Minimalist News

US To Allow Online Applications For 1st-Time Passports: Rubio Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times , Beginning next year, U.S. citizens can apply for their first passport fully online, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A woman applies for a U.S. passport online. Shutterstock "By the end of 2027, our goal is for the vast majority of Americans to be able to apply for a passport or a passport card on America.gov," Rubio said during a Sept. 29 remark at an event launching the America.gov platform. The online application makes the process "more accessible and easier for

Army Deploys To Rio Grande Valley After Cartel Gunmen Open Fire On Coast Guard Crew Roughly 500 troops are being dropped onto islands in the Rio Grande by Chinook helicopters, days after suspected cartel gunmen opened fire on a US Coast Guard crew from the Mexican side of the river. The deployment figure comes from sources who confirmed it to NewsNation , which also obtained video of the Chinook drops. Officials have not put a number on it publicly. Breitbart reports the size and duration are being withheld for operational security, with troops expected to stay staged in the sector

Stockpiling Begins: Neros Awarded $100 Million Pentagon Contract For Kamikaze Drones US defense company Neros Technologies, which focuses on Category 1 one-way attack drones, was awarded a $100 million contract under the Department of War's Drone Dominance Program for 14,000 drones and explosive payloads. The award, under the Drone Dominance Program's Gauntlet II, prioritizes Archer AI, the Category 1 FPV attack drone . Its automated kill chain lets the FPV fly to an operator-selected target, a huge advantage in battle zones where electronic warfare jammers, such as those targeting radio frequencies and GPS signals, dominate. Neros CEO Soren Monroe-Anderson stated:

The Fed Created Zohran Mamdani Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance Usually, at least once a day, I come across something on the internet that almost causes me to lose my lunch. Yesterday, it was a photo of Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa holding hands and getting flu shots together. As someone who observed the mayoral race in New York City closely, I found the spectacle disgusting on multiple levels. Not because political opponents can’t be civil to one another, but because it immediately brought me back to how Sliwa folded like a cheap shirt after an election in which, in

Siberian Plague-Lab Death Draws FSB Escort For Ambulances A possible plague case in Siberia has triggered a major containment effort after the death of a 28-year-old employee of an anti-plague laboratory. A hospital wing is under quarantine, nearly 200 people are reportedly under observation, and Russia's chief sanitary official has flown in. Local outlets say FSB units have been escorting ambulances carrying the woman's contacts for examination. The authorities are clearly taking the threat seriously - but getting a straight answer out of the feds is another matter. Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev is still calling it a "particularly dangerous infection,"

Quantum Isn't Coming For Your Bitcoin Authored by Brandon Black via Bitcoin Magazine , For as long as Bitcoin has existed, new forms of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) have been used to predict its demise. Despite this, Bitcoin has grown into a multi-trillion dollar asset and begun to take its place in the global monetary order. In recent months, the specter of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) enabling an attacker to recreate secret keys from public keys and sign Bitcoin transactions moving other people's coins has returned as an evolved form of FUD. Is this a realistic threat

Mushroom Cloud Over Alabama: Trump Just Pulled A Condoleezza Rice President Trump just pulled a Condoleezza Rice. George W. Bush's Secretary of State had (in)famously stated "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud" in September 2002 while trying to fearmonger the public into getting on board with the Iraq invasion. On Friday night, Trump rallied supporters in Mobile, Alabama amid a tour through deep-red states to bolster Republican turnout ahead of the November midterms. On stage, he once again defended the decision to launch a war on Iran and repeated his line that voters should pretend

Egypt Arrests, Disappears Entire Newsroom Over 'Fake News' Allegations Via Middle East Eye Egyptian authorities have detained the entire newsroom of one of the country’s only independent media outlets in a move that rights groups have denounced as a "first" and an "alarming escalation" on free speech. On September 28 and 29, security forces raided the homes of the six journalists - Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel - who constitute the entire team working for Matsada2sh (Arabic for "Don’t believe"). The arrests bring the number of journalists detained in Egypt

California Man Accused Of Routing More Than $300 Million In Restricted Servers To China Authored by Arthur Zhang via The Epoch Times , A California man has been arrested on federal charges accusing him of helping route more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China through Malaysia and Singapore. Greg Lui, 38, who also uses the name “Yiu Kong Lui,” is arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles County on Oct. 1, 2026. FBI Greg Lui, 38, also known as Yiu Kong Lui, of San Gabriel, was arrested Oct. 1 after a federal grand jury returned a three-count

Search Intensifies Off Nantucket After Gulfstream Jet Vanishes From Radar A massive search is underway off Nantucket on Saturday morning after a Gulfstream G100 carrying six people disappeared from radar while flying from Bermuda to Boston. The G100 was operated by Latitude Air Ambulance, which provides medical evacuation and repatriation services. BREAKING: Gulfstream G100 with 6 persons on board has reportedly crashed into the Atlantic while flying from Bermuda to Boston pic.twitter.com/gHZI5Sq2vc — Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) October 3, 2026 Company spokesman Clarence Togeretz confirmed to The New York Times that the G100 was missing and said Latitude

David Ellison Debuts New Name For Merged Paramount, Warner Bros. Studios Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times , Paramount and Warner Bros. studios will be combined under one company named Skydance , company CEO David Ellison announced Oct. 2 on his newly opened X account. David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, speaks during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on April 16, 2026. AP Photo/Chris Pizzello "We have big goals for Skydance, and we intend to pursue them with passion, imagination, and a willingness to take smart risks," Ellison said. "At the

Far-Left Riots "Tearing France Apart" Is Political Gift For Le Pen As Election Odds Soar Riots that French officials blame on far-left groups have morphed into a political crisis, leaving hundreds injured and more than 100 high schools severely damaged. The social unrest appears to be a gift to right-wing presidential contender Marine Le Pen, whose Polymarket odds of winning next year's election have surged in recent days. At least 65 school employees, including 40 principals, and roughly 170 students have been injured since the unrest began, Euronews reported Friday. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said at least 100 high schools

Trump Announces One-Time $90 Payments To 20 Million Seniors In Medicare Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times , President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 2 that his administration would issue one-time $90 payments to more than 20 million seniors enrolled in Medicare. A file photo shows a federal Medicare office. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Trump said the payments were meant to help seniors cover Medicare premiums and would come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which Congress has allocated $2 billion to improve Medicare's fee-for-service program but has never been used, according to a White House fact sheet . "We

US Again Rebuffs Riyadh's Yemen Plea As 100,000-Man Force Readies For War Several reports have indicated that Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces are preparing for a major offensive against Houthi rebels in the coming weeks, which will mobilize a huge force with an aim to take back Yemen's Red Sea coast and to ultimately secure the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, amid an ongoing threat to global shipping in the Red Sea area. Over 100,000 Yemeni pro-government troops could mobilize for the offensive , Reuters has reported. Last month, the ease and quickness of Houthi gains proved humiliating for the Saudi

What Michael Milken Would See In AI Chip Financing Authored by Patrick Feeley via Substack , Very few people in the AI financing debate are reading the deals like a credit trader would. We have had a week of headlines about who is raising what. Amazon is moving $8 billion of chips off its balance sheet. Broadcom is lending $42 billion to its own customer. Nvidia is offering to backstop $125 billion of the debt people use to buy Nvidia. The coverage treats each number as a scoreboard. Hardly anyone asks the question that matters once the paper is sold,

He Calls It Socialism; Marx Called It Communism's Last Stage Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news , On Theo Von's podcast, Zohran Mamdani defined socialism as the government delivering whatever you need for a dignified life. That is Marx's rule for communism's last stage - and New York is already getting the invoice. Von asked him to define socialism. Mamdani said socialism means you will have whatever you need to live a dignified life, and that it is the government's job to deliver on that. Housing. Childcare. Transit. The things, he said, that let you take a breath. Karl Marx

"Where Is The Onshoring?" UBS Questions White House Investment Boom As Foreign Money Flows Into Takeovers President Trump recently said that over $20 trillion in foreign investment has flowed into the US so far in his second term. “We have more money being spent from outside countries and companies. Over $20 trillion. That’s five, six, seven times higher than any country. Not just here, any country ever,” Trump said, adding that the total could climb to $25 trillion by the end of his term. 🚨 President Trump stuns the World by saying our Manufacturing is higher than ever and $20

UAE Says Omani Flydubai Co-Pilot Attacked Captain With Axe, Tried To Seize Israel-Found Jet For "Terror Act" State news agency WAM quoted UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying the Flydubai Omani co-pilot accused of attacking the captain with a crash axe tried to seize control of the passenger jet bound for Israel and attempted to carry out a " terrorist attack ." Planning, attempted terrorist act behind flydubai flight FZ1073 incident: Attorney-General #WamNews https://t.co/OWxoZ9nWWR pic.twitter.com/JCE3NuGppa — WAM English (@WAMNEWS_ENG) October 3, 2026 " Investigations into the incident involving flydubai flight FZ1073 found that the co-pilot had attempted

Turkey's Fix For Its $20 Billion Hedge Fund Meltdown: Kindly Ask The Winners To Give The Money Back Two weeks after a cluster of Istanbul asset managers stopped honoring redemptions, triggering a market-wide circuit breaker and the liquidation of 131 funds held by some 455,758 Turkish retail investors, Ankara has unveiled its plan to make everyone whole. Or at least, to make everyone a little bit less un-whole. As Bloomberg reports , Turkey will start payments to investors caught in the fund crisis. The Capital Markets Board (SPK) approved interim payments of up to 1 million lira (about $20,400) per

Black Smoke Reported Over Critical Aramco Refinery As Saudis Weigh Major Assault On Houthi Rebels Unverified reports and footage circulating on X early Saturday morning appear to show smoke rising from Saudi Aramco's Riyadh refinery . The cause and any impact on operations remain unclear. Separately, Axios reports that Saudi Arabia is preparing a major offensive against Iran-backed Houthis in the coming days. President Trump's comments last week that a bombing campaign against Tehran could resume after the midterm elections add to signs that the Gulf conflict remains far from any near-term resolution. Turkish news outlet Türkiye Today cites NASA's

The plane was undertaking a medical evacuation from Bermuda with six people onboard when it lost contact The US Coast Guard said late on Saturday it had found debris from a medical transport aircraft off the shore of ⁠Massachusetts’ Nantucket Island and ⁠was searching for ​the six people who were on board. The jet lost contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during a flight from Bermuda to Boston on Saturday morning. In a statement to the Guardian, an FAA spokesperson said that the agency issued a search-and-rescue alert notice for a Gulfstream G-100 at about 1.20am local time Saturday.

Sunday’s poll pits the leftist incumbent Lula against the son of a former far-right president convicted of staging a coup ‘No one disrespects Our Lady’: fears for Brazil’s patron saint grip country ahead of election Shortly after his controversial speech to the United Nations general assembly in September, Donald Trump gathered a dozen like-minded Latin American leaders and boasted that rightwing candidates had won all seven presidential elections held in the region since he began his second term. “Everybody I’ve endorsed has won,” the US president said in New York to most of the leaders of the Shield of the

President leads huge rally in Rio before election on Sunday seen as most important for decades The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has claimed he is the only thing standing in the way of far-right “fascists” reclaiming power, as he led a huge rally through the streets of Rio ahead of Sunday’s crunch election. Speaking on the eve of the demonstration, the 80-year-old leftwinger said he had decided to seek a historic fourth term because he believed only he could prevent the family of his rightwing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, returning to government. Continue reading...

US says ship thought to be using common ‘dark fleet’ tactics was boarded and taken to Mexico as embargo continues The US Coast ⁠Guard has announced that it intercepted a large cargo ship carrying fuel bound for Cuba , as the ⁠Trump administration’s crippling ⁠oil embargo against ​the island nation continued. The vessel named Grace was stopped on 5 September in the Caribbean Sea between Cuba ⁠and Mexico while using tactics to evade authorities, the Coast Guard said. The New York Times reported that the ship ⁠was 91 metres (300ft) long. Continue reading...

Speculation that Flávio Bolsonaro will try to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of position could become deciding factor in run-up to Sunday A row of Biblical proportions has erupted in the run-up to Brazil’s presidential election, with the country’s patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida, emerging as an unlikely kingmaker in the deadlocked race. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, the two frontrunners – the leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his far-right challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro – are level in the polls. Continue reading...

Britain under pressure to put tariffs on cheap Chinese vehicle imports ahead of protectionist trade measures Britain’s car industry is grappling with a “difficult trade-off” between China and Europe, as manufacturers struggle to balance the benefits of both markets ahead of looming trade measures that could restrict UK exports to the EU. The UK is an outlier in choosing not to put import taxes on Chinese vehicles, even as the US has shut them out almost entirely , and the EU imposes duties of up to 45% . Continue reading...

Pyongyang fires towards sea a day after Kim Jong-un sister denounces South Korea for claiming North’s mines wounded South’s soldiers in DMZ North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea on Saturday, South Korea and Japan said, ⁠a day ​after it rejected Seoul’s accusation of its mines wounding soldiers. The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at about 6.30am towards the East Sea – also known as the Sea of Japan – and flew more than 700km (434 miles), the South Korean military said. Seoul and Washington were analysing the test for details, it added. Continue reading...

With 40 dead and a disaster declared across all 50 city districts, experts warn extreme flooding will only worsen across south-east Asia Bangkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that inundate the city during the rainy season. Even streets in many central high-rise districts can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches racing out of sewers and taking temporary refuge on trees and buildings as the subterranean world is flushed out. But every city has a breaking point, and this year rain fell so fast and so hard that whole neighbourhoods of the Thai capital have been

Estonian completed first of two attempts to navigate narrow ribbon, 160 metres long and 120 metres high, near the city’s famous Gyeongbokgung palace on Thursday The lunchtime crowds drifted slowly back to their offices along central Seoul’s main boulevard, heads up and phones raised to the sky. High above, a narrow ribbon ran between the Koreana hotel and the Dong-A Media Center, a few hundred metres from the capital’s famous Gyeongbokgung palace and Gwanghwamun square. Continue reading...

Institutions have for years turned to China for funding opportunities but national security concerns are mounting MI5 issues spy alert to UK universities over Chinese front company stealing research The security alert issued by MI5 regarding a Chinese state-owned conglomerate accused of conducting espionage in the UK reveals the extent to which British intelligence remains concerned about Beijing’s influence, and risks casting a shadow over UK-China cooperation at a time when the bilateral relationship is enjoying a revival. The UK’s domestic security service on Wednesday warned researchers and academics to cease work with the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT),

Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe, 18, appears in court on dangerous driving offences after car struck Knights supporters lining streets to farewell their team Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A driver whose car careered into a crowd of Newcastle Knights supporters – leaving children as young as five injured – will be kept in custody as the community rallies to support those hospitalised after the crash. Ten people were left injured after a car allegedly driven by 18-year-old P-plater Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe careered into the crowd near a major roundabout on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Treasurer says ‘very substantial and intensifying pressure’ on federal budget as he points finger at private sector for driving up inflation amid Middle East conflict Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Jim Chalmers has warned of “very substantial and intensifying” economic pressures on the horizon but insists he’s not planning for a recession, as he prepares to find new ways to cut the budget ahead of its mid-year update. The treasurer on Sunday called on critics of government spending to name the services that should be cut, as he points the finger at the

Police confirm investigation into period the man reportedly spent in Australia before alleged attempted terrorist attack Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australian security agencies have launched an investigation after it emerged that the flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight spent about two years in the country as a student. Disaster was narrowly averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew intervened to stop the co-pilot’s attempt to take control of the flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, which had 182 people onboard and plunged 16,625 feet (5,067 metres) in just over

Man charged with nine offences after vehicle struck Knights fans attending grand final farewell, leaving 10 injured including three children Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Ten people have been injured, one critically, after a car crashed into a crowd of people in Newcastle waiting to farewell the Knights team bus before the NRL grand final. New South Wales police said a five-year-old girl remained in a critical but stable condition in an induced coma after the crash on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Company says it is reviewing 50 petabytes of data after its agents accessed websites including Medicare without authorisation Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast OpenAI says its review in response to the Medicare and Hugging Face agent attacks is costing the company more than US$500,000 per day, as it deploys AI to examine data that would take a human 66m years to read. The company has warned the review is ongoing, and more organisations may be informed they’ve been targeted in the near future. Continue reading...

‘AbortOmat’ in Warsaw offers novel way to challenge country’s restrictions and allow women swift, anonymous access They call it the “world’s first parcel locker for abortion pills”. Polish campaigners have launched a new means of distribution as part of their ongoing effort to skirt the country’s near-total ban on abortion. Painted pink and framed by zebra-striped curtains, the 22-compartment “AbortOmat” in Warsaw allows women to access the pills swiftly and anonymously using a six-digit code. The service was envisaged for those who cannot or do not want to wait days for mail delivery due to a missed miscarriage or health

Investigation revealed thousands of voyeuristic videos taken on Munich beer festival’s Teufelsrad, or Devil’s Wheel Women have been given free cycling shorts to prevent upskirting on a famous amusement ride at the Oktoberfest in Munich, after an investigation revealed tens of thousands of voyeuristic videos circulating online. The Teufelsrad , or Devil’s Wheel, which rapidly spins around while people try to sit on it for as long as they can, is one of the beer festival’s oldest rides. But many of the videos discovered by German journalists focus on women whose traditional dirndl dresses have ridden up, often showing their

Greek PM hopes handover of Tsar Samuel to Bulgaria will persuade Britain that time has come for ‘truth, reason, justice and morality’ In a ceremony replete with the sort of fanfare usually reserved for great events, Greece and Bulgaria have formally exchanged “a treasury” of relics and bones, sealing a cultural deal negotiated over decades. The handover involved priceless religious objects removed from Greece at the height of the first world war, as well as remains thought to belong to Tsar Samuel, Bulgaria’s revered medieval warrior ruler. Continue reading...

Demonstrators take to the streets of Madrid ⁠and other Spanish cities ⁠after ​new legislation fails to pass Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Madrid ⁠and other Spanish cities as they step up demands for action to tackle ⁠a mounting housing crisis ⁠after ​government measures were struck down by the opposition. Demonstrators on Saturday waved posters calling for a general strike ⁠after the measures drawn up to address mass anger over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in ⁠Madrid, and other housing issues, were rejected in parliament on ​Friday. Continue reading...

Authorities crack down on trade they says risks spiralling out of control – but operators say they are being targeted unfairly On the edge of Piazza Navona, one of the grandest squares in central Rome, Barry and Linda, visitors from Texas in the US, stepped out of a golf cart. They planned to cross the square on foot, perhaps stopping to admire Lorenzo Bernini’s 17th-century Fountain of the Four Rivers, before being picked up by their driver at the opposite end. The couple had already done a walking tour on day one of their trip, and had been so exasperated

Attorney general says ‘terrorist attack’ was attempted by suspect who is said to have been barred from flying by Oman because of extremist views The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 used an axe to attempt to carry out a “terrorist attack” during the Israel-bound flight, the United ⁠Arab Emirates prosecutor general has said. Disaster was narrowly averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew intervened to stop the co-pilot’s attempt to take control of the plane, which had 182 people onboard and plunged 16,625ft in just over 30 seconds. The descent was so extreme that part of the rudder was ripped

Experts sceptical flydubai co-pilot’s only motivation was to end his own life and say key question is means of radicalisation At about 9.30 on Wednesday morning local time, Tali Manes was taking her six-year-old daughter, Nina, to the toilet on the regular flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard a series of heavy blows against the cockpit door. Manes, an Israeli bank executive, immediately told a flight attendant seated nearby that something was wrong. When he did not react, she shouted at him: “Something is happening in there!” Seconds later, the man “simply went to the [cockpit]

Smit Machchhar says in video call with Indian PM that he realised if he did not get up ‘passengers would lose their lives’ The Indian pilot who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv said his faith and his desire to save his passengers allowed him to make a “last push” to open the cockpit door as he fought for his life. Capt Smit Machchhar, who was recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, described to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, how he helped save the plane and its more than 170 passengers. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: When a passenger plane plunges 17,000ft amid claims of terrorism, hijacking and geopolitical intrigue, Guardian journalists have to try and separate fact from fiction in real time Good morning. Shocking news of a cockpit stabbing. Graphic footage of bloodied crew members. Mid-air testimony from terrified passengers. This was the tenor of the heart-in-mouth reporting as the horrifying events unfolded onboard flight FZ 1073 to Tel Aviv: the early morning budget flight that plummeted 17,000ft in under two minutes before the courageous intervention of passengers and crew averted an apparent hijacking, potentially saving the lives of not just

Team behind documentary push back against IDF attempt to discredit its exposure of military systems The team behind the award-winning film NAZA, which details the Israeli military’s targeting policies in Gaza and its alleged acceptance of high numbers of civilian deaths, have revealed they spoke to more than 100 sources with knowledge of the military systems used in the war. The disclosure came in response to an Israel Defense Forces statement seeking to discredit the documentary. Continue reading...

Thousands gather in Mumbai with heavy police presence as concerns mount that millions will be denied voting rights India’s youth-led Cockroach movement kicked off more nationwide protests on Friday as thousands of people gathered in Mumbai, amid mounting concerns that millions of citizens are being unfairly stripped of their vote. The movement, which calls itself the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) and has massive support among the country’s gen Zs, returned to the streets to demand the resignation of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar. Continue reading...

Up to 300mm of rain could fall in places, while extreme downpours bring landslides and deaths in Nepal Torrential rain and potentially damaging flooding are forecast in eastern Spain over the coming days, as cold upper air moves over the warm, humid surface air of the Mediterranean Sea, fuelling violent, slow-moving thunderstorms near Spain’s east coast. The weather pattern, known as a Dana, occurs most often in autumn. Models show more than 100mm of rain could fall across the region on Friday, with 200-300mm possible in some areas. Cities including Valencia and Castelló de la Plana, are most at risk.

Indian government issued with warning it would be in contempt of court if it failed to release Jagtar Singh Johal The British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal has been released from a Delhi prison after the Indian high court warned the government it would be found in contempt of court if it continued to attempt to keep him in jail despite an 18 September court order releasing him on bail. Johal has been incarcerated for nine years without any full trial. The court order was issued after Johal’s lawyers issued a writ of habeas corpus alleging he was being detained

Women say nothing has changed since Delhi’s infamous Nirbhaya bus rape case 14 years ago The posters, just like the women holding them, were taking no prisoners. “Girls don’t need curfews, rapists need consequences,” read one. “Lock your dicks rather than your women at home,” read another. As hundreds of women walked from the gates of their university campus into the streets of Delhi – where sexual harassment, assault, catcalling and molestation are a constant, daily threat – they shouted together in a chorus of rage and defiance: “We want justice.” Continue reading...

As outrage grows over cases​ of sexual violence, activists are demanding a shift from controlling women to confronting men’s behaviour. Plus, Tony Klor’s ‘hella dope’ city vlogs • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here As an Indian woman, I often feel myself oscillating between states of anxiety or anger. The anxiety is about doing the mental maths of how to stay safe – thinking about what I’m wearing, where I am going and how I’ll get there, and so on. The anger is at the sheer absurdity of this, and the stories of of

The mood is better but ‘overhyped’, says one Conservative MP as party remains a distant third in polls The forthcoming Conservative conference will be, almost everyone in the party agrees, notably more upbeat and unified than last year. There is a similar consensus that Kemi Badenoch is doing well as party leader. That is, however, not the whole story. “The mood is better but the facts are still very poor,” one Conservative MP said. “We are still a distant third in the polls, and if there was an election tomorrow we would lose, and badly. That means the mood is

Those who have stepped in to keep young family members from going into care in England and Wales say the decision has brought them joy and hardship Clive vividly remembers the day when, without warning or time to work out what he was really letting himself in for, he became a kinship carer. “The social worker left, the door closed and Savannah was lying there in a carry cot, wrapped up in a pink blanket. She looked so calm and so comfy, absolutely oblivious about what’s just happened. Continue reading...

Forty-year-old victim declared dead at the scene in East Acton in a ‘senseless act of violence’ A murder investigation has been launched after a 40-year-old man was shot dead in a “senseless act of violence” during a memorial service in west London, police have said. Police were called on Friday at 7.47pm after multiple shots were heard in East Acton. Continue reading...

Kemi Badenoch says those earning more than £100,000 should not be discouraged from working more The Conservatives have unveiled a proposed £700m childcare giveaway for high earners ahead of their annual conference, saying they would end the “cliff edge” where free entitlement ends at salaries above £100,000. The plan, set out the day before the event begins in Birmingham, follows the earlier proposal by Kemi Badenoch’s party to abolish most stamp duty , another change to taxation that would disproportionately benefit wealthier people. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith told party members last year he had discussed making further savings if they win next election The Conservatives are planning to make sweeping cuts beyond the £47bn announced last year if they win the next election, according to leaked comments by the shadow chancellor. Speaking last year when he was shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith told Conservative members he and fellow shadow cabinet ministers had discussed making further cuts in “every part of government”. Continue reading...

US president urges Americans to call Tom Cotton to support bill to make daylight saving time permanent Donald Trump on Saturday put pressure on the US senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of his fellow Republican and the chair of the Senate intelligence committee. The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate, where some Republicans are strongly opposed to it. Proponents, including the president and his administration, argue that the change

Frank Strada leaving position as state launches independent investigation into what went wrong Tennessee’s top prison official is stepping down in the aftermath of the failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike , the state’s governor Bill Lee announced Saturday. Frank Strada, the department of correction commissioner, will leave his position later in October as the state launches an independent investigation into what went wrong during Wednesday’s botched execution of Pike, according to Lee. Continue reading...

Roger Fortson was shot by deputy when he opened door with gun in hand after a false domestic disturbance call A Florida jury recently found former sheriff’s deputy Eddie Duran not guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the fatal shooting of Roger Fortson, a Black US air force airman who was killed inside his apartment after authorities responded to an unfounded report of a domestic disturbance. An Okaloosa county jury acquitted Duran, 38, on Thursday after about two hours of deliberations. He had faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Continue reading...

Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang died after apparently ingesting kratom product last month Federal authorities investigating the recent deaths of two University of Mississippi students have charged a store clerk and his son with selling an illegal kratom product, prosecutors announced on Friday. A drug taskforce in Mississippi had previously urged people to avoid kratom, an herbal substance that acts as a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses, after authorities found packages of kratom derivatives while investigating the deaths on 21 September. Continue reading...

TSA says rule change is meant to keep officers ‘alert’, but union says it ignores safety and ‘common decency’ US airport security officers who verify boarding passes and IDs ahead of security checkpoints will no longer be allowed to sit down while working. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was moving forward with this change in policy to keep officers “alert”, the agency confirmed recently. Continue reading...

Yemen’s Houthis claimed an attack on an oil facility near the Saudi capital on Saturday, where flames and smoke were seen, and accused the Gulf kingdom of striking Sanaa dozens of times. The foes have traded strikes since the Houthis seized all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and took control of the Bab al-Mandab strait in a lightning offensive last month. Houthi-affiliated channel Al-Masirah TV reported that “Saudi enemy aircraft” hit Sanaa with 26 strikes, after earlier reporting “Saudi aggression”...

The European Union’s demand that Britain raise tariffs on Chinese cars exposes an awkward truth about post-Brexit trade. Britain might have left the EU, but it cannot easily escape the bloc’s industrial policy. According to the Financial Times, EU officials have told Prime Minister Andy Burnham that Britain needs to align more closely with EU trade policy towards China if it wants British manufacturers to avoid discriminatory treatment under the bloc’s proposed “Made in Europe” rules. The...

Pakistani troops are expected to take over various defensive functions for Saudi Arabia to enable the Middle East country to fight an all-out war aimed at defeating Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. According to defence analysts, Pakistani troops are not expected to participate directly in ground offensives against the Houthis being planned by Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s squabbling government factions. Instead, their primary objective would be to free up Saudi forces to focus on what is likely to...

Latvia will vote on Saturday in an election shaped by concerns over neighbouring Russia and the cost of living, but the result is not expected to steer the country off its pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course. The centre-right United List party of incumbent Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs is at the head of the race, with over 14 per cent of the vote, according to the SKDS institute. His coalition, however, is expected to emerge weakened as populist parties gain ground by focusing on economic...

A “handful” of Group of 20 trade ministers rejected US calls to curb excess industrial capacity and “non-market” policies, the US Trade Representative’s office said on Friday, exposing divisions within the group of major economies. The US, this year’s G20 chair, issued the statement ‌a day after a trade meeting in Milwaukee that revealed that only two countries – Mexico and Argentina – signed on to a US-led statement calling for more work and cooperation to eliminate goods produced with forced...

The Flydubai co-pilot who officials said nearly crashed a Tel Aviv-bound flight with 182 people aboard was barred from flying by his native Oman over concerns he had adopted extremist views, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday. The co-pilot has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, according to three people with knowledge of the situation, including a Gulf and Western diplomat. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The United...

The race to loosen China’s grip on tungsten is moving to Kazakhstan, where United States-backed mining projects are attempting to compete in an industry where Chinese investment already has an operating foothold. Global tungsten prices have surged more than 200 per cent since May 2025, according to commodity and energy information provider Argus Media, adding urgency to efforts to develop alternative supplies. The soaring costs followed Beijing’s export controls on selected tungsten products...

US ⁠President Donald Trump is expected to name Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to be his top adviser on AI, a position the president has called “AI tsar” in ‌the past, according to a source familiar with the decision. Clayton already oversees 18 US intelligence agencies as the nation’s top spy and is expected to keep that role. “Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the president,” a White ⁠House official said in a statement when asked about Clayton ‌being...

King Charles will acknowledge the “darkest days” of colonial rule and slavery while touring Caribbean countries on a visit beginning this month, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Friday. The king will first visit the Bahamas and Guyana alone, followed by a trip to Antigua and Barbuda with Queen Camilla, where Charles will give a speech at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government, the palace said. Charles, 77, who is still receiving treatment for cancer, will visit former colonies that...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday faulted police and prosecutors for failing to fully investigate an alleged gang rape in 2024 at Cornell University, saying she was “deeply disturbed” by how the incident was handled. Hochul was speaking at a press conference alongside state Attorney General Letitia James, ‌whom she appointed on Thursday night as a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations. The case has drawn fresh scrutiny after the alleged victim filed a lawsuit accusing...

Group ⁠of Seven countries agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves and pledged to refrain from energy export restrictions after pressure from US President Donald Trump. The US led a pressure campaign on the European Union to draw down emergency diesel inventories, with the Trump administration warning that failure to act could lead to a US ban on diesel exports. Such a ban could sharply reduce supplies to Europe, which has become...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump condemns ‘sick conspiracy’ against AI, says he is only guardrail needed US President Donald Trump downplayed growing concerns about artificial intelligence, claiming America already has guardrails to regulate the industry and warning that casting doubt on development only benefits...

US job growth slowed more than expected in September, but that likely does not signal a material shift in the labour market, with the weakness likely related to a calendar quirk. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 jobs last month after ‌a downwardly revised 133,000 rise in August, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls advancing 90,000 after a previously reported 162,000 surge in August. Estimates ranged...

The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a Flydubai flight described on Friday how he fought for his life in the minutes after his co-pilot stabbed him and the plane began a steep descent. Captain Smit Machchhar, recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save his passengers. “I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said from the hospital, his head...

French high school students lit fires outside schools and faced off with police on Friday as a protest movement that has forced the closure of some 400 establishments showed no sign of abating. The movement, which began last week in the Paris region and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to buildings and clash with police. The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions are inadequate including...

Not so long ago, Washington’s approach to relations with Beijing was anchored by a single assertive phrase: dealing “from a position of strength”. It was rooted in a unipolar mindset: a belief that the United States could dictate terms, manage competition unilaterally and demand compliance from a distance. Yet, at their recent summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump formally established a new strategic framework: a “constructive strategic stability relationship based...

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his election rival Flavio Bolsonaro are leaving no controversy unturned in their last-ditch efforts to discredit each other and win over voters ahead of Sunday’s nail-biter election. A campaign dominated by scandals and insults has done little to ease the deep political polarisation in Latin America’s biggest economy, one of the last major leftist bastions in the region. The tight race pits Lula, 80, against the son of former far-right president...

Finland is investigating a slew of suspected break-ins at the homes of members of parliament, which the prime minister said could be linked to a foreign power. Following media reports, speaker of parliament Jussi Halla-aho on Thursday said parliament had been made aware of a “significant” number of apparent intrusions at the homes of several politicians. Finland, which shares a 1,340km (830-mile) border with Russia, has been on high alert since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese commercial reactor achieves nuclear fusion with clean hydrogen-boron fuel In a first, a Chinese company has achieved high-parameter hydrogen-boron plasma control, marking a “significant and valuable” advance in research into...

Ethiopia and Eritrea broke diplomatic ties on Thursday, accusing each other of stoking internal conflicts as fighting continued in northern Ethiopia. Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of backing a rebel group, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which launched a major assault against government forces last week, raising fears of a return to the devastating 2020–2022 civil war that killed an estimated 600,000 people. Addis Ababa said it was expelling 10 Eritrean diplomats who “pose a direct...

A condemned female murderer who survived two lethal injections during a botched execution by the US state of Tennessee was in critical condition and receiving “life-saving care”, her lawyer said on Thursday. In an extraordinary chain of events, Christa Pike, 50, was whisked from a prison execution chamber to a hospital Wednesday night, still alive despite two deadly doses of pentobarbital. “What we have been told is that she is in critical condition, receiving life-saving care,” Randy Spivey...

⁠The family of Renee Good, one of two US citizens fatally shot by ⁠federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying there had been “no accountability” for her killing during deportation sweeps. Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7 when she and her wife joined one of the city’s daily protests against masked and armed federal agents deployed to Minnesota to arrest migrants for...

EU nations will meet Friday, aiming to develop a unified response to soaring diesel prices, a day after the US called on its European allies to release strategic reserves “immediately” to stem the crisis. The emergency meeting between EU member states and the European Commission is scheduled for early in the day, a Commission spokesperson said late Thursday. Washington is piling on pressure to get European help with fuel costs, with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday floating the possibility...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated Moscow’s long-held position that Russia is not planning to attack European countries but will respond to aggression with “all weapons” in its arsenal. In remarks at a foreign policy forum, Putin accused the West and Europe of escalating tensions by talking about preparing for a war with Moscow in the coming years, conducting military drills in the Baltic Sea, and seizing Russian vessels. His remarks followed Moscow’s warning to Nato that it...

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Tehran was likely to be involved in an attack by a pilot on a Flydubai flight to Israel and that Iran would be “hit very hard” if it was. The co-pilot allegedly assaulted the captain before passengers managed to save the plane from crashing. Israel’s prime minister said the man had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination”. “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes but we’re working on it right now,” Trump said when asked by...

Canada will fast track the approval process for a new proposed crude oil export pipeline to its west coast that could generate over C$20 billion (US$14 billion) a year in GDP, Prime Minister ‌Mark Carney said on Thursday. The pipeline, which was announced in July, is a crucial part of Carney’s bid to diversify the economy away from the United States and help lessen the effect of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Carney said Ottawa would officially list the Pacific Link pipeline as a project...

British counterterrorism police investigating ⁠a suspected plot involving ⁠an airbase used by the US ⁠to target Iran said on Thursday they had arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. In an incident which triggered a huge police response, raised alarm among Western allies, and remains largely unexplained, five British men in their 20s ‌were arrested on Sunday on suspected terrorism and explosive offences near RAF Fairford in western England. The men were...

A protest by French secondary school students over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities deepened on Thursday, with fires set outside schools and blockades in several cities. More than 160 schools were shut down on Thursday, while university students joined the protests in Paris and Marseille. The movement in the lycees, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their final three years of secondary education in France, has seen hundreds detained. The government said...

The number of people applying for US unemployment benefits dipped last week to the lowest level since mid-July as lay-offs remain low and most American workers enjoy job security. The Labor Department said on Thursday that initial jobless claims ticked down to 197,000 from a revised 198,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, dropped by 2,500 to 200,000. Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for lay-offs, and economists watch them...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trade, Taiwan and ‘strategic stability’: key Xi-Trump takeaways overall Here are the key takeaways from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s whirlwind 43-hour trip to the United States, his first state visit to the country in more than a decade, after US President Donald Trump pulled out all the...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China pledges to ‘firmly support’ Cuba as US escalates pressure on Havana China will stand by Cuba in defending its sovereignty and resisting outside interference, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said as Washington stepped up its campaign to force political change in Havana. Read...

Investigators worked on Thursday to determine why an Omani pilot stabbed the captain of a flight to Israel, causing the plane to plummet dangerously before others on board landed it in Saudi Arabia. Passengers on the Flydubai plane – which was carrying 174 people, mostly Israelis, from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv – have described how the bloodied Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door to let them in before they grappled with the co-pilot and stabilised a descent so sharp that...

When the US Space Force announced on September 14 that “the US has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action”, I thought of Isaac Newton’s well-known declaration that he could not calculate the madness of people. This is the first time a country has admitted to deploying weapons in space. Today, the orbits are congested and contested with many nations conducting military activities, such as surveillance and reconnaissance, early missile...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk will make a return to officially advising US President Donald Trump’s government by co-leading what the Pentagon called a study on the future of war. Musk served as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency before departing in May last year, having publicly fallen out with Trump. In a speech at the Quantico military base, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said “Project Meridian” will be “an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare”. “We are...

Russia’s new class of jet-powered drones rip across the night sky in Kyiv at hundreds of kilometres per hour, leaving Ukrainian air-defence units only moments to intercept them. It’s rarely enough time. With many of the drones getting through to the capital, defence manufacturers are scrambling to develop a new generation of interceptors to counter the deadly threat. They are building their own jet propulsion systems and training artificial intelligence to help guide the chase. They need to move...

Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Pike to death on Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug. A death penalty expert said it was an unprecedented failure, and Tennessee’s governor halted the remaining execution for the rest of the year. Pike, 50, was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison, her lawyers said. She was being treated at a hospital, but they said they had not been told about her...

Switzerland’s glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 per cent of their mass in five years, experts said on Thursday, with 2026 registering the second biggest melt on record. Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 per cent of their volume melt away this year, the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network found in a new study, published after a record hot summer preceded by a winter with little snowfall. “The glaciers this year have lost enormous quantities...

US President Donald Trump has announced US$200 billion in energy investments from South Korea, including US$54 billion towards a long-discussed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska and more than US$100 billion in planned longer-term nuclear power investments. Besides the Alaska LNG project and pipeline and the nuclear plants, the Trump administration announced a US$22.3 billion natural gas-fired power project in Texas that would be supported by Seoul. “The colossal package of investments we...

A woman who filed a lawsuit saying she was sexually assaulted by seven men at a Cornell University fraternity house told police weeks after the incident that she could “say with 100 per cent confidence I was raped”, according to a report by CBS New York, which said it obtained a transcript of her interview with investigators. The transcript, which has not been publicly released, raises new questions surrounding the local district attorney’s decision not to prosecute anyone at the time. In recent...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the United States has slashed the number of its generals and admirals by 20 per cent, in a move he said is aimed at “accountability”. Hegseth suggested the cuts targeted officers who failed to get on board with his efforts to ensure the military is focused on war-fighting rather than the “woke” policies of previous administrations, describing the reductions as an “accomplishment”. “The number-crunchers say we fired 10 per cent of the...

Israel’s leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft’s passengers, with averting catastrophe on Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot of the Flydubai jet had been trying to crash it and kill all its passengers, with Israel’s foreign ministry denouncing the incident as “an attempted terrorist attack” aimed at...

Britain’s MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organisation was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing’s state security service. In its “Espionage Alert”, MI5 said more than 100 UK-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which had “very strong ties” to ‌the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing’s civilian intelligence...

A pilot programme between the UK and France that aimed to curb the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats has been scrapped, Britain’s government said on Wednesday. In a statement, the Home Office said the so-called “one in, one out” deal is “no longer processing new cases”. Under the plan, people who arrived in the UK after making the dangerous crossing across the Channel could be detained and returned to France in exchange for an equivalent number of asylum seekers who...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday said there were “strong indications” Iran was involved in suspicious activity at a UK airbase that triggered a major security incident this weekend. “There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham told the BBC, referring to Sunday’s bomb scare near the airbase in southwest England, which is used by the US military in its war against Iran. “Of course it remains an ongoing, complex,...

A US appeal court on Wednesday halted the ⁠execution of death row inmate Christa Pike in Tennessee, less than two hours before she was scheduled to become the first woman that state has put to death in more than 200 years. The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a “short stay of execution” to give it time to weigh Pike’s claim that her allegations of childhood sexual abuse were not adequately considered during her sentencing. The court did not provide a specific time frame. Pike, whose...

The president urged people to call Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and accused him of blocking a bill to cement daylight saving time.

Democrats are performing strongly in five reliably Republican states where they are trying to flip Senate seats to win control of the chamber, new New York Times/Siena polls found.

Democrats are competitive in Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, Texas and even Kansas as they try to wrest control of the Senate from Republicans. Here’s a look at why.

Frank Strada, who oversaw the process that left Christa Pike unconscious and hospitalized, quit as an independent review began.

The failed execution of Christa Pike, which left her clinging to life in Tennessee, was the latest grisly error to take place in an American execution chamber.

As her co-written song “Choosin’ Texas” continues to dominate, the country star returns with her most joyous album to date.

It may not be enough for James Talarico to win. But might it also be a sign of a change to come?

Middle school introduces us to complicated history. These kids wrote a play about Joseph Stalin.

The matter threatened to revive tensions over the American military presence on the Japanese archipelago.