and Chad Smith all sounded out about taking on the most dangerous role in rock, but they decline, leaving room for newcomer Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco).
“They thought of all these reasons not to play, and then here comes this lovely girl who says, ‘I’ll play in your bloody band. I will dare the Reaper’,” he explains.
Bassist Derek Smalls, played by Harry Shearer – also the voice of Mr Burns in The Simpsons – confirms: “People made up excuses like, ‘I’ve got to wash the dog.’
“But the key was to get somebody who was fully breathing. And had no dog.”
“Yeah that helped a lot,” agrees guitarist Nigel Tufnel, portrayed by Christopher Guest in his best mockney accent. “Young is good as well because you’ve got a better chance of survival.”
In truth, Spinal Tap exist in a weird realm somewhere in-between fiction and reality.
While the hilariously inept “British” band were the brainchild of the American improvisers who play them, along with US director Rob Reiner, such has been their popularity since the first film that they have gone on to perform in real life to fans at Wembley Arena, Glastonbury Festival, the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall.
The foursome won a legal battle in 2020, after four years in court, to reclaim the rights to their own creation – which they claimed had earned them next to nothing due to some alleged “Hollywood accounting” – and potentially revive the franchise.
In Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, Reiner, who also directed Stand By Me and When Harry Met Sally, reprises his role as documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi.
He investigates what the rockers have been up to in the 15 years since their tumultuous split as a way to immortalise their reunion gig.
The concert has come about after Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s country cover of the band’s track Big Bottom went viral, propelling them back into the charts (think Kate Bush and Stranger Things).
DiBergi finds Tufnel working as a cheesemonger in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Smalls as the proprietor of London glue museum and St Hubbins living in Los Angeles making answering machine jingles.
The groundbreaking first film – Ricky Gervais’s favourite – focused on Tap’s disastrous US tour, and the band still brand DiBergi’s treatment as “a hatchet job”.
It wasn’t a huge box office success at first but slowly became a cult classic (“a cult with no leader,” jokes Smalls), as videotapes (and later DVDs and links) got passed down the generations.
As well as their countless comically deceased drummers, the 1980s band were also known for being the loudest around. Their amps, like the volume settings on BBC’s iPlayer and Tesla cars, famously went all the way up to 11. Lesser bands stuck on 10 could only dream of such dizzy sonic heights.
In 2002, the phrase “up to eleven” entered an Oxford English Dictionary phrasebook to describe anything going beyond its supposed maximum.
I wonder, how will they sound in the modern era?
“Marshall made me a new amplifier some years ago,” reveals Tufnel. “It goes to infinity on the dial. It just keeps turning.
“There should be no boundary at all in terms of sound, of volume or anything else. And so they’ve done that for me as a custom feature.”
“They actually test those amplifiers on fish,” St Hubbins chips in.
“It’s carp actually, the saddest fish really, isn’t it?” Tufnel continues.
“But if you blast them underwater speakers, it’s the only time it makes them have an expression on their face.”
The film has received some positive early reviews. Awarding four stars, the Guardian said the “still funny” mockusequel was full of “pin-sharp laughs and melancholy”.
The Radio Times suggested “such beloved characters deserve a better film”, while the Telegraph offered only three stars, telling fans to “dial down your expectations to -11”.
“Despite some great lines and an inspired climax, the rock spoof’s sequel doesn’t come close to the comic genius of the original,” the newspaper said.
Actors Chris Addison and Kerry Godliman recently told The One Show it had become a sort of “holy text of comedy”.
Addison plays the band’s pompous new promoter while Godliman plays the daughter of their late manager who is now looking after their legal affairs in light of a newly discovered chart return gig clause.
While the likes of Steven Tyler, Axl Rose and Ozzy Osbourne didn’t find the original that funny as it was all too real for them, it has become a rite of passage for bands to experience their own “Spinal Tap moment”: when everything goes spectacularly wrong.
Some of the funniest moments from the first film, including the band getting lost backstage, or the ridiculous food requests on their rider, are at least in-part inspired by true stories. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers apparently got lost backstage, while Van Halen prohibited the presence of any brown M&Ms.
Reiner recently told the Discourse podcast with Mike DeAngelo: “We tried to be as honest as we could as to what really happens on rock ‘n’ roll tours and I think that’s what resonates with people.
“When I first met Sting, he told me he’s seen it many times and every time he watches it he doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
He added: “We love rock ‘n’ roll… but there are excesses that we can make fun of.”
No-one knows more about all that than actual rock ‘n’ roll knights of the realm, Sirs Elton John and Paul McCartney who both feature in the new film.
DONALD Trump has revealed Charlie Kirk’s heartbroken wife Erika is “absolutely devastated” after the conservative firebrand was shot dead.
The former beauty queen, 36, held a “long talk” with the US President earlier today after a cowardly rooftop sniper opened fire on Kirk at a university event in Utah.
Heartbroken wife Erika Kirk today paid tribute to Charlie after the assassination of KirkCredit: Instagram/charliekirk1776
Kirk and Erika shared a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.
Speaking to reporters outside of the White House Donald Trump opened up on his phone call with a shaken Erika.
He said: “I spoke to Erika his wife and we had a long talk and she is devastated, she’s absolutely devastated as you can imagine.”
Erika is yet to publicly comment on the loss of the 31-year-old MAGA ally who often said raising a family was his “greatest privilege.”
Just two weeks ago, Kirk had posted online saying: “Having a family will change your life in the best ways.”
His killer remains on the run with the FBI continuing to search for the gunman who pulled off the chilling targeted assassination.
Kirk’s body is due to be returned to his home in Arizona in the coming days where he will be reunited with Erika.
Vice President JD Vance arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier today on Air Force Two to pick up his late friend’s remains.
Though hailed as one of Donald Trump’s most powerful young allies, Kirk’s life away from the political spotlight was devoted to Erika and their children.
Rather than red-carpet parties, the couple preferred trips to Sesame Street sets and basketball games with their kids.
The proud dad wrote once: “Raising my children with Erika was the greatest privilege.”
Erika, crowned Miss Arizona USA in 2012, described her husband in a recent speech: “He is my husband Charlie Kirk, he is a force. He is the force.
“He is bold when the world demands silence. He is fearless where others flinch.”
The pair regularly shared their affection in public and Erika often urged women to “empower and encourage and love your husband.”
She added: “If you married the right man and equally yoked this is easier to do.”
THE RISE OF A FIREBRAND
Kirk went from high school dropout to founder of Turning Point USA — a non-profit he built into a $100million political powerhouse credited with helping deliver Trump’s second presidential win.
He cut his teeth carrying bags and fetching Diet Cokes for Donald Trump Jr, who remembered him last night as “like a little brother to me — and to millions of people around the world — he was a true inspiration.”
Charlie’s outspoken podcast The Charlie Kirk Show and campus tours made him a household name among conservative Gen Z voters.
But his proudest role was father. “Raising my children with Erika was the greatest privilege,” he wrote.
HORROR IN UTAH
Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University, the first stop of his “America Comeback Tour.”
Authorities say he was shot dead by a sniper positioned on a rooftop a few hundred yards away.
Two people initially arrested were later released, and a huge manhunt is now under way.
The FBI says the suspect is a male of “college age” who used a high-powered bolt action rifle.
Forensic experts recovered a palm print and forearm imprints, and investigators are tracing his movements before and after the attack.
If they fail to track him down soon, images of the suspect may be released.
Trump quickly turned to Truth Social to share his grief.
Confirming Kirk’s death on Truth Social, he wrote: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead.”
Hours later he appeared on video, saying he was “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk” and branding it a “dark moment for America.”
“Multiple leads are currently being investigated, but no suspect is in custody,” say Utah law enforcement officials.
A man places a candle during a vigil at Orem City Center Park, after US right-wing activist and commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of US President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, Sep 11, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Jim Urquhart)
US President Donald Trump urged supporters on Thursday (Sep 11) to respond peacefully to the killing of right-wing campaigner Charlie Kirk, as the murderer continued to evade a manhunt more than 24 hours after the shooting put an already divided US on edge.
Trump, who soon after the killing angrily pledged a wide-ranging response against the “radical left”, told reporters that Kirk had been “an advocate of nonviolence”.
“That’s the way I’d like to see people respond,” he said.
Kirk, a 31-year-old superstar on the Republican right who sparked surging youth support for Trump, was shot while addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
A day later, authorities said the gunman remained at large.
“Multiple leads are currently being investigated, but no suspect is in custody,” Utah law enforcement officials posted, after cancelling a previously scheduled media briefing.
“We’re doing everything we can to find him, and we’re not sure how far he has gone yet,” FBI Special Agent Robert Bohls said earlier.
The FBI, which described the attack on Kirk as “targeted”, published grainy photos of a young person it called “the potential shooter”.
The pictures showed a man wearing a black baseball cap, dark sunglasses, and what appeared to be jeans, with a long-sleeved top emblazoned with a design that included an American flag.
A reward of up to US$100,000 was posted for information leading to his capture.
Police say they believe the shooter fired a single bullet from a rooftop up to 180m, hitting Kirk in the neck.
A high-powered bolt-action rifle was recovered in a wooded area.
“DARK MOMENT”
Reflecting the highly political nature of the killing, Kirk’s coffin was transported to his home city of Phoenix on JD Vance’s official plane.
Footage showed the vice president with his hands on the casket as it was carried to Air Force 2.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, held hands with Vance’s wife as they got off the plane in Arizona, the headquarters of the powerful Turning Point USA.
The right-wing mediasphere remained in a state of heightened emotion Thursday, with Fox News contributors recounting the impact Kirk had on their lives.
Conspiracy theories ricocheted around the internet, while calls for a return to civility vied with those demanding vengeance.
“THIS IS WAR” wrote the popular right-wing X account of @LibsofTikTOK
Fox News host Jesse Watters on Wednesday said the killing signified that his side of the political spectrum was under attack.
“Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?” he asked his audience.
“MARTYR” FOR THE RIGHT
Students at Utah Valley University on Thursday described the shock and their broader fears as political divisions deepen across the country.
Dave Sanchez told AFP that witnessing the killing made him “sick to my stomach”.
“We watch him all the time, and so it really does feel like one of your own family members, your own brother’s been killed,” said Sanchez, 26.
Kirk, who supporters have hailed as a “martyr” for conservative ideals, had an outsized influence in US politics.
He co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to drive conservative viewpoints among young people, with his natural showmanship making him a go-to spokesman on television networks.
Kirk used his enormous audiences on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, outspoken Christianity and gun ownership, and to spread carefully edited clips of his interactions during debates at his many college events.
Three months ago, a Minnesota man shot dead a Democratic lawmaker and her husband in their home, and Trump survived an assassination attempt during his election campaign in July 2024.
Javed Ali, an associate professor of practice at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy, said it is difficult to form a complete picture of the gunman. He noted that the individual appeared capable of carrying out the attack but then acted rashly and carelessly afterward.
Ali, a former senior official at the National Security Council during the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, added that this kind of targeted political violence is not new.
